Throughout the past few months, the City of Charlottesville has concentrated on drafting a budget that balances the need for increased and improved services with the realities of the current economic situation.
After creating new public outreach programs, new environmental initiatives and a so-called rainy-day fund, Mayor Dave Norris said he is confident in the city’s ability to sustain its economic stability.
“The last three and a half months, we have focused overwhelmingly on the budget, just trying to figure out how to put together a budget that will maintain basic services in a very difficult economic time,” he said.
Vice Mayor Julian Taliaferro said the city did not have to cut any services or city employees when forming the budget plan and was still able to set aside $2.8 million for the economic downturn fund.
“I suspect, that if you look anywhere else in the commonwealth it would be hard to find another area in Virginia that didn’t have to lay people off or cut services,” he said.
Norris also noted that the city’s unemployment rate is still lower than the national average though it has doubled during the past year.
Taliaferro said he was pleased with City Council’s efforts in creating a new budget plan, attributing the budget’s success to “good financial management practices that have been utilized by both City Council and city staff.”
Still, despite Taliaferro’s confidence in the city’s budget, he said he felt “like next year may be worse.” Nevertheless, he remains hopeful.
“I have dealt with the Charlottesville budget for 40 years and we have always come out okay and we will come out okay again,” he said.
Looking at the many projects and initiatives Council hopes to see through this year, Norris, however, said he is optimistic even with the effects of the economic downturn. He said he has seen signs of the local economy beginning to turn around.
“I have heard a few realtors saying sales have been picking up in terms of home buying, which is a good sign of economic vitality,” he said, adding that several new businesses plan to open in the downtown area.
The city’s budget will fund several community outreach programs that Council will implement in the coming months, including projects geared toward young people such as the summer youth employment program, Norris said. The program aims to provide the city’s disadvantaged youth with summer apprenticeships that will expose them to the work place and teach them steps to become successful.
The program has doubled each summer during the past three years, allowing 80 high school students and 40 middle school students to participate in it this summer. The program will also provide 20 students with a chance to continue the apprenticeship throughout the school year, Norris said.
The city also plans to start a new workforce development initiative geared toward high school students in the coming year. Council plans to hold programs that will expose students to different job sectors, including the health care industry, “which is one sector of our economy that is growing and there are jobs to be had,” Norris said.
The city will not only reach out to its youth through education programs, but will try to engage them through other creative opportunities as well. The city hopes to create a program to work with high school students who live in public housing in a summer program about urban design. Norris said the students in the program will “be actively participating in a very informed way about the best way to redevelop these neighborhoods.”
Educational outreach extends beyond the city’s young people. Council is working to provide scholarship assistance to low wage and low skilled workers to go toward classes at Piedmont Virginia Community College or other training opportunities in which they can build their skills and get a better paying job. Norris said this type of financial assistance will allow city residents from lower-income backgrounds “to climb the economic ladder.”
In addition to community outreach, the city hopes to create a faster planning process for the revitalization of the city’s public housing neighborhoods, Norris said.
“It is going to entail an extensive process of engaging residents of public housing and other key stake holders to talk about how they would like to see their neighborhoods improved,” he said.
Sustainability also continues to be a goal for Council. Norris noted that the city will continue working to increase the overall tree canopy from 32 percent to at least 40 percent. Norris hopes to engage the community in this environmental effort by working with neighborhood associations, developers, school children and garden clubs. He added he hopes he can convince developers to remove less trees during construction and encourage them to plant two trees for each tree that is removed.
Taliaferro said Council also has some energy saving initiatives that it will continue to implement in the near future. These programs “play off in the long term financial plan and also helps the environment and improves the community,” he said.
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