By Sean Tubbs
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
The
Albemarle County Board of Supervisors
has begun its review process for the county’s proposed $301 million budget for fiscal year 2012.
During a work session Monday, Assistant County Executive
Bryan Elliott
reviewed the public safety, human development, community development and parks and recreation sections of the budget.
“Collectively these four functional areas represent about $60 million of the local government operating budget,” Elliot said.
The proposed
police
budget of $13.05 million has increased by 4.5% over last year. That amount will go to unfreeze two police officer positions at a cost of $154,000 and increased overtime by $125,000. However, three positions remain frozen.
The police budget also includes $72,000 in anticipated revenues from the county’s new
photo-safe red-light cameras
.
“We anticipate utilizing those revenues for specific traffic safety programs the police department would undertake in FY12,” Elliot said. “This could be anything from paying overtime, for specific enforcement… or purchasing some additional equipment.” He added that traffic enforcement makes up 26% of all police calls.
 Supervisor Duane Snow |
However, Supervisor
Duane Snow
questioned this assumption and said he wanted more specific ideas about how the money would be used. Supervisor
Dennis Rooker
said he would like the money to go towards unfreezing another police officer.
County executive
Thomas C. Foley
said staff did not want to put the money towards ongoing expenses because the goal of the program is ultimately to stop people from running red lights.
“The objective is actually to see this revenue decline over time,” Foley said. “There’s been some accusation that this is a big revenue generator for us, and it really isn’t.”
The county’s payment to Charlottesville to provide fire-rescue services in the Pantops area will increase by 10.6%.
“In ’09, we were paying roughly $655,000 and for FY12 we’re proposing $845,638,” Elliot said. However, he added some of that increase could have been due to last year’s microburst, which caused damage throughout the area.
Payment to the
SPCA
is increasing by 25.9% due to a contract signed in 2009 that requires the county to pay $5 per capita to operate an animal shelter on Berkmar Drive. The county’s contribution to the shelter for next year is $477,440.
Supervisor
Ann Mallek
asked for staff to take a look at the possibility of raising license fees for animals to help cover the cost.
The human development budget will receive a $19 million appropriation, a decrease of 1.1% from the current year.
One expense in that area is the para-transit service
JAUNT
, which will receive $922,025. The 6.4% increase is due to ridership increases, according to Elliott.
Mallek predicted that there would be a corresponding increase in
Crozet
residents requesting service if gas prices continue to increase. Supervisor Rodney Thomas asked what options there might be to increase fares to help cover the costs.
“They have not modified the rate for the rural area for some time,” Elliott said. “That is an option if the board wanted.”
Supervisor
Ken Boyd
said he was concerned that JAUNT was growing into something it was not intended to be.
“JAUNT was originally set up to help disabled people and economically challenged people and its becoming a commuter service,” Boyd said. “You’re talking about Crozet people who can probably afford to drive a car and now they can ride JAUNT cheaper. That’s one of the fallacies of the whole program.”
However, Elliott said revenue from able-bodied commuters helps fund the program.
“The buses are going to run regardless of whether there are commuters there or not and if seats are available, they can be filled,” Elliott said.
The county is proposing a $6.2 million budget for parks, recreation and culture. Of that amount, 52% is spent on the
Jefferson Madison Regional Library
system, 35% goes to the parks department, 2% is spent on the county’s contribution to
Darden Towe Park
, and the rest goes to 12 outside agencies.
The library received a 1% increase from the previous year. However, the library is appealing to the board for an additional $31,000 to help cover the cost of one new employee to staff the Crozet Library.
“The reason we asked for that is that the new
Crozet Library
has been pushed back to 2015 or 2016,” said JMRL Board of Trustees President Anthony Townsend. “What we were asking for was one additional position to help with shelving and circulation.”
Supervisors did not make a decision on how to proceed at this work session, but will do so at a meeting next week after receiving more information on how volunteers are being utilized.
A work session on the school board’s budget was held Wednesday morning. Another session on the capital improvement program budget will be held next Monday.
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