Minutes 03/31/2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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March 31, 2014 The Churchland Primary and Intermediate School is one of the five schools that we propose to use as a recreation facility. Although the gym on this school is new, the gym floor is polished concrete and not adequate for league basketball. We propose to install a wooden gym floor with the capital funds. Our athletic programs will focus on the goal of increasing participation in both adult and youth leagues by 10 times the current level. We will do this through active community involvement, parent training classes, and increasing access to playing fields and gymnasiums city-wide. We will continue to encourage participation in basketball, football, baseball and soccer, and we will partner with the Schools' First Tee program to encourage youth golf leagues at City Park as well as offer sailing, summer swimming, and crew leagues. We will deliver programs throughout each of the City that are designed to engage the community such as: how to start a league sports team, or how to establish a civic league, or core curriculum tutoring with School collaboration, and youth mentoring. Communities cannot thrive without businesses, and we are excited to begin a partnership with our community businesses to offer programs such as automotive repair or targeted home repair classes at our recreation centers. We create synergy in a community when our neighbors have opportunities to get to know each other. Recreation is one way to increase those opportunities, but entertainment is another. Our Parks and Recreation Department will increase the number of events that we offer our citizens, and it will re-energize Portside with a regular schedule of music and food throughout the summer, featuring local talent and restaurants. The beauty of this recreation initiative is that it utilizes our school facilities, improves the condition of existing facilities, and adds programs across the City for the enjoyment for all our citizens. As such, it is a very cost effective way of jump starting a city-wide network of neighborhood programs and facilities. With this budget, we celebrate the very core of what makes Portsmouth a great place to call home by our investment in our neighborhoods, parks, and recreation. Raises for Employees and Retirees This budget proposes a two percent increase for general wage employees, to include our "permanent" part-time employees, effective July 1, 2014. We are including funds for this increase for Constitutional Officers and their employees; however, we recommend holding those funds back until the General Assembly and the Governor finalize the State Budget. Once we know what level of raises the State is funding, then I will bring back before Council a recommendation to give the Constitutional Officers and their employees a raise. The budget also continues the step increases for Sworn Police and Fire employees, and it includes a one percent Cost of Living increase for retirees of the Portsmouth Supplemental Retirement System and Fire & Police plans. We will continue to study the relationship of the competitiveness of our pay plan with the start of Fiscal Year 2014-2015, and we will provide you with the results and recommendations of our study during the course of the budget year. Quality Service Delivery As part of this budget, we are recommending disbanding the Mounted Patrol Unit. This unit was designed to supplement foot, bicycle, and vehicle patrols in crowd control; however, the City has not had these problems for some time. The Mounted Patrol Unit is comprised of one sworn officer, a vacant groom position, and the operational costs to care for the horse and stables. We propose to reassign the sworn officer to another unit and to eliminate both the vacant groom position and