The Council Connection
your connection to City Council by Mayor Justin M. Wilson
|
|
|
|
We would like your input on the proposed budget! This month there will be two public hearings available to provide input on the budget, first on Saturday April 15th beginning at 9:30 AM. On Tuesday April 25th at 5:30 PM, we will be holding a public hearing specifically on the proposed real estate tax rate. If you wish to address the Council on the proposed budget, you can sign-up to speak online. You can address the Council in-person at City Hall or virtually on zoom.
The most important decision the City Council makes each year is the adoption of the annual operating budget and capital improvement program. The operating budget generally funds the on-going costs of government (primarily personnel), while the capital budget funds one-time expenditures that provide the community with an asset (new schools, new roads, new playing fields, transit buses, etc).
Shortly after the presentation of the budget, state law requires that the City Council adopt a ceiling for the real estate tax rate that might be considered during the budget process. Once that rate is "advertised," the Council cannot adopt a rate that is higher, but may go lower.
Two years ago, the City Council was able to adopt the first reduction in the real estate tax rate in 15 years, bringing the rate from $1.13 to $1.11. This year, the City Manager has proposed maintaining the current $1.11 rate. If the City Council adopts the City Manager's proposal, this will be the 7th straight year that the rate has remained the same or decreased.
The Council voted to advertise a rate of $1.12, leaving the possibility of a one cent increase for consideration. While there are significant budget pressures on the horizon, specifically the rising debt service associated with large infrastructure projects for the City and our schools, I do not believe a tax rate increase is necessary this year.
From 2002 until 2009 the City was enjoying the run-up in the residential real estate market. Our General Fund budget increased by an average of 6.79% per year. The work force in City Government grew from 2,229 Full Time Equivalents (FTE) to 2,660 FTEs during that period.
In Fiscal Year 2010, a little over a decade ago, the bottom fell out as the Great Recession took hold. The City adopted its first negative budget in at least 40 years, reducing spending from Fiscal Year 2009 to 2010 by over 2%. From Fiscal Year 2011 through the current fiscal year, the General Fund budget increased by an average of 3.64% per year.
Sustaining an average budget growth of 3% per year with 4% annual student enrollment growth, employee healthcare costs increasing far above rates of inflation, long-deferred infrastructure needs, ever-escalating funding challenges from Metro and a hyper-competitive market for municipal employees is impossible.
It was in this context that the City Manager prepared and presented his budget. The City Manager's proposed General Fund Operating Budget is $881.1 million. This represents a 5.0% increase in spending versus the current approved budget, with over half of all new revenue from the real estate tax being proposed for support of the Alexandria City Public Schools operating budget.
Every budget has a "story." The City Manager's proposed budget:
-
Public Safety: Funds the implementation of the new collective bargaining agreements for both our Police Department and Fire Department, including large compensation and staffing increases
-
Schools: Fully funds the approved operating budget of the Alexandria City School Board, increasing the operating transfer by $9.9 million
-
Infrastructure: Commits new resources to support the infrastructure proposed as part of the Capital Improvement Program.
-
Employee Compensation: The proposed budget funds merit and market-rate increases across City government.
With the impacts of average assessment increases included, this means the average single-family homeowner would pay $490 more in real estate taxes in 2023 than in 2022. The average condo owner would pay $101 more in 2023 versus 2022. If the Council were to elect to increase the rate by 1 cent, the average single-family homeowner would pay $584 more in 2023 and the average condo owner would pay $263 more in 2023.
In addition, the City Manager has proposed no increase in the annual Residential Refuse Fee of $500, which covers the costs of trash, recycling and yard waste collection (among other services). This fee is paid only by the 20,647 homeowners who receive City trash collection.
The stormwater utility fee is proposed to increase to address stormwater management and Chesapeake Bay clean-up mandates. This fee is paid by all property owners, including non-taxable properties. The new annual fee will be $86.44 for condos, $129.65 for townhomes, $308.70 for small single-family homes and $515.53 for large single-family homes.
There is no more important process than the adoption of our annual budget. The budget is a reflection of the values of our community and I look forward to working with our residents and my colleagues over the next month to craft a budget that is reflective of those collective values.
|
|
|
|
|
As a result of that investment, we are now making new progress in aligning our Fire Department staffing with the recommendations of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).
