The Albemarle County BoS set a real estate tax rate of 74.2¢ last night, Brandon Shulleeta writes in the Progress today, establishing a budget that’s $30M lower than the current fiscal year’s. The idea was to maintain current dollar tax payment levels for property owners. The result is significant service cuts—our library system will continue to be neglected, government operations are short-staffed, and employees are having their salaries frozen.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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Archive for Sideblog »
It just bugs the heck out of me whenever I see any mention or whining about salaries being frozen. I just talked to a girl over the weekend that told me a good friend of mine was laid off at Jim Price Chevrolet. He was in top level management and had been for years. Not only was his salary “frozen” so to speak, it disappeared totally. And as we all, unemployment is a joke when you go from a $75,000 to $100,000 a year job to an unemployment check each week.
I’m sorry….. but city, county, state and federal employees that are able to keep their jobs should be thankful for that fact alone. But I saw a cop whining about not getting a raise this year on his online blog a few weeks back. Absolutely pathetic!
It really bugs me that government employees in general are a callous bunch. They’re only concerned with reaching the nirvana of full retirement and health benefits. It’s this false sense of entitlement that drives me crazy.
I’m a government employee, and that doesn’t describe me at all.
But, really, what you seem to be upset about is that these employees are substantially concerned with the well-being of themselves and their families. Which surely describes most workers, doesn’t it? Why should public sector employees be any different?
“But, really, what you seem to be upset about is that these employees are substantially concerned with the well-being of themselves and their families. Which surely describes most workers, doesn’t it? Why should public sector employees be any different?”
Not only that, but public sector employees on average make less money than those in the private sector. So I can sympathize with employees who are seeing their workloads dramatically increase as departments get scaled back, with no additional hires likely in the forseeable future.
Big Whoop that no county employee received a pay raise. I’m not concerned at all about this. Of all employees, they are the least likely to loose their jobs. They are the least likely to take a pay cut. And, they have the best retirement and health benefits. Why, because they have an endless supply of funds, i.e. TAX REVENUES. Which the county happily collects, even if you are unemployed. Remember, it’s county first, your family second.
Did any county employee loose their job for budgetary reasons? NO! The losers were the citizens of the county. Especially, those that receive county services and those that have lost their jobs at no fault of their own.
In the private sector, it is the employees that go first. As we all know, payroll is the biggest part of any budget and the easiest to control by reducing head count.
If you add up all the benefits (including retirement) that public employees receive, they actually make more than their counter parts in the private sector. How many private companies in the county have equivalent retirement plans? ZERO!
Steve is correct. In my last year of full time service while feeding at the public trough (1996), my salary was only $35,000 at the time if I recall correctly. But add in the value of my city issued take home car 365 days a year, life insurance, health insurance, and retirement, and I was making closer to $55,000 to $60,000 a year. Had I been allowed to buy a home outside of Albemarle County like the department head’s son was allowed to do, the take home car alone could easily have added another $5,000 value to my yearly salary and benefits.
I never had to worry about getting laid off, even though we actually had more employees than we really needed. And we had more employees than we needed because there was always one sitting around doing nothing for every one that was out in the field and working. Well, I say they were doing nothing… but they were chatting, drinking coffee, playing games on city computers, etc….
Well, I know I could make more in the private sector, but I rather like my job. My wife works in the private sector, and her retirement plan is as good as mine.
If what you’re saying is true, you should have an easy time documenting it.
I worked in the private sector for a while. An awful lot of people spent an awful lot of time chatting, playing games on the office computers, drinking coffee, etc. Let’s remember that human behavioral tendencies are the same whether or not the human is employed by the private sector or the public sector. What I seem to hear in these kinds of conversations a LOT is some kind of supposed moral distinction between private sector employees (good, hard-working, earnest, driven by the wonders of capitalism to untold heights of productivity) and public sector employees (lazy, loafing, cheating scum). Ultimately my own experiences suggest that that’s a load of crap. I’m currently a government employee and everyone I know is appropriately dedicated to getting their work done. It’s a much better work environment than my last private sector job. I get paid less, but I do get good benefits, and a good work environment. I think that makes me a better employee than someone who’s scrabbling simply for cash.
What if it isn’t state employees versus private sector employees and who gets paid more or gets better benefits or works more, but it’s everyone is having a hard time, everyone is scared for themselves and their families because of how bad things are getting?
The math just didn’t make sense to me — if the County is keeping the dollar cost of real estate taxes the same, how is the budget $30 million less? I looked at the proposed budget at albemarle.org, and the main difference is that they’re issuing $27 million less in bonds this year. Last year they sold $35 million in bonds (i.e. borrowed $35 million). They (reasonably) don’t want to borrow so much this year, so they can’t spend as much.
