Minutes 03/30/1999 - Laserfiche WebLink

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March 30, 1999 The budget also provides additional funding for employee tuition assistance along with a change in policy that will allow employees to be compensated for as many as two courses a semester with tuition paid by the City up front rather than reimbursed. Retirees Finally, we are recommending the continuation of funding of past cost of living increases for City retirees, as well as an additional increase of 1.6 percent in the coming fiscal year, which is a number equal to that given by the Virginia Retirement System, and which tracks with the current rate of inflation. Investment in Employees Summary As promised as we began the budget preparation process, we are assigning the highest priority in this budget to continuing adjustments in the pay plan for all City employees to ensure fair compensation and competitiveness in the marketplace. As noted above, meeting this priority does not come without cost. For example, as noted above, we have reinstituted the hiring delay that was used at the beginning of the current fiscal year, we are recommending no new positions in this budget, and we are foregoing needed equipment purchases. Thus, we will be asking employees to work even harder in the coming year to help cover these shortcomings, with the understanding that their compensation has come first. PUBLIC EDUCATION Nothing is more important to the vitality of a city than public education. Indeed, education has an impact in various ways on all three of City Council's spheres of success: neighborhood quality, economic development and fiscal strength. The Schools are particularly of fiscal importance to the City government, since half of our local revenues go toward financing our public education system. While the City government has a financial responsibility to provide funding for the Schools, the City is limited in its ability to provide funding priorities for the Schools. Under law, that responsibility rests entirely with the elected School Board and its appointed School Administration. Although the City is sensitive to the needs put forth by the School Board, it can only provide funding within the context of other needs and local revenues available. The City also recognizes that public education is a very complex and often emotional subject, especially for families with children in the schools. Although the Schools obviously provide classroom instruction, they also are in the transportation business, the food service business, the facilities maintenance business, the varsity and intramural sports business, and so forth. As with the City, the key to the future of the Schools lies in the School Board's ability to maintain balance and integrity in the overall system, including physical plant, educational and other programs, teaching and other personnel, administration and organization, etc.