By cross-training the existing single-mode medics, the belief was that we could achieve appropriate minimum staffing on all engines, ladders and the rescue company in order to meet the NFPA standard.
This new agreement will provide for significant increases in compensation for new and existing employees, and a pathway to reduced hours in their work week. It will help make Alexandria a more competitive employer in a very tight regional marketplace for talent.
In order to reduce the workweek of our firefighters from 56 hours to 50 hours, the Fire Chief is proposing to hire 25 additional firefighters. This additional staffing will provide the necessary relief staffing while also reducing required overtime.
A SAFER grant covers most of the personnel costs of these positions in the first and second years, and a portion in the third year. At that point, the City becomes responsible for all of the costs going forward.
This is an important step forward to ensure that Alexandria's residents and their property are protected by fire suppression and emergency medical services which meet minimum standards. This is an investment in the safety of our personnel and our residents.
|
|
|
|
|
The question before our community is what can be done about it. It was generations of intentional acts that led to our current reality. It will require intentional acts to change it.
As our City has grown more segregated, the lack of housing supply has left Alexandria inaccessible for low and moderate-income residents. It is those paired challenges that leave our City at a crossroads.
Yet, the City cannot raise and spend enough money to make an appreciable impact on this problem. The City's power to determine how land is used, our land-use authority, provides a critical tool to spur the creation and preservation of both committed affordable housing as well as market-rate housing. Said another way: building additional housing supply, whether committed as affordable housing or market-rate housing, helps address our housing affordability challenges and reverse generational impacts.
Somewhat inexplicably, local governments have been reluctant to use the single most effective tool to increase the supply of affordable housing: build more housing. The reluctance of local governments has been even more surprising giving that a supply-based approach has been the policy of the last three Presidential administrations, two Democrats and one Republican. It's the policy of our current Republican Governor. It has been the approach of the Sierra Club and the National Association of Home Builders. It has been the approach of the Brookings Institute, the Hoover Institution and even the Cato Institute.
These targets, while voluntary, commit the City to the creation of additional units, with most of those units committed to be affordable for low to middle income households. To ensure that this housing creation does not exacerbate existing transportation challenges, most of this new housing must be located near job centers and high-capacity transportation infrastructure.
With the adoption of the new COG housing targets, the City has committed to an additional 11,500 housing units, with 4,250 as committed affordable or workforce housing.
While there is a broad agreement in our community about the problem and the need to focus on solutions to our affordability challenges, bringing together agreement on the correct solutions to pursue is a little more challenging.
While the City's Housing Master Plan contains a variety of tools in our housing "toolbox," the options the City has are generally limited to:
- Raising and Spending Tax Dollars: To develop and preserve housing as well as assist residents in obtaining housing.
- Using land-use policy (zoning) to create and preserve housing
There will be many opportunities for engagement throughout this process, including another public meeting this month. The City will continue to seek creative partnerships, new land-use tools and innovative financing to preserve and create affordability in our City. I am pleased to see these efforts come to fruition.
|
|
|
|
|
Last year, when City Council approved our current budget, an amendment I proposed was included to expand the City's collection of food waste. My proposal funded both an expansion of our existing Farmers' Market Composting program and a new curbside collection program.
Our Farmers' Market composting program has added two new sites, the Old Town North Market (901 N. Royal Street) and the Southern Towers market collection point (4901 Seminary Road).
After 6 months of service, residents can opt to continue the service with a monthly or annual fee.
I am excited to see this program come to fruition. This is a program that will reduce waste and improve the environment. I hope you find it useful!
|
|
|
|
|
During the approval of last year's budget, I included a proposal to set up 5 of these cameras in an area of the City where the data indicated that excessive speeds were threatening safety.
This Spring, the cameras will be installed in the following 3 locations:
- Francis Hammond Middle School (Seminary Road, between Kenmore Avenue and North Jordan Street)
- John Adams Elementary School and Ferdinand T. Day Elementary School (North Beauregard Street, between North Highview Lane and Reading Avenue)
- George Washington Middle School (Mount Vernon Avenue between Braddock Road and Luray Avenue)
The cameras, once installed, will be tested. They will be fully activated for the next school year.