I feel for the loss of those nice programs, new libraries, etc., but many of those were merely plans. Ideas of what to do with all the money when tax revenue kept rising. But these are hard times. I didn’t get a raise last year, and certainly won’t this year, and several people at my company were laid off last week. I still feel like things are ok for me, but it seems the county should be cutting back, not spending more, especially if it would require a big tax increase.
The new 2009/2010 budget is still more than 2007/2008 when the bond sales were less. And the real estate taxes are higher too, in dollar and tax rate.
Alison, I think some would argue that those feeding at the public trough need to suffer a little bit too. The city and county needs to look at layoffs just like the private sector has. Because those working in the private sector who are getting laid off and losing their jobs can’t keep paying the taxes to keep the public trough full of oats.
I think we are all interdependent, and that private companies are now taking taxpayer money as much or more than state governments and that to make this division between employees of either who are not at the top is just that, creating division rather than seeing how all are being hurt and all are fearful of being hurt by the situation we find ourselves in.
I also believe the state tax system should be entirely different and should not rely so heavily on personal property taxes: cars and homes. Instead a more progressive tax structure on all cash income including bringing back the estate tax and progressive state income tax rates would prevent those who are laid off from paying so much taxes when they are out of work as well as the state employees who have been and will be laid off.
And I believe in a single payer national health system and options for real pensions for everyone who works for a living.
These divisions keep us from looking at the bigger picture in my personal opinion.
If public sector employees don’t like the pay, benefits or their raises… then they can quit and join the private sector. I don’t whine about my job and I don’t expect those I pay thru my taxes to do so either.
Unlike Charlottesville and Albemarle County who continue to feed well at the public trough, Stauton has finally caught on. Channel 29 reports They are laying off 50 employees.
You might not whine about your job, but oodles of people do. If there’s any difference w/r/t the rate at which people kvetch about their employment between the public and private sector, that’s news to me.
Did you know that all of us at UVA have had our salaries frozen for the past year and a half, and they’ll remain frozen for at least another year or two? I ask because a lot of people don’t actually have any idea, because many of us working for the university are just grateful to still have jobs.
WJ; Has UVA given any hint that they will make up the loss of pay raises in subsequent years? BTW: UVA does not really count as “public service employment”, it’s a state institution that is not affiliated with government.
According to this year’s budget, $42.97 million is allocated for permanent salaries and benefits. There are 628 employees in the county making an average of $68314.78 in salaries and benefits.
Definitely not.
I’m just not following this at all. Employees of the university are state employees. (Save for the new UVA-only classification, but virtually nobody has signed up for that.) They draw a state pension when they retire, their salary is on a state scale, they use state reimbursement processes for travel expenses, they pay the state rate to vendors, many of them are directly affiliated with or part of state agencies (ie the Weldon Cooper Center), they work on entirely state-owned property in state-owned buildings, and they do work that is defined by the state as the state’s mission.
So in what way does “UVA not really count as ‘public service employment'”?
When you have 628 employees making an average of $69,000 a year, no damn wonder this country is on the verge of financial collapse!
I haven’t seen numbers for Cville, but how is this for Cincinnatti…
From an article in the Cincinatti paper: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090403/NEWS01/904050303
“A 2008 study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a nonpartisan Washington study group, found that including wages and benefits, total compensation costs for local and state workers were 51 percent higher than those of private employees.”
WJ; Yes, you are a state employee. However, state institutional employees do not provide governmental services to the public. In my view, you are a civil servant and not a public servant. You do not work to serve the public, you work for UVA.
So Steve, what’s the big difference in your mind b/w a state employee who provides governmental services to the public (like a DMV employee, I guess) and a state employee who does some other thing? If both are being paid out of taxpayer money, why make that distinction? I don’t follow why it’s so important to your argument to have Waldo excluded from the category of public sector employment?
Oh, and as to hints that they’ll make up for the pay freeze in future raises…give me a break. I was here for the last pay freeze, and no, without a doubt, they did not play catch-up with our raises once that freeze was lifted.
Cecil; I’m not excluding WJ from anything. UVA is a separate entity under the state that does not provide public government services. It is more like a corporation. It has a CEO and a board of directors. It sells products. It chooses whom to do business with and collects fees for its products. It is nothing like DMV, VDOT, State Police, etc. These are state agencies that provide government services to the public. They don’t sell a product. They are not institutions that effectively govern themselves. People can actually choose not to do business with UVA. (Go VT :-)
But Steve, what’s the implication of this distinction you’re so intent on making? Is it merely a passion for correctness in the abstract? I’m asking because your first post on this thread said
“It really bugs me that government employees in general are a callous bunch. They’re only concerned with reaching the nirvana of full retirement and health benefits. It’s this false sense of entitlement that drives me crazy.”
