Decision Due on School Funding (VA)

May 20, 2010

Martinsville City Council on Tuesday will decide whether to let the city schools carry over into the new fiscal year about $225,000 that school officials expect to have left from the current year, which ends June 30.

Also on that day, city residents will be able to tell the council their opinions on the city’s proposed budget for fiscal 2011, which will start July 1.

Those decisions were made during the council’s last budget work session Wednesday night. A session planned Monday night was canceled after city officials determined they did not need it.

The schools are set to receive $5,826,394 in city funds during the coming fiscal year. That is $612,857 less than they got in the current budget year.

Scott Kizner, superintendent of the schools, has said that if the schools can carry the leftover money into the new year, it will be used to reinstate three of 52 positions to be cut for the new year, as well as to add a new position.

The positions would basically serve at-risk children, officials said.

Kizner has said it would take $225,423 to fund those positions.

A public hearing on the budget proposal is set for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the start of the council’s regular semimonthly meeting. The hearing will be held in the city circuit courtroom at the municipal building uptown — which has more space than the council chamber — in case a large crowd shows up.

The council’s resolve to decide Tuesday whether the schools can carry forth their leftover funds was spurred by Councilman Gene Teague, who recognized that they need to proceed in notifying teachers who will lose their jobs.

“The sooner we can get it (a decision), the better,” said Pam Heath, the schools’ executive director of accreditation, human resources and policy development.

Heath said some school employees are under the impression they may lose their jobs when they actually may not.

She understands that those workers are considering resigning and “we don’t want to lose them” if their jobs do not have to be eliminated, she said.

Also at Wednesday night’s budget session, the council took no action on a request by city Commissioner of the Revenue Ruth Easley for $4,555.

That amount equals a 2 percent pay increase the city gave constitutional office workers about two years ago. But the extra money would go only to her employees — not to her, Easley emphasized.

Like other constitutional offices, the commissioner’s office is facing state funding cuts. Easley said she did not request money from the city for fiscal 2011 reflecting the pay raises two years ago out of concern for the city’s budget woes, which largely stem from anticipated revenue declines.

However, she said her staff will see 5.5 furlough days in the new fiscal year due to state budget cuts, which is 1.5 more days of unpaid leave than other city employees will have to take, plus higher health insurance premiums that other city workers also face.

“Basically, they’re taking a twofold hit,” she said of her staff. “My employees are really getting hammered.”

Easley did not express disappointment that the council did not give her an answer. While she acknowledged the city’s budget crunch, she said she also knew she had no chance of getting the money if she did not ask for it.

Some council members indicated they may propose changes to the budget proposal on Tuesday, but they first want to hear what the public has to say about the spending plan.

Also on Wednesday night, the council learned that the city’s furlough day planned for the current fiscal year due to its budget crunch will be held on May 28 to coincide with Memorial Day weekend.

The day also coincides with one that the state imposed on constitutional office employees. Local constitutional offices are mandated by the state.

City Human Resources Director Donna Odell said the city will save a total of $35,905 for each furlough day that occurs.

All city government offices will be closed May 28. City employees who have to work that day to provide essential services, such as police officers and firefighter s, will have their furlough days scheduled at different times before the end of the current fiscal year, officials said.

City Sheriff Steve Draper learned during the budget work session that some of his deputies may be driving their city-issued vehicles when they should not be doing so.

Mayor Kathy Lawson said the complaint she hears most frequently from city residents is that employees seem to be driving city vehicles when they are on personal business, including driving to secondary jobs.

An example she cited was off-duty sheriff’s deputies who provide security at Kroger.

“I thought that (practice) had been eliminated” a long time ago, Draper said, obviously surprised. He added that if it is continuing, he will stop it.