Minutes 03/31/2009 - Laserfiche WebLink

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March 31. 2009 At a Called Meeting of the City Council on Tuesday, March 31, 2009, there were present: Mayor James W. Holley III, Vice Mayor William E. Moody, Jr., Charles B. Whitehurst, Sr., Marlene W. Randall, Stephen E. Heretick, Elizabeth M. Psi mas, Douglas L. Smith, City Manager Kenneth L. Chandler. 09 - 176 - The following call for the meeting was read: "Please attend a Called Meeting of the City Council to be held in the City Council Chamber, 801 Crawford Street, 6:00 p.m., Tuesday, March 31, 2009 for the purpose of the proposed Operating and Capital Improvement Plan Budgets. In addition, you may consider a motion to go into a Closed Meeting. By order of the Mayor." 09 - 177 - The following item was discussed in Public Work Session: 1. Presentation of Proposed Operating Budget and Capital Improvement Plan by Kenneth L. Chandler, City Manager Introduction Collaboration continues to be our hallmark uniting ordinary people towards a common vision for extraordinary service to the citizens of the City of Portsmouth. The essence of collaboration coupled with our principles civic engagement and transparency establish a spirit where Together Everyone Achieves More (TEAM). With this same spirit we offer the collective thoughts of this Administration for your consideration in the proposed FY2010-2011 Biennial Budget. The recommended balanced budget for FY10 is $563,409,039 and $566,718,568 for FY11. This recommended budget further represents our commitment to strong financial management practices despite the recent down-turn of our national, state, and local economies. Although we are directly impacted by declining local tax revenues and significantly reduced aid from the Commonwealth of Virginia, the recommended budget is balanced without the use of fund balance. Further, this is the first year in recent history for biennial budgeting for Portsmouth; FY10 budget is appropriated by Council and FY11 will be approved by Council as an operating plan, just as the City's multi-year capital improvement plan includes an appropriation of the first year and approval of the subsequent four years. Budget Theme The theme, "Sustaining our obligations in a sea of uncertainty" has been selected to reflect who we are as a city with respect to our financial DNA cast in a setting of a declining global economy second only to the Great Depression in United States history. Our financial DNA In our 250 plus year history our locality has evolved from a Town to a City and experienced population increases, declines, and now projections for increase again. Regardless of our historical trends, we still remain one of the most fiscally stressed, densely populated localities in the central core of America' s First Region, Hampton Roads. Diminishing financial resources needed to sustain the traditional quality of life expectations of public education, public safety, and transportation infrastructure necessitated the need to implement unprecedented cost cutting measures uncommon to local governments in Virginia. Where we realize that the pendulum swing of the global economy does little to enhance the financial DNA of the City, the scarcity of financial resources has bound our City Council, our Administration, and our citizens in a partnership, not always by choice, but necessity to sustain an adequate quality of life. The use of strategic planning and calculated risk taking strategies continue to be deployed in an effort to maximize our service delivery while shielding us from the potential financial, human, and catastrophic liabilities all localities may experience.