And then, when Waldo replied to you thusly:
“I’m a government employee, and that doesn’t describe me at all. But, really, what you seem to be upset about is that these employees are substantially concerned with the well-being of themselves and their families. Which surely describes most workers, doesn’t it? Why should public sector employees be any different?”
that’s when you then went to work at extricating Waldo from the general category of “government employee,” as if it was really important to you that whatever credit might be granted to Waldo somehow NOT be granted to those *other* (presumably bad, callous, falsely feeling entitled) government employees. So what I’m curious about, ultimately, is you think it is about the OTHER category of government employee — the not-Waldos — that makes them so bash-able, so bad, so Other?
and may I just point out to everyone reading this thread that no one in the original DP story was “whining” about salaries being frozen? It was a report on facts. I particularly love Demopublican writing that it “bugs the heck out of me whenever I see any *mention* or whining about salaries being frozen.” Really — even a mention sets you off? That strikes me as so odd.
Cecil, I can only state what I have observed in my dealings with public service employees. And in my dealings, these employees work in a box. They don’t go outside of this box, because it may cause reifications to their advancement and/or employment. And, YES, this bugs me. It gives them a callous attitude towards the “public” that employs them.
I’m not excluding WJ per say. I’m excluding UVA. He just happens to work there. I firmly believe that ALL state institutional employees are not the same as those that work for city, county or state agencies. Which UVA is not one of.
Cecil, if you worked for UVA, then you would be excluded too.
reifications? How about ramifications.
In the case of the government employees of Albemarle, apparently the money is not in the proposed general fund to provide pay raises for county and county school employees. In the city, apparently the funds are not in the general fund to provide raises for the city employees. Apparently, for the city’s school system budget there is money in the operating fund for employee raises. For those who favor giving raises, how do you propose providing enough money in the general fund (operating fund) for raises and how much money do you propose should be allocated for raises? These are the questions that the governing bodies had to answer in order to give raises. The city’s school took an opposite approach to budget-building however. It’s staff put their raises in FIRST, then they allocated the rest of the projected appropriate to other areas.
I guess the city’s school board is a little smarter if not underhanded than most.
The school board did not create the budget, the staff did and it reflected the staff’s priorities. The school board merely rubberstamped it.
Is this the same staff that paid for a study that concluded there were too many teachers and not enough office staff? If so, I wonder if the raises are for the office staff and not the teachers.
The teacher pay scale will rise by 2.5%, the staff’s will rise by 1.5%. It will be interesting to watch the respective dynamics of the city and county budget process next year.
a bit of data to chew on
http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2009-04-09-compensation_N.htm
I guess for myself, it is the gap in benefits for public vs. choice of the private. Sure the private biz can raise its prices, but it cannot toss people into jail if they do not pay.
And the day that private biz gets as many holidays as government will be the day they end up going out of business…
Then, the irksome unending supply of taxes from all the different government bodies. Every little branch has its own, with paperwork, time and issues. Paying unemployment taxes even though I have never had an employee collect unemployment can be galling. Paying a litter tax…!
Of course, if I do not like the attitude of a customer I can always kick them out and do so with whatever I have on my mind…something I suspect MANY a government worker wishes they were able to do!
The city is pretty lean staff-wise IMHO, but the perks they do receive are enviable. I am curious how they would react if they had to fund 100% of their retirement, pay for 100% of their health insurance, get one week of vacation per year: unpaid, get three holidays off: unpaid, etc. etc.
Danpri, the city is not pretty lean staff wise. I will basically address just the two departments I am most familiar with.
First, the Police Department. They have so many people assigned to specialized duties now that there’s not enough cops left over to do what was once called “patrol”. To me, “patrol” was proactive, patroling the city, preventing crime before it took place. They now have just enough staff left in patrol to do nothing but respond to crimes that have already taken place. And I can tell you that all the senior patrol officers agreee with what I am saying. They simply can’t express their feelings in public.
The second is the City Sheriff’s Office. They have always had twice the staff they needed. The reason being that the sheriffs in the time frame of 1980 to 1995 created so many “doolittle” positions of rank it left few actually performing the duties they are responsible for. For every one deputy that is out in the feild performing the duties, there was one deputy of rank sitting around doing nothing. If you look on their web site right now you will 4 employees of rank….. a sheriff, a chief deputy sheriff, a sergeant and a corporal. And then you will see 4 deputies. This is why one of the current candidates running for sheriff, police Sgt. Phillip Brown, is confident he can do more for the community with the same current staff once he reorganizes the department.
The problem in the city is the fact that personnel isn’t managed properly. We’ve all seen Public Works crews out on location. You see 3 or 4 employees watching two employees doing all the work, and a supervisor or two watching them all. Another prime example of mismanagement is paying somebody $93,000 a year, plus benefits, to make press releases. Why can’t the individual department heads make press releases when need be? What are they getting paid for? Sitting around, chatting and drinking city provided coffee all day long?