These new cameras will help the City to improve road safety by preventing crashes and reducing the lethality of unavoidable crashes. I am excited to see these cameras being placed in service.
|
|
|
|
|
Landmark Inova Alexandria Hospital |
This exciting step means that the new vision of a vibrant and successful Landmark Mall site is being realized!
After two decades of discussion about how to redevelop Landmark Mall, the City of Alexandria is finally redeveloping Landmark Mall!
The location, one of the largest sites inside the Beltway awaiting redevelopment, will see a billion dollars of new investment, including a new Level II trauma center, medical office buildings, residential, retail, parks, a new fire station replacing Fire Station 208, new committed affordable housing and a new transit hub anchoring the City's new bus rapid transit network, DASH and Metrobus.
This will not only revitalize a site that many had given up on, but will also provide a catalyst for redevelopment and enhancement throughout the West End of our City.
Despite over two decades of decline, it is not a mystery why we had been unable to spur redevelopment on this site in the past, It is a complicated site, with a complicated ownership structure requiring significant infrastructure investment.
The City will finance some of the infrastructure improvements required on the site and we have purchased the future hospital site to lease back to Inova. Inova's proceeds from selling their existing site on Seminary Road is financing their expenses related to the move.
We have finally assembled a partnership, financing and a plan to revitalize this site. Landmark Mall redevelopment has been complicated from the beginning, but this exciting partnership is making things happen on this site for the first time in decades. I look forward to now watching this vision come to fruition.
|
|
|
|
|
Protecting the safety of our community is the most important obligation of local government. If are residents are not safe, nothing else matters.
Last month, the City Council received our 2022 crime statistics. This report contained good news and bad news for our community.
Part 1 crime is the most serious crime (homicides, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft). This year, the incidents of Part 1 crime in Alexandria increased 4.7% from last year. This increase was driven primarily by robberies, larcenies and auto theft. The City experienced a large drop in aggravated assault, to the lowest level in 4 years.
Part 2 crime are primarily "quality of life" infractions as well as incidents driven by enforcement activities. These incidents increased as well, with increases in Destruction/Vandalism, drug and narcotic offenses, driving under the influence and drunkenness.
While overall violent crimes decreased by over 12% versus 2021, we saw a doubling of crimes involving firearms, from 76 incidents to 152.
Last year the budget approved by the City Council included new funding for a Special Investigations Unit focused on investigating those responsible for homicides, felony sex offenses and crimes driven by weapons. Over the past 18 months, this new unit has arrested 76 violent felons, a third of which were directly implicated in gun crimes.
We have continued to see mental health and behavioral health incidents driving emergency response. The City's ACORP program, a co-response program pairing a sworn police officer with a mental health practitioner, has seen considerable success. Over the past year, ACORP handled 2,387 behavioral health calls. Only 2% of 911 calls that ACORP responded to resulted in an arrest and 17% resulted in an involuntary transport to a hospital. Nearly two-thirds of the ACORP calls were referred to community services.
In approving last year's budget, the City Council chose to build on this success by expanding ACORP by adding two new ACORP pairs, for a total of 3.
Last year the City hired the largest-ever class of new police officers entering the Academy. As those officers conclude their training, we will make large progress on some of the staffing challenges the Police Department has experienced for the past few years. Coupled with new investments in preventative (upstream) investments, we can buck national and regional trends and reduce violence and property crimes in our City.
|
|
|
|
|
It has taken far too long, but the City has finally realized the vision of a truly competitive marketplace and bringing new broadband capacity to our community.
Over 9 years ago, the City issued a Request for Information (RFI). This RFI solicited concepts from the private sector for partnership with the City in expanding broadband options, availability, and capabilities. We received 10 responses from potential private partners and those responses shaped the approach the City is now taking.
For years, Alexandria has sought new private investment in broadband infrastructure. For most of our residents, we have one company providing Internet connectivity and television. Regardless of the performance of incumbent providers, technological innovation and reliability thrives on competition. That competition benefits the residents of our City.
This is an issue that impacts not only residents but also our businesses and the ability of our community to attract new investment.
Fortunately, competition is now here!
|
|
|
Paid for by Wilson For Mayor | www.justin.net |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
