Councilman Williams Update 4/6/22

Councilman Williams update 4/6/22

Taxes, Town stickers, Parking enforcement, ARPA (federal fund spending) infrastructure updates and School budget were all discussed at Wednesday’s meeting. See my blog for highlights from that meeting.

Proclamation, Keep CB Beautiful - Reminder from the Mayor to not litter.

ARPA Update Final Rule - For those that do not know, the town received $1.8M from the federal government to use towards infrastructure and other critical needs. I believe we will receive another $1.8M later. From what we are being told it would normally require 2 to 3 full-time employees to manage these funds so we were given an alternative as a small locality to allocate these funds towards town salaries and then use the town salaries monies towards our CIP Capital improvement plan therefore eliminating the need for additional employees. The concern I raised is will these funds be used for infrastructure or is there a possibility that they could get diverted elsewhere. I also asked why the rush for council to make a decision on something that was supposed to be informational only and no action required by counsel at the time. After my concerns were addressed, the decision was unanimous to proceed because of the cost savings and the reassurance that the funds would be used as intended.

Schools Preliminary Budget Presentation - While the presentation by Dr. Mitchell was very informative the news is not good for taxpayers because we’re being told the school budget has increased by nearly $700k. During the meeting we were informed that nearly $500k of this increase is due to the state passing on mandated costs to localities. Please watch his presentation for yourself so you understand the potential impact on your taxes.

Quarterly Strategic Action Plan Update – The Town Manager gave an update on projects that have been completed or are underway. There are currently 65 items on the plan for this year including items like: $100k Town Pier repairs, Council rules and procedures, billboard, rescue squad relocation plans, adopting financial policies, plans for DORA designated outdoor refreshment area for downtown area, Virginia Main Street, Dodson phase 2 closed, Business license tax streamline (now online), new website launch in April, Planning Commission approved CIP capital Improvement plan and moves to Council for vote.

Tax Rate Analysis Report Chief Financial Officer - Brace yourself for a potential tax increase. Property values have gone way up. My fear all along has been that the same Council members that advocated to give away Eleanor Park would now use the new assessments as an excuse to raise taxes. Even though tax assessments have gone up it is not required by law to raise the taxes, in fact if rates go up more than 1% due to this increased property value the town has to hold a public hearing and Town Council voted to hold the hearing sometime in May. If you do not want your taxes to go up or at least not as much as they are proposing you need to go in and speak for yourself or contact your council members. I am already on record as not supporting a tax increase despite the major pressure to do so. While I voted to hold the public hearing, I voted NO to advertise at the full rate of $0.80 per $100 which would be a significant tax increase. Council could reduce the rate to $0.71 which would leave most home owners taxes at their current amount. The vote was 6-1 to advertise at the $0.80 rate.

While I am sympathetic to the request for additional resources, I raised the concern that the citizens of Colonial Beach are also struggling and we cannot keep expecting them to cover all of our short falls. We desperately need new revenue sources.

NOTE: Westmoreland County will be holding a hearing soon so you should contact them as well to voice your concerns over their potential tax hike.

Beach and Parking Enforcement Police Chief - Presentation on the current state of parking enforcement, subject to change based on the parking study to be completed soon. Full-time and part-time officers currently enforce parking and the chief is currently asking for a part-time employee to help enforce. It was mentioned that we are not enforcing parking in off season but this will start soon. The concern I raised is residents not even understanding exactly where enforceable parking is because a lot of times it’s not clearly identified.

This is just my observation regarding parking: we’re continually told how much money we make off parking and why it is so important, but how much does it cost to enforce that parking? How much does it cost to maintain that parking? How much extra time is required by public works to pick up all the extra trash? Are any of those expenses included in this figure?? Why did we sell one of the biggest parking lots by the beach????

Town Decals Discussion - After a very long discussion it was decided to go back to the sticker being put on the front of your windshield. If anybody has put the sticker on the back you can leave it or get a replacement. There was additional discussion on getting rid of the decal altogether in the future. Currently the license plates are scanned but they do not indicate if somebody has a town sticker and in order for that function to work, it would require $30,000 scanners. The main issue to begin with was that police officers have to walk around the front and back of vehicles in order to even see if they have a decal, which is additional time for an already stretched thin police force.

Grants Process Grant Writer/Coordinator - There is currently no official grants process on file.

He said it won’t make sense to have a grant writer forever (this is a concern a citizen raised last year when the Town decided to create this position). A new process will help Town departments to manage grants in the future. A $30k threshold is in place regarding whether Council will need to be involved. It was also discussed how Nonprofits (NGOs) collaborate with the Town. While I believe in the good work NGOs do I also I believe there needs to be a clear line drawn because their influence is tremendous in this Town.

Town attorney explanation regarding legality of Dodson Development Contract changes at Mayor’s request - The lawyer gave an explanation of the contract changes however there are still a lot of unanswered questions.

Closed Meeting

Discussion of town employee assignments, pending litigation with Westmoreland County, and discussion of legal issues regarding police department.

Full time Attorney - after the close session was over a vote was held to hire Ms. Giles as full-time town attorney. The rationale for this decision was that the Town pays more in legal fees than the cost of a full time attorney, so this should result in a savings for the town. I voted along with the rest of Council on this but do have concerns about adding yet another full-time employee to the towns already stretched thin budget. If during the future the town determines there is no longer a need for a full time attorney they could eliminate the position.

Public Works Liaison Report-

· Town pier progress– 20 feet of decking left, additional pilings for the lower deck to be installed and we are on target to finish by May 15th

· Central drainage area is still on target but there have been a few changes that will be addressed in the near future.

· Pothole repairs - we have a contractor scheduled to come in sometime in May to fill potholes throughout town.

· Palm trees - love them or hate them, the trees have been planted by Public Works department so I thanked them for their efforts.

· Water pressure concerns raised by residents on school town hill and by the boardwalk have been investigated and determined that there are issues that need to be addressed.

· Easement/right away issues- I’ve been contacted by several members of the community regarding the care and maintenance of right of ways. I am following up with the town manager and Public Works to be able to communicate with our residents more effectively and help address their concerns.

Please email or call with questions or comments:

dwilliams@colonialbeachva.net

540-604-4335