Surely you know that the spokesman for a municipality does a great deal more than “make press releases.” It’s common for municipalities to have press representatives. There are a bunch of reasons for that. Reporters can eat up a lot of staff time gathering the news. Around budget time, the city manager might justifiably have no time to spare for a bunch of journalists. But that’s precisely when journalists need to have access to that information, on our behalf. In fact, if anybody on the city finance staff has the time to manage the press during the budget season, I have to wonder if they’re doing their job. Also, reporters can get the runaround without a single point of contact. Imagine that a reporter goes to the construction firm doing the Downtown Mall work with a question about construction waste. He says “talk to the city.” So the reporter goes to the city manager. But he’s busy. So he goes to procurement. They send him to public works. Public works sends him to the department of finance. Department of finance sends him back to procurement. Without one person whose job it is to get answers, the city can (intentionally or not) give the runaround to journalists who, again, are getting answers on our behalf. At least half of the time that I’ve tried to get answers from the city about things, in years past, that’s precisely how it went down. So we have a spokesman, one guy whose job it is to get answers.
One of the more significant acts of jackassery I’ve witnessed recently is Rob Schilling complaining on his blog and on his show about the city’s press guy participating in discussions about city matters on cvillenews.com. Schilling complains that he shouldn’t be participating on blogs, but only talking to media outlets. But I’m certain that if the opposite were true—if he’d refused to participate in a discussion here—that Schilling would have been kvetching that he’s a public employee, and that he’s obligated to answer public questions wherever they appear, and that he can’t just talk to the “MSM,” etc. On top of that, I guarantee you that Schilling has no more listeners each week than cvillenews.com has readers each week. Now, I can’t see how that’s relevant—having the city spokesman participate in a discussion on a local real estate blog seems like an awfully valuable thing, because of the opportunity to reach a specialized audience, number of readers be damned—but that’s part of Schilling’s logic.
I’m guessing—and maybe I’m going out on a limb here—that they’re running their departments.
Waldo, don’t get me wrong. I like the city spokesman, certainly more than I can say for the county spokeswoman. I know and like his family. They’re all good people. But I don’t approve of a $93,000 position just to make a reporter’s job easier.
The way I see it, if a department head refuses to answer a question posed by the media, the city manager or one of his many assistants needs to find time to look into it and provide an answer very quickly Furthermore, I feel any department head who is not capable enough or intelligent enough to make a press release has no business being a department head in the first place. I see a press spokesperson in any city or county as nothing more than a duplication of services. And in one county in Virginia that I shall not mention by name, it’s common knowledge the press spokesperson position was created by a department head for the department head’s “girlfriend”.
Any time I’ve ever driven past city or county public works employees, I see people working. I see some people holding up/managing the traffic while other guys are doing whatever the work is. I think it makes a convenient and familiar cartoon to talk about the three guys sitting and drinking coffee while the eight supervisors watch them, but in my ten years’ worth of driving around this town, I don’t see it.
Well, its there. Kinda like the guys at the office talking around the water cooler, or on the net, or stopping at someones desk to chit-chat.
But about the guys doing the physically demanding work. How many around this point are able to dig for 8 hours non-stop? Yeah it can be annoying to see, and I do see it around Cville, but do not think for a second that the desk or office bound workers hit the door and work non-stop with ZERO wasted time during their time.
Let’s pretend that we’ve done the math on the time that this requires from these individuals, and let’s pretend that it shows that, annually, it would require $100,000 worth of city resources for them to deal with press inquiries. Then would you think that it makes sense to pay somebody less than that sum to tackle press inquiries on behalf of the whole city? Or are you simply philosophically opposed to the existence of this position?
I for one don’t believe that the PR person comes up with the content of news releases and statements all by themselves. They typically start with boiler plate information and fluff it up with data from the departments. So, yes, paying an individual a $100K is a considerable cost for answering phones, collecting data, polishing data and returning phone calls.
Well, again, we are dealing with I consider to be a duplication of services. So due to that fact I guess I am opposed to the position. Perhaps the best example is the police department….. I don’t think I have ever seen Longo not have time to participate in requested press releases. Why does he have the time to do so, and yet all the other department heads won’t?
I’m guess I am also disturbed at the fact that perhaps the city press spokesperson doesn’t make the press releases that he should be making. A best example of this is the recent incidents involving the local courts. For example, in one case…. a felony escape in Circuit Court. The public was never even notifed the person was on the loose and a danger to the community, and certainly a danger to the witnesses who had put him behind bars. If we’re paying somebody $93,000 a year plus benefits, I would like to see the person voluntarily make press releases that involve public safety.
That position was not created by the city manager, it was created at the request of city council. Some councilors were upset that people were asking them questions on the street, on the phone, and by email and they complained that it was taking up too much of their time (espcially since they usually didn’t know the answer to the question anyway and had to refer the questioner to the staff). Actually, the general staff at that time was not authorized to represent the city; inquiries were to be filtered through the city manager’s office, thus, the Information and Referral’s phone number is 970-3101, which is in the city manager’s office still.
