Supervisors provide direction on balancing five-year financial plan

By Sean Tubbs
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Monday, October 19, 2009

Supervisors were asked to indicate which options they supported to help close the $5.8 million shortfall projected over the course of the 5-year plan

The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors have set the stage for some potentially sharp reductions in County spending. At their strategic planning retreat on Friday, the Board indicated its willingness to study cutting funding from several programs and also agreed to consider a 77.2 cent tax rate over the next five years. No decisions were reached at the retreat but staff now has direction on how to begin building next year’s budget.

At last year’s retreat, the Board started the budget process with plans for no salary increases, 55 frozen positions, and expectations there would be $100 million less in the Capital Improvement Budget.

As part of this year’s retreat, County staff presented the Board with a revised five-year financial plan based on the existing real estate property tax rate of 74.2 cents. Property assessments are expected to be 3.75% lower in FY 2011, with a rebound not projected until FY 2013. Sales tax revenues are expected to be 2% lower next year, with a increases projected to begin in FY2012. 

“We are facing a significant imbalance between revenues and expenditures,” said Deputy County Executive Tom Foley. The County has a $5.8 million shortfall over the course of the five-year plan.

That plan assumes the number of frozen positions will be expanded from 55 to 65. No salary increases are projected for next year’s budget either, but they are projected for the following four years. No money will be spent on professional development, and no money has been restored to previous program cuts.

A group of department heads and County Executive Bob Tucker formed something called the Leadership Council to make recommendations on how to bring the plan into balance. Some of their recommendations included:

• Establish an equalized tax rate for both commercial and retail tax rate for the first two years of the plan. This tax rate is assumed for the purposes of the five-year plan at 77.2 cents.
• Maintain that tax rate for the remaining years of the plan.
• Eliminate general fund spending for ACE program, cutting program to the $350,000 allocated externally by the Virginia Department of Tourism. The proceeds would go 100% to local government and are not subject to the 60/40% split with the school system.
• Discontinue participation in VDOT’s revenue-sharing program and re-route 100% of these funds to local government, saving $1.5 million annually.
• Eliminate spending for recycling centers during the next five years while future of program is studied.
• Reduce funding to the Affordable Housing Trust by $190,000 a year.
• Establish a one-time revenue shortfall contingency fund of $1.5 million.
• Extend number of frozen positions beyond 65 called for in the existing plan.
• Reevaluate all projects in the Capital Improvement Program.
• Eliminate salary increases.

If these steps were taken, County staff still project a shortfall for the five-year plan, but with only a $600,000 deficit for FY 2015.

Other assumptions include:

• Any money the County obtains through the land use revalidation process will be used to contribute to the County’s general fund as “fund balance.”

During their brainstorming session, Supervisors came up with these ideas, each of which was supported by at least two Board members:

• Investigate whether school system can contribute to the reduction in the CIP
• Work with the business community to promote the economy
• Delaying construction of the Ivy and Pantops fire stations
• Consider merging services and departments with the City of Charlottesville
• Review development review task force recommendations to see if any cost savings can be found

A green dot indicates a Supervisor's willingness to consider one of the options suggested by the Leadership Council

At the end of the retreat, County Community Relations Manager Lee Catlin emphasized that the Board did not endorse a tax rate, but instead authorized the study of various tools to address the County’s budgetary woes. 

“Nobody’s tax burden actually increases because reassessments are still declining during that time period,” Catlin said. “It does mean that in the last three years of the plan, if reassessments come above zero, people will see a minimal tax increase in their bill. What the Board said in their discussion was that was a possibility for balancing the five-year plan.”

Catlin acknowledged that many of the options on the table would involve painful decisions.

“There’s not any of them that either the staff or the Board felt good about embracing, but there was definitely a realization that we are at that place of tough choices,” she said.

County staff will now use the direction from the Board to prepare a more detailed analysis of how these spending cuts would affect next year’s budget. They will be presented with that analysis at a work session in November.

Charlottesville Planning Commission approves slopes waivers for YMCA and new fire station

By Sean Tubbs
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Friday, October 16, 2009

Should the City of Charlottesville be held to a higher standard than other applicants seeking a waiver of the critical slopes ordinance? That question figured prominently in Tuesday’s meeting of the Charlottesville Planning Commission as they considered waivers for two projects on City-owned land. The Commission voted to grant waivers allowing for construction of a new fire station on Fontaine Avenue and the new Piedmont Family YMCA on the western side of McIntire Park.

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The critical slopes ordinance is in place to prevent soil erosion. Any project that will disturb more than 25% of the slopes on a parcel of land must apply for a waiver in order to proceed. 

The site plan for the new YMCA would disturb a half-acre of slopes on a 4.5 acre site. In contrast, the new City fire station will be built entirely on critical slopes adjacent to a site of a former restaurant.

One way the Commission can justify a waiver is by demonstrating that the public benefits more from disturbing the slope than from protecting it.

Former Mayor Kay Slaughter, a staff attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, called on Commissioners to lead by example when considering the two applications.

“In an urban environment like Charlottesville, most streams have been degraded by culverts, pipes and previous development,” Slaughter said. The former mayor also said that her review of previous waiver applications showed that almost all of them have been granted. Slaughter suggested the YMCA project be redesigned so as not to affect any slopes, and suggested that the City should commit to “daylighting” other streams in the Moores Creek watershed by removing them from culverts.

