Thread by @socialistdogmom

who’s ready for some BUDGET DEVELOPMENT?
(i’m not)

no agenda, no rules

you can watch the livestream here if you want

https://twitter.com/cvillecityhall/status/1083724500594618369?s=21

packed house here at the water street conference center. they just opened up one of the moveable walls to make more seats available! everybody’s excited to watch this powerpoint.

this is the second to last work session before the budget must be finalized.
we’ve got all five councilors, interim city manager mike murphy, asst city manager leslie beauregard, and two other city staffers at the table.

too many words for one slide, always and forever.

charlottesville’s unemployment rate is declining & is below state & national rates - it looks like it’s just above 3% locally.

the number of “struggling families” according to the metric they use has increases 7% since 2015.
signer asks if the decrease in one of those brackets coupled w/increase in lower brackets means those families fell in income. (they don’t know)

kathy galvin suggests that drop in the number of families in the $15-$25k bracket is because people in that income range can’t afford to live here & moved away.

mike murphy points out that while the city experienced 12% growth, the total number of families below $35k remained fairly steady in the years this data covers (2011-2018)

this bar graph shows that the number residents who think charlottesville is a good place to work declined ten percent from 2012 to 2016. a city staffer in the audience says we’ve always had fewer opportunities for “middle-skill” jobs.

“based on cost & availability, they’re just gonna look elsewhere,” says the staffer about light industrial businesses. he says this isn’t an issue unique to charlottesville. (signer brings up the razor factory in staunton, where operating costs are much lower)

if we want to bring down cost of living, we have to look at the cost of childcare, says kathy galvin. (she’s right!)

the library is always good! the downtown job center is inside the central library & has 2.5 staff. 139 residents have graduation from the GO Programs, 131 of whom were subsequently offered better paying jobs from employer partners.

property crime has been declining every year. violent crime has remained steady.
the fire dept handles around 6000 incidents per year... only 200 of which are actually fires. they do EMS, hazmat, and other types of calls much more often. half of all incidents are EMS.

this graph of perceived resident safety only goes through 2016... wonder what the 2017/2018 data will look like.

nikuyah asks why spending for public safety is increasing if the data shows crime is decreasing. why are we still sending the same amount of money to the jail if those numbers are down?
(approx $14mil for police, $6mil for the jail)

“we haven’t had a fire fatality in the city of charlottesville since 2009,” says fire chief baxter.
he’s worried about cutting funding for public safety just because things are going well. the outcomes we have are related to that sustained funding, he says.

nikuyah says she’s specifically talking about crime. she’s not talking about cutting funding to the fire department (who, again, respond to over 3000 calls for emergency medical service every year).
crime is going down. why are we putting so much money into the police & jails?

“the data indicates that it’s a very safe city,” says wes. nikuyah asks if we’re allocating funding based on PERCEPTION of safety rather than the actual data. leslie asks “if people don’t feel safe, why don’t they feel safe?”

mike murphy: “a lot of people feel very threatened by the fact that we have panhandling on the downtown mall,” which he says is “out of scale with the actual threat, but that doesn’t change how people feel about it.”

spending millions on cops to harass houseless folks because rich people don’t want to look at them is not public safety.

kathy raises the issue of a public restroom downtown, specifically something that houseless folks could use. it’s been a while since this has been brought up, but i think heather talked about it a lot early last year.

“there is an unhealthy stigma associated with people sitting on the mall,” says murphy. he says the stigma surrounding homelessness is really harmful.

leslie just pulled up some 2018 data and apparently people report feeling MORE SAFE now then they did in 2016. she says maybe the 2016 dip was related to the murder of hannah graham - a high profile case where the victim was a young white woman.

“we have to be careful what we feed,” nikuyah says.
heather is very worried about PERCEPTION, which is important... but who is perceiving that there is a problem? do we want to bend to that?

in 2016, 23% of renters and 49% of homeowners in charlottesville were paying more than 30% of their income in housing costs each month.

“so we have a lot of affordable rentals,” kathy says.
“not enough,” says an NDS staffer in the audience. not nearly enough.

community perception about housing options, availability of affordable housing, and progress on having safe & affordable housing has been dropping precipitously over the last few years.

what happened in 2014??

average household income has increased for every demographic group in charlottesville except black families. they’ve experienced a 20% decline over the past five years.
unemployment for black residents is double the rate for non-black residents.

points 1 & 2 are just getting the state to quit fucking with people who are just trying to li38UM

leslie beauregard’s presentation on budget goals is over. now onto a staffer named ryan who is going to show us some more number-heavy slides.
they’re projecting a 3% increase in meals tax revenue.
the meals tax rate is currently 5%, set in 2016. the county’s rate is 4%.

why on earth does emporia, virginia have the highest lodging tax in the state?! (11%!)
charlottesville’s is 7%

looking at a graph of sales tax revenue, kathy galvin asks “what are some of the industries this represents?” a city staffer says “anybody that pays retail sales tax.” “lots of people pay sales and use tax.”

personal property tax revenues are expected to increase, largely because we’re seeing more cars & cars that are worth more. (no mention of the fact they more cars in the city is bad, actually)

possible budget impact of changing various taxes 1 cent. note that there is no actual discussion of changing these taxes, it’s just informational.

excuse me what? a NINE PERCENT, million dollar raise for police?

firefighters and police currently have very similar starting salaries in charlottesville. people have a weird bootlicking obsession with cops... but the fire department is demonstrably doing more to keep people safe.

city departments are asking for $339k to prepare for a THIRD august 12th. how many years in a row will we shut the city down & fill the streets with riot coPFrp

“these are the most new position requests i’ve ever seen. it’s really high,” says leslie beauregard, asst city manager. city departments are requesting a total of 63 new positions. (she says it’s usually 10-15)

b u d g e t s e a s o n

we’re done 50 minutes early?!?? it’s a miracle.

oh just kidding they almost forgot public comment.

“landlords have no financial incentives to make their units more energy efficient,” says this speaker. he’s speaking in favor of a position to do outreach on home weatherization. “renters pay the utility bills, but have no control over insulation” and other factors.

the meeting was over but somehow now it’s un-over. this happens a lot. when a meeting is over, you have to quickly adjourn it or it will come back from the dead as a zombie meeting.

ok, NOW we’re adjourned. and half an hour ahead of schedule.