Once the city manager has gotten used to the luxury of not having to deal will general questions from the public, he hired an assistant city manager, not an assistant TO the city manager, to deal directly with the business community and now the city manager doesn’t have to answer anyboy’s questions and seldom does, even that of the councils. I am quite frankly opposed to both $100k posiions although I, too, like both individuals holding the positions. As long as either wants his position, the position will exist because all too often we have government by relationships.
The city has hired so many people over the last ten years, a consultant has recommended in its efficiency evaluation report that the city should hire a performance management analyst with a pay package of $120,000 (assistant city manager’s range)for the city’s performance management and measurement program to see if everyone is doing his work. A revealing article is at http://www.dailyprogress.com/cdp/news/local/article/council_considers_analyst_position_at_120000_cost/38397/. Since the budget will be voted on April 14, I’m not surprised that our most efficient city manager waited until last week to bring this proposal forward. Of course, council is all over the place in trying to find reasons to hire for this position. What it says to me is that the city manager can not tell if anyone is doing his job because the city manager isn’t on the job often enough himself. Now he’s taken on a part time job with some innovaton group.
City employee numbers according to the city manager:
1998 – 1999 City Manager’s Proposed Budget, there were 757 City employees (full time), in the 2002 – 2003 City Manager’s Proposed Budget, there were 891 City employees (full time), and In the 2008 – 2009 City Manager’s Proposed Budget, there were 930 City employees (full time). Where are the new residents in the city or the new projects that require an increase of 173 employees during this period? The county with 93,000 people as opposed to the 40,000 in the city has still fewer that 700 employees serving over 700 square miles as opposed less than 11 square miles in the city.
@Steve, he also has to attend an extraordinary amount of meetings to gather information first hand during the discussions between staff, discussions between committe members, and discussions between staff and council, at least that was in the original proposal for the position.
@demopublican, covering the courts was never in his job description that I know of and I doubt if he knew of the incident during the time it was happening and probably nobody contacted him to do anything. Longo is a good example of the city’s not needing (as opposed to wanting) that position.
CVille Eye, if your city employment numbers are accurate, and they seem to be, it’s a very sad commentary on the manner in which the City of Charlottesville is being managed.
Another interesting fact, the numbers as presented probably don’t include all the sub-contractors the city has now hired as well. Trash collection is a fine example. I also heard the city is sub-contracting lawn care at cemeteries now too. I wonder what other sub-contractors aren’t included in the official city numbers?
There’s also positions in the city that are funded by the state. I wonder if they are included in the 930 count above?
So, just to be clear, you’re saying that even if it’s actually cheaper for the city to have a press rep than not to, you’re still opposed to it on philosophical grounds?
My apologies if it sounds like I’m either splitting hairs or repeating myself, I’m just trying to understand.
Demopublican, they’re not my numbers, they can from the proposed budget documents of those years. I found the in the City Profile section, p.87 for the 1998-9, p.77 for the 2002-3, and p. 106 of the 2009-10.
I am not sure what comprises these numbers. I do know that the departmental budgets contain an item labeled FTE which stands for full time equivalent. So, thre people make count as 1 FTE if the total of hours for the year is the same as that of 1 full time employee. This way part time employees and temporary employees can be counted. If the funds from the state and federal sources used to pay employees appear with in the budget document, then that employee should appear within the document if the city cuts the check. Therefore, contractual workers would not be counted if they worked on the Mall bricking for example, but the CDBG staffer would be (I believe).
People choose to ignore these numbers then criticize people like Ken Boyd of the county when he talks about government staffing. The county should be thankful that they are not emulating the city.
IMPACT has demanded that the city and county set up some kind of rental office staffed by some kind of ombudsman but I don’t know if that position is included in either’s budget. Exactly what that position can do with privately owned apartments I have no idea, but these people seem to sit around brainstorming as to how other people can be made to fund their projects.
Waldo, all I am saying is that I don’t believe the cost for duplicating services can ever be justified. And rather than my repeatedly beating up one just one employee, let me be clear in saying I don’t see why the city or county need a press spokesperson to do the same job a department head can do. It wasn’t that many years ago that the city and county managed fine without having to duplicate services. And of course I feel a press spokesperson is just the tip of the iceburg in dealing with unwarranted waste in the city and county governments in my opinion.
(Without looking back I don’t even recall why I picked those positions out to be used as an example of the wasteful spending and hiring out of control.)
Well, in this day and age the idea of 100K in salary and bennies seems a bit high for someone just collecting data and giving it to the press.
Really, anyone with a modicum of sense and intelligence can do this sort of thing. Its not like we do not have LOTS and LOTS of journalists, with experience looking for a nice 50K job….
“Leslie Beauregard
Director, Budget and
Performance Management”
If she’s being paid a director’s salary and O’Connell is trying to hire a performance management analyst with a pay package of $120K, what is her pay package? If the new analyst takes over her duties (there’s no job description yet), will she take a cut in salary? Will the new analyst be placed under her as is “Ryan Davidson
Budget & Utilities Analyst.”