Staff had recommended approval of the waiver for the fire station as long as the City conformed to several conditions, including the creation of an erosion and sediment control plan. Planning Commissioner Bill Emory made a motion reflecting staff’s conditions, but added a requirement that the City follow Slaughter’s recommendation. He asked that the City plan to daylight at least “254 linear feet of other portions of culverted streams in the Moore’s Creek watershed.”

“The City has made a very firm commitment over the years to environmental sustainability,” said Emory.

Deputy City Attorney Rich Harris said that Emory’s condition to require off-site mitigation would be hard to enforce without specifying exact locations.  Commissioner Genevieve Keller suggested that the Commission defer the consideration until specific mitigations sites were identified.

Economic Development Director Aubrey Watts appeared before the City Planning Commission

Aubrey Watts, the City’s Director of Economic Development, said the City is aware that the fire station site is problematic, but added the City has been looking for eight years for a site to improve response times in the Fontaine Road area. “We’ve wanted to make extremely sure that the City never applied for [a waiver] that would later come back and [the public] would say [the City was] held to a different standard,” Watts said. However, he said because the City is still in negotiations to purchase the site, they could not ask for a deferral because the deal would fall through.

“In spite of the steep slopes here, the station really does improve the response time in a very critical area,” Watts said.

Emory’s motion was voted down 4 to 3. One of the Commissioners who voted for it, Michael Osteen, said he wanted the City to be held to a higher standard.

“I think the City needs to be a leader not only in developing their own sites, but in administering their own critical slopes ordinance,” Osteen said.

Chairman Jason Pearson said he thought the City was a leader, but he saw no need to apply additional scrutiny to the fire station project. He said the increased response times outweighed the need to use a culvert to carry water off of the site.

“Sometimes you make hard choices and in this case it seems like the right hard choice to make,” Pearson said. “We have to do it because we don’t want people to die in a fire in their house.”

The Commission voted 7-0 to approve the waiver without Emory’s condition, but with similar language that urges the City to daylight more streams. Additionally, the Planning Commission will spend time in 2010 reworking the critical slopes ordinance.

Critical slopes waiver for YMCA approved on 4-2 vote

The City is playing no role in the design of the new Piedmont Family YMCA aquatic center under development in McIntire Park, but Kay Slaughter had also called on the Planning Commission to enforce a higher standard of development.

A site plan of the Piedmont Family YMCA which depicts critical slopes in purple (Click for a larger image)

The YMCA must use the area of McIntire Park set aside in the ground lease signed in January 2008. That location contains a man-made hill that was formed when the existing picnic shelters and the driveway to the baseball fields were constructed. Such hills still are protected by the critical slopes ordinance.
Under the site plan, one of the building’s walls is being suggested as a retaining wall to capture stormwater runoff from the slopes. The plan’s architect is proposing a series of gardens and swales wall to help filter the stormwater runoff.

Some Commissioners echoed Slaughter’s comments that the site could be redesigned to avoid the critical slopes, but were told by architect Todd Bullard of VMDO that he did not think that was possible in part because the critical slopes were right in the middle of the ground lease area.

Staff recommended approval of the waiver with several conditions, including the development of a rainwater harvesting system in order to ensure that the YMCA would not generate more stormwater runoff than existing conditions. Bullard said his calculations showed that such a system would take 28 years to pay back its investment, so he was reluctant to accept that condition. In exchange, he said that the proposed mitigation was to slow down the speed of runoff leaving the site to half of the existing rate. That would have the effect of minimizing erosion.

Bullard also said that the garden wall would be a feature along City walking trails.  New trails are being proposed in the McIntire Park master plan to connect the YMCA with Charlottesville High School.

Commissioner Osteen said it appeared to him that the site would create more critical slopes than were there previously. He was skeptical that Bullard’s mitigation plan would work. Commissioner Keller said the experience of McIntire Park should be respected and the slopes should not be intruded upon.

Commissioner Bill Emory asked if the steep slopes ordinance had been mentioned  when the master plan for the western side of the park set the parameters of the ground lease. Staff said it had been noted that the slopes were present.

Commissioner Rosensweig said he served on the park’s master planning committee, and that he had sympathy for the work Bullard had done to mitigate the slopes.

“The limits of the development in the ground lease were carved out specifically to be on a slope so that the building profile could be reduced,” Rosensweig said.

Commissioner Osteen said he could approve the waiver as long as he could be guaranteed the Commission would get another look at the walking path. He made a motion to approve the waiver, backing off of the requirement that the project must not produce any additional stormwater. Instead, the staff of the Department of Neighborhood Development Services will determine an appropriate level of mitigation.
The Commission voted 4-2 to approve the critical slopes waiver for the with Keller and Emory voted against.

TIMELINE FOR PODCAST:

• 01:00 - Public commenr from former Mayor Kay Slaughter
• 05:00 - Ebony Walden
• 10:10 - Commissioner Dan Rosensweig asks for clarification on criteria for granting waivers
• 12:30 - Commissioner Kurt Keesecker asks about the second phase of environmental review for fire project
• 16:50 - Commissioner Bill Emory makes a motion, adds one condition
• 22:15 - Deputy City Attorney Rich Harris questions whether Emory's condition could be enforced
• 25:30 - Deputy City Engineer Sujit Ekka says he does not have concerns about erosion
• 31:45 - Chairman Jason Pearson says Slaughter's comments have likely created greater scrutiny for these projects
• 33:15 - Planning Manager Missy Creasy says waivers are usually approved because unfavorable wants don't proceed to Commission
• 35:30 - Rosensweig says he is satisfied with mitigation that will be done for fire station, but says he can support Emory's condition
• 38:30 - Economic Development Director Aubrey Watts comments
• 43:15 - Keller asks Watts if he would accept Emory's condition
• 46:00 - Keesecker suggests City look for streams that could be daylighted
• 49:15 - Pearson says Emory's condition is overstepping the bounds of the Planning Commission
• 51:30 - Commissioner John Santoski asks for a vote on Emory's proposal
• 52:10 - Emory's motion fails on a 4-3 vote against
• 53:00 - Commissioner Michael Osteen explains why he voted for the motion
• 57:40 - Commissioner John Santoski makes a motion to pass waiver without Emory's condition
• 1:00:00 - Rosensweig asks Harris if he can suggest language to
• 1:02:45 - Motion to approve waiver passes 7-0
• 1:03:00 - Commission takes up slopes waiver for YMCA with report from Nick Rogers
• 1:18:00 - Todd Bullard of VMDO Architects appears before Commission to discuss design, request for waiver
• 1:29:00 - Commissioner Rosensweig makes his comments
• 1:32:00 - Commissioner Emory asks if the Planning Commission has ever seen the YMCA project
• 1:34:90 - Commissioner Keller expresses her concerns with the plan
• 1:36:30 - Alan Franklin of the Water Street Studio discusses the volume requirements
• 1:46:30 - Piedmont Family YMCA CEO Denny Blank comments on the walking trail
• 1:48:45 - Commission begins taking a straw poll to assess where they stand on the waiver
• 1:51:00 - Commissioner Santoski makes motion to approve waiver

Supervisors get strategic plan update heading into annual retreat

By Tarpley Ashworth
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Thursday, October 15, 2009

At their annual retreat this Friday, members of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors will meet with County staff to grapple with the challenge of creating a balanced 5-year financial plan. Supervisors will be asked to weigh in on possible service level reductions and financial assumptions revenue sources such as the real estate property tax rate. The County’s strategic plan, which is revised every four years, is a collection of long-term goals meant to direct County staff in their daily operations. The strategic plan is also expected to guide the Board’s recommendations  and it includes five central objectives:

• Enhance quality of life
• Protect natural resources
• Develop infrastructure
• Manage growth and development
• Funding the future

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Lori Allshouse, the County’s Manager of Strategic Planning and Performance, briefed the Board of Supervisors at their meeting on Wednesday, October 7th on how well the County has met the goals outlined in the FY 2007-2010 Strategic Plan.

Overall, she said the County completed several important objectives, including increasing collaboration with the school system and developing a comprehensive funding strategy. But significant challenges remain, such as rising unemployment and meeting transportation needs in the wake of budget cuts from state agencies such as the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT).

Regarding collaboration with the school system, Allshouse cited the County’s recent receipt of a $6 million Safe Schools, Healthy Students grant which required a strong relationship between schools and County staff to qualify. She also said that the Board’s adoption of its first five-year financial plan last year satisfied the goal of creating a joint future funding plan.

Allshouse identified several objectives that were nearly complete as well. The County’s focus on affordable housing in recent years has yielded some benefits such as receiving a $700,000 grant for improvements to Crozet Meadows, a housing development in Crozet intended for low-income elderly residents, and increased enrollment in the Homebuyer Education Program.

The goal of adopting master plans for all five designated growth areas is well underway, too. Two master plans are complete (Pantops and Crozet), two are scheduled to be adopted this fiscal year (Village of Rivanna and Places29) and one is scheduled for completion by FY 2012 (Southern Urban Area).

Source: Albemarle County

According to Allshouse, other issues are proving more difficult, but she estimates that these goals will also eventually be met. Only 23% of local streams meet Virginia’s aquatic life standards (in line with the state average).  The County has met 87% of its goal for conservation easements. Currently, 77,899 acres of County land, or 17%, is under easement and the County has received approximately 20 applications for easements that it has not yet processed.

The County has struggled to meet its public safety goals. The construction of the Ivy and Pantops fire stations has been delayed by funding and site location issues. Albemarle County is 18 police officers short of its target for 1.5 officers for every 1,000 citizens. Additionally, officers respond to Priority 1 emergencies in five minutes or less only 57% of the time, while the goal is 85%. Priority 1 emergency calls are classified as those where life and safety are suspected to be threatened. In rural areas, officers are responding to all calls in an average of 13 minutes when the goal is 10 minutes.

Supervisor David Slutzky (Rio) explained these metrics by pointing out that these slower than hoped for response times were a direct product of the acknowledged officer shortage. “Obviously there is a correlation between the reduction in number of officers and the opportunity to respond in a timely fashion,” he said.

Supervisor Dennis Rooker (Jack Jouett) raised the issue that Priority 1 emergencies included responses to home alarms, and since many of these responses were false alarms, it skewed the data to make response times seem worse than they actually were.

“Police response to private emergency alarm systems going off is one of the biggest government subsidies to private business in the world,” said Rooker. “The amount of money spent on police departments doing this is immense.”

County Executive Bob Tucker said that there had been discussions in the past about instituting a false alarm penalty, and that such a proposal could  come before the Board later this year if they chose to reconsider the issue

The most significant challenges, however, loom for transportation and the job market. Allshouse reported that even though transportation had seen some bright spots in the region, such as a 9% increase in ridership for JAUNT and the 18% increase in ridership for the Charlottesville Transit Service, the 74% budget cut from VDOT towards Albemarle County projects since 2004 remains a substantial hindrance to transportation improvements within the County. 

