Minutes 03/21/2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

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March 21. 2006 Funding City Council Priorities All of the work performed in our city government is to support and implement the City Council's Vision Statement that was adopted in January 2005. Subsequently, City Council designated 17 priorities and 47 Vision projects. This budget continues to focus and execute tasks in the pursuit of these goals. Our budget preparation process for FY07 actually began with City Council's adoption of the FY06 budget. We have attempted to align our work with each of City Council's six Vision themes in order to address major issues and concerns, broaden the involvement of our citizens through public dialogue, and make major decisions as early in the year as possible. As City Council made these decisions, they became the foundation and focus for the development of this budget proposal. The following thematic areas further demonstrate the process we followed and the outcomes achieved in several major areas. Commitment to Education The City Council and School Board along with the City Manager, School Superintendent and both organizations' staffs have worked together all year. Both our Education Committee and the School Finance Committee met monthly to discuss education and financial issues in order to ensure a true partnership in addressing educational and financial concerns and the development of these educational budget recommendations. The development of a three-year master plan addressing teacher salaries, modernizing school facilities and improving the student achievement scores is the result of our collective efforts throughout the year. We have jointly established a funding formula, and this budget holds true to that formula. Last year, the City fully funded the Superintendent's budget request, at the level of 30.1 percent, and I am recommending in this year's budget that we increase the percentage to 32 percent in FY07, making us well on the way toward achieving our goal of 35 percent by FY08. This budget increase should enable our school leaders to implement the second year of the three-year compensation increases to make Portsmouth teacher salaries competitive in the market. The Capital Improvements Program budget includes continuing funding for modernizing school facilities, particularly the renovation and addition to Highland Biltmore Elementary School, the construction of the new Park View Elementary School, and the addition of 20,000 square feet to the Portsmouth Campus of the Tidewater Community College for our School System's "First College" program. This program allows our high school students to enroll and take college courses for college credit while still in high school. This is a unique program that prepares our high school graduates for success in higher education. Investing in Our Employees In today's knowledge economy, our employees are clearly our most important assets, and this budget continues our goal of providing compensation, technology, and training that will improve our work force. In last year's budget message, I recommended an employee pay study that would take a comprehensive look at our compensation package, including salaries and benefits. We formed an Employee Pay Advisory Committee composed of two members of City Council and representatives of City departments and offices. Last December, the committee recommended increasing general wages by 5 percent, addressing compression, and adjusting pay ranges so that none of our starting salaries would be less than 90 percent of the market.