Public Communicators:
The assistant city manager “Mr. Jones is charged with Citizen Engagement and Neighborhood relations.” “Ric Barrick Director of Communications,” “Joe Rice
TV10 Program Director,” “David Dillehunt
TV10 Broadcast Specialist.” All of these positions have been created with in the last ten years. With all of this communicating going on, how did the softball players miss hearing about the discarding of the softball fields? Because they obviously don’t read Charlottesville Tomorrow.
http://www.dailyprogress.com/cdp/news/local/article/city_to_explore_ghana_partnership/38645/#When:04:01:33Z
This is why our city needs so many employees, they spend their time on these matters. Since there are rare reports of people’s seeing O’Connell, maybe he’s hiring all of these people to do his job, so that he can devote himself to the endeavors spelled out in the article.
For Cecil or anyone else who doubts that city crews do indeed stand around doing nothing, I will gladly send you a few of the photos that I took on 1/3/2006. It wasn’t even a Friday! (As a teenager, I worked on a similar crew in another small town. Our 6 man crew did virtually nothing on Fridays.)
That day, there was a public works crew right up the street from my house and in easy view from my window. They did a little work on filling in an excavation and broke for lunch somewhere around 11:15. I’m not sure exactly what time they returned, but when they did, they just stood around leaning on their rakes talking. After about 20 minutes of watching them stand there and do nothing, I started to wonder how long they would continue. I got my camera and took my first photo at 1:21. For more than an hour, they essentially did nothing at all but talk among themselves and to to a series of 3 other city employees who stopped by to join in.
The first guy who joined just pulled over for a while and talked from his truck. He didn’t stay too long, because another city truck came up behind. When he moved on, the next driver got out and stood there with the crew on the job. He stayed until it someone who appeared to be mid-level management stopped. He stirred them for an instant or two, and the guy from truck 2 got in his truck and left. I expected guy 3 to finally get the job going again, but then it quickly became obvious that he was just there to join in the conversation himself. Hands went back in pockets and the jabbering went right on.
I too 15 photos until they left at 2:35. When they went, they left their trash in the form of chip wrappers and drink bottles sitting in a muddy mess. Three men on the job with a backhoe had managed to do virtually nothing for several hours(not much really happened before lunch either). Three additional city employees had managed to collective waste among themselves at least another man-hour.
A neighbor with connections in City Hall came by and called someone he knew to plead for something to be done to stop the inevitable erosion problem the crew had left behind. He was firmly and repeatedly told “no” despite his description of the scene and of what was happening to my creek and to the river. His repeated insistence that the City ought to being setting an example of environmental responsibility got him nowhere. The cost of having a crew do the appropriate work was apparently the issue. Oddly though, there seemed to have been money to pay a crew to do nothing.
The field of mud continued to wash into my yard and from there into the Rivanna for days without even a bale of straw placed to control the erosion. That was on top of the already tremendous amount of silt they had dumped into my yard in the preceding week. The situation was far beyond anything I could do to contain it myself. More than three years later, and after a considerable amount of effort on my part, I’m still working on undoing the damage I suffered from a single City managed job.
Neither that attitude towards environmental issues nor to work were at all uncommon then. I have witnessed and occasionally photographed very similar things in several different instances. I haven’t done that lately, but I have no reason to believe that anything has changed recently.
Wait.. I want to make sure I’m understanding this.
A city spokesman gets $93,000, and the mayor gets $12,000? That just seems .. wrong.
And I’m reading this, and it goes on to say how the City Council / Mayor’s positions are part time:
http://www.readthehook.com/discoverCharlottesville/government.aspx
which to me just also seems wrong. Now, I’m not saying this for or against Mayor Norris, who I’ve only met once and had a couple discussions with, it just seems to me that if we’re trying to spend money wisely to run the city, that making the Mayor gig desirable for talented organizers/planners would be a good start.
Again, nothing for or against the current Mayor, but whoever it is should be compensated to the point where it’s a full-time gig.. it baffles me that the Mayor position is part-time.
@Chad Day, so is our General Assembly, part-time and ill-paid. Not baffling when you think about the inevitable consequence of keeping folks who have to work full time for an employer other than a really flexible employer or who are not independently wealthy or supported by a spouse or other family from having any realistic opportunity to try to run for one of these positions or if they do run and win, being able to afford to keep the position.