Steve Allshouse, the County’s Coordinator of Research and Analysis, presented an economic climate summary to the Board as well. He reported that the County experienced a net loss of 487 jobs between 2007 and 2008 and that the unemployment rate increased from 3.4% to 4.9% between August 2008 and August 2009. This compares to 6.5% and 9.6% unemployment in Virginia and the United States respectively, but Allshouse warned that this gap between Albemarle County and the state and national averages was lessening during the current recession. He also reported that the County’s taxable sales declined between 2007 and 2008 as well.

Supervisor Ken Boyd (Rivanna) said that unemployment statistics, by their methodology, does not count those unemployed who have given up searching for jobs. Slutzky added that unemployment didn’t adequately measure the under-employed rate either.

Friday’s Retreat to discuss changes for the FY 2010-14 Strategic Plan will be held at the Virginia Department of Forestry in the UVA Fontaine Research Park from 9:00 am-to 3:00 pm.

County planners clear way for Pantops fire station despite community concerns

By Sean Tubbs
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Thursday, September 17, 2009

The Albemarle County Planning Commission has endorsed one potential location for a new fire station in the Pantops area, despite concerns by one Commissioner that the one acre site will use up land designated as open space.

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The owners of Peter Jefferson Place have offered to donate the land to the County to build the Pantops Fire Station. A maintenance shed and sewer pump station currently occupy the site, which is otherwise considered open space.

The proposal is to build a 7,500 square feet building, which would include space for living quarters and bays for a fire engine and an ambulance. The facility would be smaller than the Hollymead and Monticello stations operated by the County. The station would be staffed by County employees during the day and volunteers at night.

= Commissioners Linda Porterfield, Cal Morris and Tom Loach

In order to accept the land, the Planning Commission needed to confirm whether the site would conform to the County’s comprehensive plan. Planning Commissioner Cal Morris (Rivanna), a member of the Pantops Community Advisory Council, took the opportunity to discuss one concern of that group.

“The Pantops steering committee is extremely concerned that this is going to take away from our green space,” Morris said. “Green space in the Pantops area is very, very precious.”

Commissioners weighed the merits of open space versus a need to improve fire service in one of the County’s designated growth areas.

Chairman Eric Strucko (Samuel Miller) said the County has a goal for five-minute response times, which are currently not met in the Pantops area. “In order to reach this goal, we need more facilities,” Strucko said.

Fire service in the Pantops area is currently provided by the City of Charlottesville on a contract basis, with back-up from the East Rivanna Volunteer Fire Company near Glenmore. In 2007, the City averaged a ten minute response time to Pantops.

Albemarle pays Charlottesville up to $800,000 a year for the service. The current contract expires in 2013, and Albemarle Fire Chief Dan Eggleston said the price will likely increase if the County wants to renew.

 “We have on the one hand trying to achieve that five minute goal, and on the other hand we have to replace that consistent [response by an] engine company that comes out of the City,” Eggleston said. “We feel like this is the best bet at this point.”

The fire station is to be built near this maintenance shed, according to Fire Chief Eggleston

Ron Lilley, a project manager in the County’s facilities development office, said similar sites that would allow the County to meet the response time goal would cost between $1 and $3 million. The County had previously budgeted $2.7 million to purchase land and to do site work and engineering.  With a land donation, the overall projects costs are significantly reduced. The fire station is now estimated to cost $3 million, according to Lilley.

“It seems to me that it’s prudent for us to do something good for the taxpayers,” said Commissioner Linda Porterfield (Scottsville). “If the money is there and we can build a fire station on a free piece of land, it just seems like that’s the thing to do.”

Eggleston said the station would be built behind the existing maintenance shed, and every attempt would be made to blend it into the landscape. If the project moves forward, station is expected to open by April 2013.

The six Commissioners present voted unanimously to declare the site as being consistent with the comprehensive plan. Next, Albemarle County staff will continue to pursue the transaction with Peter Jefferson Place and to secure funding from the Board of Supervisors as part of the County’s capital budget.

TIMELINE FOR PODCAST:

• 01:00 – Staff report from David Benish, County’s Chief of Planning
• 10:00 – Ron Lilley of the Albemarle County Office of Facilities
• 10:30 – Planning Commissioner Cal Morris asks Lilley if there are any other suitable sites
• 12:10 – Fire Chief Dan Eggleston responds to Morris’ concern about losing green space
• 17:00 – Commissioner Linda Porterfield (Scottsville) asks question about response times
• 21:30 – Commissioner Tom Loach (White Hall) asks question about continuing paying the City
• 26:00 – Loach asks Eggleston if homeowner’s insurance rates will go up if there is not service

Albemarle takes first step towards charging for ambulance services

By Sean Tubbs
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Thursday, September 10, 2009

The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors have taken the first step towards charging for ambulance service. At their meeting on September 9, 2009, the Board voted unanimously to adopt an ordinance that gives the County and volunteer rescue squads the ability to charge fees to those who require an ambulance.

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The County provides about 2,000 transports a year from the ambulance service offered from the Hollymead and Monticello fire stations, which could result in $400,000 in funds generated for the County.

Volunteer rescue squads  would also be eligible to charge the fee once they receive a permit from the County. The money generated would be used to help fund the County’s investments in the rescue squads.

