Slow Time

My apologies for having failed to post anything over the past three weeks. Like many folks, I've been caught up with the holidays, visiting family out of town and having family visit here, as well as the general end-of-year rush.

The upcoming year promises many challenges: a sluggish economy, budget deficits, job layoffs and other difficulties that we will likely all face. But I also believe that with great challenges come great opportunities.

During difficult economic times we have opportunities for continuing education, career re-training that leads to career changes, government working to minimize waste and maximize the utility of hard-earned taxpayer money, among others. Times are no doubt tough, but if we work together and weather this recession we can all come out better on the other side, with greater opportunity for everyone.

These are just a few thoughts...

The real purpose of this post is to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or whatever holiday one observes. Have a safe and happy new year.

Court

Holding Public Servants Accountable

This week, it was determined that enough evidence existed supporting improper procurement procedures and forgery of quotes from vendors to suspend two employees from The Greater Roanoke Transit Company. The wife of one of the employees has been implicated and warrants have been issued for a search of GRTC offices and the home of one of the employees.

It must be noted that no one has been convicted of any crimes, so the presumption of innocence must be afforded to those involved. Regardless of criminal convictions, however, it is clear that an improper procurement process occurred and that employees of GRTC were irresponsible and showed extraordinarily poor judgement at a minimum.

Beyond the potential illegalities and misuse of public money, this incident brings to the forefront an even more important, yet often unstated, belief that I share with so many others. We often hear that "public officials/public employees should be held to the same standards as everyone else."

I disagree with this statement. I believe that public officials and those who work in government should be held to higher standards than everyone else. For public officials, elected by citizens, we have chosen to put our names forward for office. We understand when we do this that the public eye, and the many probing eyes of the media that hold us accountable, are on us as we do our jobs. And for those that have chosen to work in government, and who are in particularly responsible roles in charge of the expenditure of public, taxpayer money, responsibility for only the highest ethical standards should be a job requirement.

The public has the right, in my opinion, to demand that those of us charged with making the decisions as to how to spend their money, elected or otherwise, be held to the highest possible standards. There is no doubt in my mind that this is exactly what the residents of Roanoke expect, and I couldn't agree more.

Real Estate Tax Relief

Over the past two months, our economy has faced serious challenges (understatement). The financial markets have taken serious hits, the housing market nationally has been laden with foreclosures caused in large part by subprime lending, and the pension and retirement accounts of a vast number of people have suffered significant losses. While we can do little to control the financial or housing markets, there is something we can do to help many folks who have seen a lifetime of hardwork and retirement savings diminish.

Many seniors and disabled citizens of Roanoke are on fixed incomes. Often, these two groups subsidize their Social Security (SSI or SSDI) with money they saved during their working lives through pensions or other accounts. Suddenly, with these accounts significantly reduced, it is becoming increasingly difficult for these folks to continue to meet their financial obligations, such as mortgages, health care costs, utility costs etc.

Roanoke City offers real estate tax relief for the elderly and disabled who qualify - currently those who earn less than $34,000 per year gross income or have a net worth of less than $125,000. Those who meet these income or net worth requirements may apply to the City to have their real estate taxes "frozen," meaning that the amount the household pays in real estate taxes remains the same as long as the requirements are met each year. This is hugely important for those on fixed incomes, primarily seniors and the disabled, who can little afford increasing property taxes each year.

Due to the declining retirement and pension account values, I believe it more important than ever to increase the limit at which seniors and the disabled qualify, as many who subsidized their fixed incomes to pay their taxes or the other previously mentioned living expenses simply cannot continue this way. Fortunately, we are able to increase these limits to $42,000 per year gross income and $160,000 per year net worth. This should, and I believe it will, offer additional tax relief to many of the most vulnerable in our City.

Vice Mayor Sherman Lea, who has, from the outset been supportive of this change in City policy, and I, with the support of the rest of City Council, worked to increase these limits so that many of our residents can afford to stay in their homes and pay for those items necessary for their continued quality of life. I want to thank Vice Mayor Lea - without his support I am not sure this would be occurring.

The City will lose some revenue, most likely in the lower hundreds of thousands (maybe $200,000), though it is hard to forecast exactly how much because the City does not keep income or net worth statistics of our residents. But I believe this is the right thing to do - to help our senior citizens and disabled citizens remain in their homes with the ability to afford life's essentials. Cutting a few hundred thousand dollars of spending elsewhere, in my opinion, is minor compared to the relief many in our community desperately need. This is the good that government can do for its residents.