We have a full time person with a Masters in Administration managing the city since 1995, why would we also want a full time politician with term limits to also run the city which is less that 11 sq. mi. in area? What does a politician know about devising and managing a $142M budget when he probably has never manager $100k in his life and that was his own money. What does a politician know about managing staff when most of them hire a staff manager themselves while in office? How much of the politician’s time will be devoted to actually managing multi-million dollar projects and how much will go towards campaigning? How many cities (Charlottesville actually qualifies to be classified as a town) that have a mayoral form of government have not been plagued by charges of graft, nepotism, or other forms of corruption? These mayors usually have to have a paid “cabinet” of experts advisors to help the mayor control the staff because the staff is constantly trying to work around some buffoon whose incompetence often leads the city into debt. Charlottesville once had a mayoral form of government and found it to be severely lacking.
louis schultz, that’s exactly what I am talking about. I guess Cecil doesn’t realize this isn’t the type of thing you get to witness as you ride by in traffic. You have to make a concentrated effort to stop and watch for a while.
@cville eye That’s partially my point.. if the salary is desirable, you would get candidates who had backgrounds in those kinds of fields, I would imagine.
And the comparison to corruption in other ‘mayoral’ towns.. not a week goes by here where I don’t see some allegation of pandering, nepotism, incompetence, corruption, etc. Is what we have really that much better?
@Chad Davy “And the comparison to corruption in other ‘mayoral’ towns.. not a week goes by here where I don’t see some allegation of pandering, nepotism, incompetence, corruption, etc.”
But they’re all coming from ME! :) I make those allegations to remind the city officials that they should obey the spirit of the Equal Protection Clause by applying their policies equitably and thus avoid possible scenarios of corruption or the appearance.
And no, most people with backgrounds in city management are currently managing cities or retiredd. If they’re not then they are looking to get hired as a city manager rather than be elected by popular whim as mayor.
Thank you, Louis, for your documentation of what’s obvious to many. But this is the comment section- you don’t have to document an opinion that differs from an undocumented opinion. Govt employees are a “callous bunch”. The 2 biggest differences between public and private employees: (1) public employees don’t pay taxes. They are paid from taxes. Public employee pay stub is an accounting gimmick. Private employees pay the taxes that go into the pay check of a public employee. (2) Public employee’s pay is taken from private employees by force at the point of a gun. If you don’t pay, an officer with a gun shows up.
@ Waldo
Puh-lease. So you’re saying for-profit and non-profit are equally greedy? and govt-funded scientists and private sector scientists are equally dishonest? I’m glad to see you’ve change your worldview.
Greedy? Scientists? As usual, Blair, nobody but you has the faintest idea of what you’re talking about.
Maybe they should start producing the city TV shows again. That’ll keep those Comm. guys busy. It used to be two different shows; one new show a week…very ambitious and tough on the staff. But hey, they won a couple of national awards to go in Gary’s office.
Imagine O’Connell asking Council to approve now his hiring of a $120,000 position but not finding out what the position is actually supposed to do until some time in May. I was saddened to see that Holly Edwards wanted to go along with it, but the others apparently didn’t. This is the first Council that has actually stood up to O’Connell since David Toscano’s tenure and he didn’t do much of that his last year on Council.
I thought this was a thread about County spending. Man there are a few on here that just like to follow the leader. Consider who you are following before you invest so much time. First of all, the Communications guy with the City does so much more than you all give him credit for and why you are focusing on his position shows who you are listening and marching to. Why try to bring people down when you can try to be part of a positive solution? You have a choice in life to be the constant complainers and closet negative force or spend some of your energy creating change as you see it. Seriously, this is not doing anyone any good to have a conversation of several constant blog participants who have a personal grudge against a City Manager, take some time to learn how to work with people sharing opposite views enlightening the rest of us. We may not agree with you but at least you show your faces and we can participate in your debate.
@”SanityinCville” I couldn’t agree with you more except for the handle you chose….which is divisive in itself….but I agree that working with people with opposing views is very inportant so will agree with the content of your coment despite your equation of sanity with “good”.
This is not a view, it is a conversation on public spending in a recession.
anityinCville what is your identity? Did you include a photo?
“…who has a grudge against a City Manager” I do not criticize the City Manager I criticize his performance. I don’t know him personally.
anityinCville what I would like to know from you is what is it that I have said that isn’t true?
When it comes to tax money I am forced to pay it or lose my property. Being in that position may not bother me, but it sure as heck bothers when that money is used to employ a bunch of people so that others don’t have to do their jobs. anityinCville must be young with no children and no mortgage.
BTW, please tell us what the Director of Communications does that we haven’t mentioned that you feel the tax payers should pay for.
Let’s see…I can take a crack at that one. I think he and his assistant on a regular day-in, day-out basis do things like:
1. Liaison with local media and others including citizens who call in regarding inquiries, issues, policy questions, etc.