Over forty localities across Virginia have such a system in place, including Orange and Louisa Counties. The ordinance does not specify how much would be charged, but states that “reasonable fees” would be set by the Board of Supervisors.

“The ordinance also specifically provides that no person shall be denied emergency medical services due to an inability to pay,” said County Attorney Larry Davis. The County would be required to set up a compassionate billing program. Davis said most people would have their fees covered by Medicare, Medicaid or their insurance providers.

Davis said the adoption of this ordinance is just the first step in the County implementing the fee. Other steps would be securing a contract with a company to handle the account, negotiations with area rescue squads to find out if they want to participate, and a public relations campaign to explain the program to citizens.

Only one person spoke during the public hearing, which was held at 9:30 PM. David Zimmerman, a volunteer with the Charlottesville Albemarle Rescue Squad (CARS), urged the County to get out of the ambulance business.

Supervisor Dennis Rooker (Jack Jouett) said that 85% of Americans live in an area where revenue recovery programs are in place.  He argued that contributions to Medicare and Medicaid fund the service, and this is a way to reclaim funds that the County deserves.

“Everyone knows about the bleak state of finances for all localities,” Rooker said. “This is one place where we can obtain some fees for services that are generally picked up by third-parties other than our citizens.”

Charlottesville Fire Chief Charles Werner told City Council in January that the City did not need to begin charging the EMS revenue recovery fee.

The resource utilization study commissioned by the Board of Supervisors recommended in February that the County charge the fee.

County staff will get together to assess how to put the process in place for Hollymead and Monticello. Conversations will be continuing with the rescue squad representatives about developing a process for bringing them in if they choose to participate.

Fire Chief Werner: No need for City to bill for EMS service

Charlottesville Fire Chief Charles Werner (file photo)

More than a year after telling City Council that the Charlottesville Fire Department needed to supplement the area’s Emergency Medical Services infrastructure by operating its own ambulance, Fire Chief Charles Werner now says that step is not necessary.

“The Charlottesville Fire Department and [the Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad] now concur that CFD-staffed ambulances are not needed, and ambulance billing will not be necessary in the City at this time,” Werner said in a report to City Council at their meeting on January 5, 2009.

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In December 2007, Council adopted new standards for EMS response times which included a recommendation that the fire department begin providing ambulance services in order to meet the new goals.  Werner said the additional service would be paid for by charging a fee to those who needed service. While Council voted to allow the fire department to begin ambulance service, they never approved the use of EMS recovery billing. Negotiations between the Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad (CARS), the County and City Fire Departments, and County volunteer fire departments did not result in an agreement on introducing the fee to the community as a whole. CARS officials said they were concerned that donations would be reduced if citizens were required to pay for EMS calls.

In his report to Council, Werner said the question of ambulance capacity has been addressed by logistical changes made by the County Fire Department. 

“Albemarle County implemented one of their own owned and staffed ambulances at the Monticello Fire Station… which actually increased the ambulance capacity in the urban area,” Werner said. “This additional ambulance reduced CARS’ response area… so the demand is down and their call volume is decreased.”

Werner said CARS has also had a successful recruiting year, which means that staffing the ambulances is not currently an issue.

“CARS over the past 12 months has maintained a response time of 9 minutes or less, 93% of the time,” Werner said. That’s 3 minutes below the desired response time adopted by the EMS committee. Additionally, the fire department now has 16 fire-fighters that are trained as medics.

Werner said that in the future, response times can be further improved by relocating the City’s fire station on Ivy Road to Jefferson Park Avenue.

In his report, Werner addressed ways that the department is becoming more efficient.  He said his senior staff has been trained by the City Budget office to better organize operations. One example of how that has worked involves the regional Emergency Communications Center (ECC).

“In 2007, we moved fire dispatch from the fire department to the ECC,” Werner said. “We reduced the fire department by 5 full-time positions and saved $109,000 per year.”   To become more sustainable, Werner said the department is sending fewer vehicles to alarm calls. Only a small fraction of calls are true emergencies, and by responding differently the department can save fuel and put less mileage on fire trucks.

The Fire Department has also become more creative about winning grant funding for projects. Werner said over $7 million has been awarded to the department since 2002.

Sean Tubbs

TIMELINE FOR PODCAST:

• 1:00 - Werner begins his report by recounting the history of the Charlottesville Fire Department, as well as an overview of how it is organized
• 3:10 - Werner lists the services offered by the Charlottesville Fire Department
• 4:20 - Werner describes a typical day in the life of the department
• 5:50 - Werner describes efforts to bring more efficiency into departmental operations
• 6:50 - Werner describes efforts to make operations more sustainable
• 8:00 - Werner explains how department is benefiting through grants.    
• 9:00 - A description of new technologies being used by the department
• 14:00 - Werner explains how goals for EMS service time have been met through reorganization
• 17:00 - Werner addresses safety goals of the department
• 18:30 - Werner describes community outreach efforts
• 20:00 - Werner outlines the department's response time
• 22:30 - Comments from Councilor David Brown

Career-staffed Pantops Fire station reaffirmed by Board

A plan to increase the Albemarle County Department of Fire and Rescue’s presence on Pantops Mountain has received new support from the County Board of Supervisors.  In December, Supervisors had suggested revisiting the Pantops fire station initiative as a way to balance the Board’s five-year financial plan.  Under review were both the need for the station as well as the mix of volunteer and career personnel. The Board’s questions required Fire and Rescue Chief Dan Eggleston to provide additional information before proceeding with a new temporary station set to open in July 2009.