The following is the motion offered at City Council's regular session:

Real Estate Tax Relief for Elderly & Disabled Residents

of the City of Roanoke

That the City Manager and City Attorney prepare an Ordinance to be adoptedat the December 1, 2008 City Council meeting that increases the limits atwhich Senior citizens and Disabled citizens in Roanoke City qualify forreal estate tax relief from the current limits of $34,000 per year grossincome and $125,000 net worth, to $42,000 per year gross income and$160,000 net worth.

This increase in gross income and net worth limits should provide relief to additional residents, many of whom have fixed incomes, and expresses thesense of the City Council that, given current economic conditions and thesignificant decline in pension and retirement accounts, Senior citizens andDisabled citizens, who have little opportunity or ability to return to theworkforce, face increasingly difficult financial times. Raising limits forreal estate tax relief is the City's effort to acknowledge and address thesignificant hardships these two groups of citizens are experiencing.

Yesterday

While I committed a while back to not discussing national political issues but instead to keep this blog focused locally and on Roanoke City, I do feel the need to comment on the election results of yesterday in a broader context.

There's been a lot of talk about the history-making nature of Barack Obama's victory to become our 44th President, and I'm sure this talk will continue. It was only 45 years ago that Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I have a dream speech." And it was only a year before that that LBJ pushed the Civil Rights Act through Congress.

Yesterday showed just how far our country has come in the last 50 years. As many of us have discussed this election for some time now, it has impressed me a great deal that even friends of mine who did not support Obama and do not like many of his policies recognize and appreciate the historic nature of an African-American being elected president.

Hopefully the Obama message of bipartisanship and progress will help to unite Washington, and that the 2008 Democratic sweep of Congress does not in the end prove problematic as it did for the 1994 Republican takeover. Both parties need to work together, avoid becoming greedy with power, and try to accomplish positive policies that help the most people.

Parks and Recreation Receives Accreditation!

The Roanoke City Department of Parks and Recreation last week became only 1 of 76 Parks and Rec. departments nationwide to receive accreditation from the Commission for Accreditation for Park and Recreation Agencies.

This is an enormous honor for Director Steve Buschor and his talented staff in Parks and Rec. -- only six departments statewide and only 76 of more than 5,500 departments nationwide have received this honor.

Please take the time to congratulate staff members with Parks and Rec. -- it took teamwork, a sense of ownership over the city's many wonderful facilities and dedication to receive this national honor. We are proud of this wonderful accomplishment.

More Reason to Prioritize

We have now been delivered news that gives us even more reason to prioritize in the City and to remain focused on those things that are vital to a community's well-being, present strength and future prosperity: our schools.

The Virginia Department of Education informed us today that using their new cohort method for calculating graduation rates, our City's schools have only graduated 51.6% of our seniors in four years. This new number to what has been an ongoing problem should provide us even more of an impetus to refocus our energies as a City on the things that can bring our community together, united behind the common goal of working to transform our schools into not just good schools, but rather great schools.

We often spend time focusing on such matters as spending millions of dollars on a golf course or other capital projects. We are in an economy that is contracting and has cost a couple of trillion dollars in wealth to pension funds during the last couple of months alone. Now is the time to step back, look in the mirror as a community and decide whether we like what we see and whether we must have these capital items right now.

Our schools can be our greatest asset or our biggest boon. Now is the time to commit to doing what it takes to making our schools first-rate, to put aside capital projects that would be great for the community, but that are discretionary and require sound finances and a strong economy with increasing revenues. We must work to bring more and better jobs to the City, which requires a firm committment to improving our schools and to providing them with the resources needed to turn out well-educated, well-rounded students qualified for the 21st century workforce.

Now is the time when we must tighten our purse strings and realize that we can't always have everything, but that a community's core committment is to its children. Without great schools, the future of those children will be tougher and tougher. And our City's future is tied to that future.

The Market (Building)

The Market Building re-opens this morning at 8AM. The small business owners in the building, employees of the city and many others have worked tirelessly, weekdays and weekends, from morning until late at night, to remediate the problems that caused the building to be closed in the first place. Although the grills will be fired up this morning, there are still decisions to be made.


The next step City Council faces is when and how to begin renovating the building. There is no question in my mind that a major renovation needs to take place. The Market Building is a historic, central part of our downtown, and I believe that Council must soon define a vision for the next twenty-five years of its life. But we cannot only continue to talk about these changes, rather should seek public opinion, direct the design/re-design, and move forward to have the work done that needs to be done.

