The University’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service presented a quality of service and efficiency study to Charlottesville City Council last week to help the city handle the current economic recession.
Center Director John P. Thomas said his organization oversaw the research through the Virginia Institute of Government program, which is designed to help local governments.
“What the study has done is pinpoint areas where the city can either save, add revenue or take away expenses for the city to better handle the current economic downturn,” study team leader Brad Hammer said.
One change the study recommended, which Hammer said city officials strongly agreed with, is to “try to develop the capacity within the city itself to try to provide jobs to U.Va. graduates.”
Hammer said the city could do this by working with local companies who look to hire younger employees to create job opportunities.
Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris said this recommendation did more than answer the question of how the city can be efficient on a day-to-day operational basis; it also addressed the issue of how Charlottesville can position itself strategically to become a more viable place for people to do business, he said.
West Main Street and Preston Avenue are “ideally situated for the kind of creative, in-fill development” that could attract new businesses and residential development and could give opportunities for people “to live and work and play in the same neighborhood, which is what a lot of people are looking for these days,” Norris said.
The study also evaluated Charlottesville’s human services program. While the study found that the city’s human services program is dedicated to the service it provides, the study recommended that Council regularly evaluate the program, Hammer said. He added that he thought the city should compare its human services program against the best practices across the country so that the city is “current with the best practices in both adult and juvenile programs.”
While noting that it was beneficial to have a neutral third party conduct an efficiency study of the city, Norris said the study did not sufficiently address the issue of poverty in Charlottesville.
“They said we spend a lot of money on programs for the poor and that that shows that we’re a compassionate community and should pat ourselves on the back for it,” Norris said. “We’re not interested in maintaining people in poverty ... We’re interested in moving people out of poverty and that is a different mindset, so I think there’s more work to be done in that regard.”
Other recommendations made by researchers included increasing the personal property tax nominally from 4.2 percent to 4.28 percent so that the city’s rate matches Albemarle County’s. That change would yield between $150,000 and $200,000 in added nominal revenue, the report stated. The report also suggested increasing parking ticket fees from $15 to $30, which would generate $100,000 to $150,000 during the year immediately following such a change.
Hammer added, however, that overall the city is in excellent financial shape. Attributing the city’s more stable economy to its closeness with the University, he said he does not expect to see the current recession affect Charlottesville for another year and a half.
In addition to Hammer, the research team’s other members included former Colonial Heights City Manager Robert Taylor and former Waynesboro City Manager Doug Walker. Norris said Council decided last year that it wanted to bring in an outside group to review city operations.
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