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Supervisors voted 5-1 in May 2007 to move ahead with that temporary station, which has been identified by Fire and Rescue officials as necessary to increase response times to neighborhoods on Pantops Mountain. The area is currently served in part on a contract basis by the City of Charlottesville, but that agreement will expire in 2009. Staff are currently identifying sites for a temporary station, which will be made permanent in 2014.

The Board’s five-year financial forecast also shows 12 more career firefighters for the East Ivy fire station beginning in 2010. Eggleston told Charlottesville Tomorrow that each full-time employee will cost the county an average of $60,000 with salary and benefits. That cost has prompted some Supervisors to be concerned about the accompanying growth in the County budget. At the Board’s strategic retreat in September, former Supervisor David Wyant (White Hall) suggested the County should find ways to boost volunteer participation in order to save on the cost of hiring full-time employees. Supervisor Dennis Rooker (Jack Jouett) has also been urging the study of this tactic as a way of saving the County money.

At the Board’s meeting on January 23, 2008, Chief Dan Eggleston had the opportunity to explain again why he felt Pantops would only be served with a new station as well as career staff. He said it was crucial for Pantops to be fully operational by the time the City contract expires. Otherwise, he predicted the level of service would fail for the entire eastern half of the County.  If the County were to renew the agreement with the City, it would likely cost $2 million a year.

Rooker asked if the City would still respond to County calls once the agreement lapses. Eggleston said a mutual aid agreement with the Charlottesville Fire Department would be put in place, but that this unpaid cooperation would only occur on the most urgent of calls. Chairman Ken Boyd (Rivanna) asked if there was a way to pay to ensure that the City would continue to respond, and Eggleston responded that would make negotiating a mutual aid agreement much more difficult.

Eggleston also asked that the EMS revenue recovery funds that the County is planning on charging citizens’ insurance companies be used to further enhance the system. Eggleston said his department is on track to begin charging the fees beginning with the next fiscal year.

On the issue of staffing, Eggleston says the County is currently way ahead of the nationwide average of a 1 percent annual decline in the number fire/rescue volunteers. Eggleston says Albemarle gains 2 percent a year, but that figure would not be enough to come up with the 11 to 15 volunteers necessary to consistently staff the new station.

“Our current system as it stands today is short about 200 to 230 volunteers,” Eggleston said, adding that means many fire stations are currently undermanned. “It has been our strategy all along to supplement the system with career staff to ensure that that primary emergency unit gets out consistently and reliably. The 12 career staff for Pantops will ensure that fire engine response, with three people minimum and [Advanced Life Support] trained and equipped staff 24-7.”

Eggleston said an aggressive campaign will be undertaken to recruit volunteers for Pantops, but anyone extra would go to adding capacity.

Eggleston said if only 10 career employees were hired, that would leave two vacancies that would need to be filled. He estimated 11 to 15 volunteers would need to be recruited to fill the gap to ensure 24-7 coverage for Pantops, taking away from efforts to cover the rural areas.

Supervisor Rooker suggested that the Fire and Rescue Department attempt to pursue that strategy. Eggleston warned against budgeting for less than 12, and reminded the Board that when the Monticello Fire Station opened in 2002, he had to ask for more money to fully staff the station because not enough volunteers were fully trained the day it became operational.

Supervisor Ann Mallek (White Hall) suggested that the County experiment with going with 12 career staff for the foreseeable future, but that every effort be made to retain more volunteers. Supervisor David Slutzky (Rio) asked the Department to provide an analysis of volunteer recruitment for urban areas versus rural areas. Supervisor Thomas suggested that the University of Virginia be brought into the discussion, given that much of the turnover each year is related to student volunteers.

The discussion ended with consensus that the Fire and Rescue Department proceed with the plans to hire 12 career staff to be in place when the temporary Pantops station opens in the summer of 2009.

Sean Tubbs

Councilor Dave Norris appears on WINA; Explains ambulance and YMCA decisions and outlines his priorities for 2008

City Councilor Dave Norris was a guest on WINA's Charlottesville Live radio program as part of the station's monthly Government Day feature.  Hosts Rick Daniels and Jane Foy interviewed Norris who says he expects to be elected by Council to be the City's next Mayor when they hold their first meeting of 2008 next week.

"It's a position where you can use the bully pulpit to address some of the issues that brought you into public service, and that's what I intend to do with it," said Norris. While he described it as a largely ceremonial position, the mayor sets the Council agenda and chairs the meetings.

Norris is promising more open government, and told WINA Council will soon hold a public hearing on how City operations can be made more efficient. The rest of the conversation features Norris explaining Council's recent decisions on the YMCA in McIntire Park and City-run EMS service.

Norris says he believe his 2006 running mate, Councilor Julian Taliaferro, will become Vice Mayor.

Podcast produced by Charlottesville Tomorrow * Player by Odeo

Listen using player above or download the podcast: Download 20080102-Norris-WINA.mp3

TIMELINE FOR PODCAST:

• 1:39 - Norris on his new duties, should he become Mayor next Monday
• 3:17 - Norris on the need for transparent government
• 5:27 - Norris on why he supports the YMCA in McIntire Park
• 7:12 - Norris on security cameras on and around the Downtown Mall, leading to a discussion on public safety
• 12:16 - Norris on Council's December 17 decision to approve a City-run ambulance service
• 14:44 - Norris on affordable living choices
• 15:57 - Norris on the need for continued City-Council cooperation

Sean Tubbs

Council approves ambulances; leaves billing decision for another day

The Charlottesville City Council has voted to allow the City Fire Department to begin preparations to offer full-time ambulance service. The move comes despite the objections of the president and chief of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad (CARS), an all-volunteer service.