2. Organize any press conferences, including making of media kits, press releases, etc.
3. Write other press releases on an ad hoc basis.
4. Help City Manager et al. with direction regarding interaction with public and media.
4. Write and publish City Notes.
5. Daily update and managing of the City’s website.
6. Run the Public and Gov. Access TV station.
7. Write and do voiceovers for PSAs and radio/TV spots.
8. Help Council Members with their communication needs.
9. Assist Clerk of Council with her communication needs.
10. Organize many Special Events.
11. Help School Central Office with “some” of their communication needs.
12. Write and design in-house brochures, newsletters, ads, flyers, etc.
13. Conduct interviews for news stories/articles with city Dept. Heads.
14. Attend many committee meetings and group functions often “after hours”.
That’s all I could think of off the top of my head. Of course my memory isn’t as good as it used to be. But all in all, more than a full-time job for two people. Plus, IMHO a “World Class” city does need an on-the-ball “official” spokesperson. And I think we’ve got that.
1. Liaison with local media and others including citizens who call in regarding inquiries, issues, policy questions, etc.
The function used to handled by the Information and Referral desk and designees in each department.
2. Organize any press conferences, including making of media kits, press releases, etc.
3. Write other press releases on an ad hoc basis.
#2 and 3 should be combined. Everyone knows that these press conferences are used solely for the purpose of putting City Hall spin on a particular position held by government and does not really give the public any information, just opinions. If City Hall is issuing press releases why does it need to have press conferences?
4. Help City Manager et al. with direction regarding interaction with public and media.
The City Manager et al. have been doing this for years without any complaints and I doubt if they need any help now. The chiefs of Police and Fire, and the directors of Public Works and Negibhorhood Development still get out in front of the camera without any help.The Registrar could do it professionally hersel. The rest rarely interact with the press and answer questions in their offices.
4. Write and publish City Notes.
Ah, the City Notes. You mean the monthly flyer that goes in the water bill? The Clerk of Council performed that duty admirably for years until this department was created and she dumped that unpleasant task there.
5. Daily update and managing of the City’s website.
I have seen no evidence of this. Each department used to be responsible for updating its section.
6. Run the Public and Gov. Access TV station.
Isn’t that what Rice and HIS assistant do or are they part of the Communications department and that’s why it needs an expensive director?
7. Write and do voiceovers for PSAs and radio/TV spots.
When and how often has this been done? What public service announcement does the city need to put out? Do you mean the ads for the bus system? Is this just make-work since the staff is there?
8. Help Council Members with their communication needs.
They didn’t need any help when they were campaigning. Do you mean that David Brown has enlisted this crew to answer his email? Or, is this covered by #1?
9. Assist Clerk of Council with her communication needs.
She’s the Council’s secretary! She should be able to help Council communicate. Or does this mean he’s taking over more of her work other than the City Notes?
10. Organize many Special Events.
What important “Special Events” does the City have other than Services Day? Does the public need to pay for it?
11. Help School Central Office with “some” of their communication needs.
Cass Cannon is paid full time for that. She used to do the same for the City. She left and the position rose to that of Director along with the salary.
12. Write and design in-house brochures, newsletters, ads, flyers, etc.
If it’s in-house, why don’t they just use email?
13. Conduct interviews for news stories/articles with city Dept. Heads.
How often is this done? Do we really need to pay for this spin?
14. Attend many committee meetings and group functions often “after hours”. Isn’t that for the purpose of information gathering?
“Of course my memory isn’t as good as it used to be. But all in all, more than a full-time job for two people.”
Yes, and I have shown there are more than two people doing it. It seems a lot of what he’s doing has been shoved off on his desk simply because he’s there. If he wasn’t it would go back to being on somebody else’s desk. Since according to the proposed budgets over a ten-year period from 1998 to 2008 , the city’s number of employees rose from 757 to 930 ( 173)employees, I’m sure that these duties could be shoved off on many desks.
“Plus, IMHO a “World Class” city does need an on-the-ball “official” spokesperson. And I think we’ve got that.” I agree Barrick is On-the-ball; however, I know that Charlottesville is not a “World Class City,” (whatever that means) and I don’t see where a $93k/year expenditure is needed for it. Does the “World Class” cities of Waynesboro, Staunton, Lynchburg and Harrisonburg also shell out that kind of money for those services? It is a position and department that never should have been created. It is now housed in the City Manager’s office.
The world class city of Harrisonburg spends a lot more per capita on mental health services/their CSB than the World Class city of Charlottesville.
But I am still uncomfortable with seeming to pick on one person in our community’s job and livelihood. Talking about waste in general is one thing, pointing fingers at one person’s job seems like something else especially since you keep saying he does a good job. It would be different if you thought he was doing a horrible job or actually damaging the community in some way, but you don’t. So why go on and on about the job of one member of our community in this way?
And again, why focus on government employees as if in these days they were the only ones whose salaries are being paid by taxpayers? Citibank anyone?
Thanks, Waldo. When I come across a comment I don’t understand, I just skip over it. I don’t presume to speak for everyone. I simply interpreted your statement to mean that public and private employees are equal in every way… in contrast to your views espresed in your McCarthy campaign against Pat Michaels. Thanks again. If it’s obvious I don’t know what I’m talking about as usual, no need to state the obvious.