Docket Digest

(Wednesday) January 13, 2010

Council Faces Increasing Deficit, Spends Money

By Carla Branch and Rebecca Newsham
alexandrianews.org

On Tuesday night, the Alexandria City Council allocated $200,000 for DASH bus service; gave ACT for Alexandria $50,000 over two years to connect Alexandrians with human service and civic opportunities; learned that the cost of December’s record-breaking snowstorm is likely to be over $1 million and got the news that fiscal year 2010 revenues are down by between one and two percent, which will require legislators to cut $5 to $10 million from this year’s budget.

“You set aside $4.3 million from last year’s surplus to cover just such a contingency and it looks like we are going to need that and maybe even more,” said Bruce Johnson, the City’s budget director. “Our revenues are down by one to two percent over our projections and we are going to have to find a way to make up that difference to balance this year’s budget.

“Our projections for next year haven’t changed. We are still facing about a $40 million shortfall, which will mean hard decisions for everyone as we begin FY 2011 budget discussions next month,” Johnson said.

Paying for Snow Removal

On Dec. 18 and 19, Alexandria got 20 inches of snow, making the storm one of the top five snow-producers in a century. “We had a plan to deal with four to six or even eight inches of snow but we clearly didn’t start planning soon enough to deal with 20 inches,” said City Manager Jim Hartmann. “In the end, the cost of snow removal is going to be a bit over $1 million. We have submitted a request to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for $450,000 in reimbursements and we are hopeful that that request will be approved.

“We have used our entire snow removal budget of $839,000 for this year. That doesn’t mean we will stop removing snow. We have money in contingent reserve just for such emergencies,” Hartmann said.

The City’s emergency operations center opened at 8:00 a.m. On Dec. 19, and didn’t close until 8:00 p.m. On Dec. 23. “Fourteen different City departments, 300 city employees and 91 pieces of equipment were involved in handling issues related to the storm,” Mark Penn, Alexandria’s director of emergency management, told Council. “Snow removal and other related issues required 3650 hours of city staff time.”

How did the city do? “I give us a B-,” said Alexandria Mayor Bill Euille. “We did pretty well but we could have done better.”

Alexandria got high marks for clearing main roads but did not do so well with prioritizing snow removal in neighborhoods. “Clearly, Cameron Station Boulevard should have been a higher priority,” said Vice Mayor Kerry Donley. “The last time we had this much snow, that neighborhood was not as developed as it is today.

“Also, we need to have better communication with the school system. I looked out my window on Sunday morning and saw plows clearing the Polk parking lot. It was obvious to almost everyone that school was going to be canceled on Monday and there were many streets that had not been touched by a plow. If the school system had not made a decision, we should have forced that decision and simply suggested that they close school because we needed the plows for other duties.

“Also, why were we plowing Fort Ward Park when neighborhood streets hadn’t been plowed? Clearly, we need to examine our priorities,” Donley said.

Hartmann agreed that there is work to be done. “We employed the Incident Command Structure for managing this snowstorm and, in general, it worked very well. However, we have already begun looking at ways to improve our response to such incidents and we will do better the next time,” he said.

City Funds ACTion Alexandria

Council voted, 6-1, to give ACT for Alexandria $50,000 over a two-year period to develop ACTion Alexandria, a website to connect City residents with volunteer and civic engagement opportunities.

The money will be used to match a $102,000 grant from the Knight Foundation, $100,000 from private local sources and $40,000 in kind contributions. The $50,000 will come from unspent Comprehensive Services Act funds.

“This money is available to us because of savings from efficiency measures we have put in place,” said Human Services Director Debra Collins. “I understand that we are making cuts in our services to people but this $50,000 over the next two years isn’t going to resolve those issues.”

According to the docket memorandum, which was given to Council members, “ACTion Alexandria is a customized online ecosystem for Alexandrians to engage and interact on civic matters, especially human service matters. The ecosystem’s design and functionality will translate online interest into offline action that makes a tangible difference in the lives of Alexandrians. Core functionality will include: civic problem solving, email list building and distribution, surveying, ranking, voting, online discussion organization, project management, project archiving, and the capability for online donations to multiple entities.”

“We have been talking about ways to link Alexandrians with human service and civic opportunities for more than a year and this will accomplish that, although we do need to monitor outcomes,” said Councilman Rob Krupicka.

Councilman Frank Fannon voted against allocating the funds. “I have met with John Porter and certainly support ACT’s mission,” he said. “However, Volunteer Alexandria links residents with volunteer opportunities and, if we give one nonprofit funding, what is to stop others from coming forward and asking for the same treatment?

“Also, with the budget cuts we are making in direct services to people, I just don’t think now is the time to spend $50,000 in this way,” Fannon said.

More than half of the project’s budget will pay for two employees, a community manager and a business manager. The remainder of the funds will be spent on office space and supplies, outsourced IT services and branding and marketing.

“We strongly believe this project is an exceptional opportunity for Alexandria to lead the way in establishing this new level of civic problem solving and one which should also prove advantageous for our community,” said John Porter, executive of ACT for Alexandria.

Council Allocates $200,000 for DASH Bus Service

Last year, the Alexandria City Council reduced its subsidy for DASH bus service by $537,000.  “We were able to make up $337,000 of that reduction ourselves,” said Sandy Modell, Alexandria Transit Company’s general manager. “However, in order to make up the additional $200,000, we will have to make significant cuts in services.”

After last year’s cuts, Council places $200,000 for DASH in contingent reserve and told ATC to come back to them if the company could not find other ways to balance their budget.  “I just think that instead of spending this money, DASH needs to look at increasing fares and passing on their costs to the consumer,” Fannon said.

Modell assured him that this is likely to happen next year.  Council approved the expenditure, 5-2, with Fannon and Councilwoman Alicia Hughes voting no.

Council Saves Health Department’s Pharmacy Program

Council approved the restructuring of the Alexandria Health Department’s pharmacy program, which will use already budgeted City funds to hire one pharmacist.  On March 30, 2010, the Virginia Department of Health will eliminate local pharmacy programs.  Alexandria’s pharmacy directly served more than 7600 clients and filled 26,000 prescriptions in FY 2009.  The focus of service is approximately 650 uninsured low income adults  with multiple chronic medical conditions and 220 clients with HIV .

“While we will obviously not be able to directly serve all of the clients we previously served, we will do our best to link them with low-cost pharmaceutical programs and the our federally qualified health center,” said Dr. Lisa Kaplowitz, the director of the Alexandria Health Department. “The Alexandria Neighborhood Health Services will be vital to serving these individuals who would not get served after March 30.”

The AHD pharmacy program currently employs four full-time people. The restructured pharmacy program will cost $33,071 for three months of services in FY 2010  and $129,826 for a full year of services in FY 2011.

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