The vote came after members of the City Emergency Medical Services Committee gave a report to the City Council on the future of EMS Services for the City. Delegate and former City Councilor David Toscano (D) chaired the 14-person committee, which was charged in August 2007 with providing recommendations on how to improve EMS services in the City. The Committee un animously agreed that more personnel and rescue vehicles were needed to address “peak” service times. The question is – which organization should best provide that service?

Download the EMS Committee's report

Podcast produced by Charlottesville Tomorrow * Player by Odeo

Listen using player above or download the podcast: Download 20071217-CC-Ambulance.mp3

The Committee voted 5-3 at a meeting on October 24, 2007 to recommend that the City Fire Department provide ambulance service seven days a week, with a medic on board every engine company as soon as possible. Two of the three no votes were from CARS President Larry Claytor and CARS Chief Dayton Haugh. After a subsequent poll was taken via e-mail of the full committee, the vote changed to 10-2, with Albemarle County Fire and Rescue Chief Dan Eggleston changing his vote to yes. Councilor Dave Norris and Albemarle County Supervisor David Wyant (White Hall) were members of the committee but abstained from the vote.

Before the official discussion on the matter, Claytor told Council his organization is concerned they would be made obsolete by the move.

“Our volunteer professionals have done an outstanding job of providing service to this community, and by all records and accounts we feel we’re doing a fantastic job,” Claytor told Council.

“We feel like you’re trying to solve a problem that does not exist,” he said, adding that CARS exceeds targets for response times.

COMMITTEE DECISION BASED ON CAPACITY CONCERNS

Mary Loose DeViney

Delegate  Toscano was not available to attend this week’s City Council meeting, so three other members of the Committee made remarks. The presentation was lead by City Representative Mary Loose DeViney, who owns Tuel Jewelers and serves as Chair of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce.

“One of the overwhelming reasons for choosing 24-7 over the peak was the cost factor,” DeViney said. Ensuring that medics were staffed on each engine company during peak hours would cost $500,000, but moving to a full-time system would cost only $100,000 more.  These costs are for staffing and operations and not for capital costs. The City budgeted $1 million in last year’s budget to address the issue.

DeViney told Council she had never had any experience with ambulances before, but that the experience of working on the committee was valuable, particularly her tour to the area's Emergency Communications Center. When emergency calls come in, the call is to the ECC, which then contacts the appropriate first responder agency. She said capacity, and not just response times, was a major factor in the committee’s recommendation.

“When we were at the ECC that morning, by 9:15, we’d run out of ambulances,” she said. “That means that all the ambulances at CARS had been used for calls, and that Medic-5, which is the one at the University of  Virginia, had been called out.”

DeViney said she was also struck by the fact that the ECC is a tiered system, where the dispatcher who receives 911 calls asks the caller to give details about the situation so the appropriate service can be dispatched.

“And a lot of our thinking was, if you had a medic [on each engine company], you don’t tier anything,” she said. “You just send them, and they just go.”   

But she stressed that the extra ambulance is not being positioned to supplement CARS, but to supplement the area’s EMS system as a whole.

Citizen Representative Martin Burks, a funeral director, said all members of the committee felt the need to add more medics to the system, and that each of the fire stations should have medics.

“More medics cut the dispatch time for EMS calls, because you don’t have to worry about asking those extra questions,” Burks said. “The 24-7 staffing approach provided that extra medic ambulance as well as a medic on every engine, something the third party proposal didn’t do.”

Medical Director George Lindbeck

George Lindbeck has been the medical director for both CARS and the Charlottesville Fire Department since 1989. He said he disagreed with the idea that CARS would be destroyed if other agencies boost up their ability to provide EMS services.

“By implementing the plan the committee recommended, we’re going to augment the entire system,” Lindbeck said. He added that Council needed to think of the long-term future of the community, and called the recommendation an investment in the fire department.  He said CARS would improve its ability to train new volunteers because full-time medics would be available.

Finally, Chief Charles Werner spoke to Council about why he thought his department should run its own ambulance service. He likened the area’s multijurisdictional approach to EMS services to a patchwork quilt put together by a family for protection.

“We’re not looking at taking that quilt apart, we’re looking at making that quilt stronger and making it a bit bigger,” Werner said. “This is not anything negative about CARS. I want to reiterate that CARS is an exceptional organization.” He said growing response times are a symptom of a lack of ambulances in the system, and added that he would investigate looking at ways to help ensure CARS’ financial stability.

COUNCIL DISCUSSION

Councilor Kevin Lynch asked why the City should pay to add more medics, when CARS could possibly hire more personnel trained to administer advanced life support methods. Werner responded that would still cluster resources in CARS’ central location, and would not provide any faster service.

“The reason we have three fire stations is to meet response times, to get there as fast as we can,” Werner said. “In an EMS life threatening situation, those moments of first-response  care are the most critical, so you need to have them strategically located.”

When Lynch asked why CARS couldn’t just have its own bay in the City’s proposed fire station at Fontaine, Werner responded that wouldn’t solve the staffing issue.  Lynch remained unconvinced, and sought further information from Lindbeck.

“There are a lot of people at Charlottesville Fire right now who are great EMS providers, have years of experience, and don’t necessarily have a way to carry that on in the fire service,” Lindbeck said. He said CARS had a highly qualified staff , but had a high turnover rate as well. CARS is currently being supplemented by about sixty-hours of labor each week provided by the Albemarle County Fire and Rescue Department. He said he thought the County would likely pull out those units as it moves to staff its own fire stations with ambulances.

Charlottesville Fire Chief Charles Werner

Werner said going to a 24-7 approach would allow his department to more effectively utilize the resources. Each of six medics trained to provide advanced life support  would work a 56-hour work week, on 24 hour-shifts. That would allow at least one medic to be available at all times.

Councilor Kendra Hamilton said she thought there had been a lot of hysteria around the proposal. She said the 10-2 vote gave her a strong level of confidence that the committee’s recommendation was the correct one.

However, Councilor  Lynch said he was not convinced that the Charlottesville Fire Department taking on a new role would provide the promised efficiencies.

“One of the challenges of being on City Council is that any successful organization wants to grow,” Lynch said. “Most of our departments want to grow. But that doesn’t mean that growth in a situation where the number of taxpayers is finite is always a good thing.”

Mayor Brown, who was chairing the Council meeting as Mayor for the last time before passing the gavel in 2008, said he supported the plan, but was concerned that it did not have the support of either CARS President Larry Claytor, or CARS Chief Dayton Haugh.

“We have fences to mend, and I think it’s incumbent on everyone in the community, on me, the members of the committee, and our City Fire Department to reach out [to CARS,” Brown said. “What does happen in other communities is once the community moves to paid service, they lose volunteers, and we can’t afford to let that happen.”

But Hamilton said giving money to CARS would not necessarily solve the capacity problem.

“This community is not standing still. This community is growing,” she said. “It’s not realistic in my opinion to think we’re going to be able to address the growth in our community, the growth in our traffic, the overutilization of our roads, and the fact that our ambulance vehicles and response vehicles are competing with so much more traffic and so many more people and just a much different situation going forward.”

COUNCIL VOTE

No specific motion was prepared for the Council to review before deciding on the vote, so Mayor Brown asked City Manager Gary O’Connell to suggest one.  O’Connell actually suggested two motions. One to approval of the developing a budget based on six new full-time positions as well as operating costs.

“And the second one, and this is the more immediate one, of moving forward to acquire an ambulance, whether it’s lease purchase or pay for it with cash,” O’Connell said. “We’d like to do some investigation of that to be sure that the use of the money that we now have available, money you approved in the [FY 2008] budget, we can stretch it as far as possible.”

On the matter of providing budget direction to Gary O’Connell for the upcoming FY 2009 funding request, Council voted 4-1 in favor of adding new ambulance services, with Kevin Lynch voting no.

The second motion was on how to most effectively purchase two ambulances. There were two options.

“One is to use the money that was previously appropriated in last year’s budget and just buy them,” O’Connell said.

“The second [option] is a lease purchase that spreads the cost over a period of time, which is how we buy a lot of big equipment, we buy fire trucks right now.”

Werner said it would cost the City $53,000 a year for ten years to lease two ambulances, versus $460,000 to purchase both out-right immediately.  Councilor Norris made a motion to take the lease-purchase option. Again the vote was 4-1 with Councilor Lynch voting no.

NO DECISION MADE ON BILLING RECOVERY

The issue of EMS “revenue recovery billing” was not up for a vote at the meeting, but Councilor Norris did ask for an explanation of what that might be.

“First of all, the whole billing discussion was not something that was started by the City,” Werner said. “The County has a revenue recovery committee that has a recommendation to their board that will come forward. I think what will happen is revenue recovery as it goes forward will be something that we all do, and it’s something that’s being done by almost every locality in the Commonwealth.”

Werner said that if people do not have insurance, the Fire Department would bill under a “compassionate” system that either waives or reduces the cost.  Norris said he wanted people to know that billing would be a separate decision. City Manager O’Connell said Council would likely have that discussion during the upcoming budget cycle.

Brown said that the City would have to work hard to help raise funds for CARS, given that people may be less likely to donate if they get a bill for ambulance services.

Sean Tubbs

Consultants recommend against consolidation of City-County fire-rescue services

At a press conference Friday morning, City and County leaders jointly released the City/County Fire Service Consolidation Study Report.  The report recommends against the consolidation of the fire and rescue services that cooperatively protect the residents of Charlottesville and Albemarle, but operate as separate agencies. The Matrix Consulting Group's report concluded consolidation "would result in additional costs rather than cost saving because of increased wage and benefit costs and an inability to reduce personnel needs through the consolidation of stations and functions."

In addition to reviewing the pros and cons of consolidation, the report outlines twenty-three additional recommendations to improve operations.  One of those recommendations is that the City operate a new ambulance.  The City's FY2008 budget was approved with a $1 million placeholder for the City to run its own ambulance service.  The City, and portions of the County, are currently served by the volunteer Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad (CARS). 

The consultant's report concludes:

"Although the report does not recommend consolidation there are a number of actions, described in the recommendations of the report, that the fire and EMS agencies can do, individually and collectively, to better coordinate their activities and ultimately improve services. We recommend that the fire and EMS agencies work systematically thorough the report to determine which recommendations will be acted upon and then develop an implementation schedule."

The costs of community infrastructure for fire-rescue services are expected to be important issues in the 2007 local elections and in the development of the FY 2009 budgets in both Charlottesville and Albemarle. 

Brian Wheeler