It makes a great deal of sense to me personally to have the city serve as the general contractor for this process and to direct the architecture and engineering process, the subcontractor bid process, and to oversee the actual construction. I believe this for a couple of reasons:

1) If the city is going to front the costs of the Market Building renovation, it may as well direct the process, which would save the time necessary to issue an receive responses to an RFP. Costs in construction are increasing every day, so the more decisive we are and the sooner we move, the less it will hopefully cost.

2) The city serving as general contractor should allow the work to be done more quickly at better prices as we can hire local small businesses (electricians, carpenters, masons, plumblers, etc.) that might not otherwise be hired by a larger, potentially out of town, construction management firm.

I hear from a lot of folks who are excited about the potential the Market Building has and the history it has provided residents for more than eighty years. And some express concerns about whether or not Council can act decisively to take care of this facility that serves as an anchor in the entire market area.

I believe we can, should and have got to- while times are tight budgetarily, to allow the Market Building, its small businesses and its physical facilities, to continue to deteriorate beyond the point of repair should simply not be a choice. This is one of the situations we face as a city and as a City Council that will show whether our priorities for our city mirror the needs we have as a community.

The Market (not the building)

Today, news hit that Citigroup will buy the banking operations of Wachovia, which has a large local presence among the many banks that operate in the Roanoke Valley and western Virginia generally. This follows several weeks of tumult that have rocked the fundamentals of the U.S. economy.

For several years, mortgages as investments seemed like a good deal, where easy money was made and it appeared that there was little risk involved. We now know this to be entirely untrue, and many economists had previously predicted the situation we now find ourselves in. In hindsight, it makes perfect sense that buying securities backed by mortgages were only good investments if 1) home values continued to increase at high rates, 2) the economy generally continued to grow as rapidly as it had been, and 3) there was not a significant increase in defaults on home mortgages. It appears that all three of these factors have gone against investors -- the perfect storm.

The good news to be found amongst all the bad news is that home values in the Roanoke Valley as well as the New River Valley continue to remain stable if not continuing to increase at a sound rate. We should remain confident that this trend will continue and that we experience an isolated market due to the presences of Virginia Tech, the CRC and within our own valley, the coming of the new VTC Medical College.

The main area of concern for me lays primarily with seniors and the disabled, most of whom live on fixed incomes. This is not to say that the rest of us will not face hardships, but a great deal of these folks receive Social Security, though this income alone does not fully subsidize the many expenses, including healthcare, utilities, home payments etc faced on a monthly basis. Often seniors and the disabled must dip into pension plans to make up for monthly shortfalls in income to pay for the entirety of expenses.

My concern is that, not today or tomorrow, but in six months to a year, many of these folks will wake up and see that their 401(k) or other pension plans have suffered from what used to be safe investments, namely, financial institutions. I believe that it is worthwhile for us to look at ways to help seniors and the disabled who may begin to see this happening and to work to try to find ways to help them should this scenario occur.

We should try to think outside the box and find any ways that we might be able to accomplish this within the budgetary constraints that we face nationally, statewide and locally.

This is a moral and fundamental need faced by those most financially fragile, and it will take all of us working together to help alleviate the difficulties that might soon become reality.

Community Summit: The Greening of Roanoke

Last evening, the City of Roanoke held a community summit to discuss ways to reduce the carbon footprint of our community. The goal to reduce our footprint, which is the total amount of carbon pollution we put into the environment, is 10% for the community over the next five years and 12.5% for our municipal government.

After hearing from Sean McGinnis, Director of Green Engineering for Virginia Tech, about the various sorts of pollutants that contribute to our carbon footprint, we broke into roundtable groups to discuss ways to encourage our community to help achieve this 10% reduction goal.

Some of the ways our group came up with were: the use of public transportation as an alternative to single-car commutes, more recycling across the city amongst residents, the use of compact fluorescent lightbulbs, and the planting of more trees to increase our tree canopy, which is thought to help reduce pollution.

We had students from Patrick Henry, William Fleming as well as Virginia Western CC in attendance. It was really exciting to see the energy in the room and the willingness of folks to volunteer to help improve our environment by taking small steps locally to encourage better living that will reduce our carbon footprint.

Virginia State Neighborhood Conference

This past Thursday through Saturday I was in Fairfax, Virginia for the 9th Annual Virginia State Neighborhood Conference. A rather large contingent from Roanoke attended this years' conference, including members of the Melrose Rugby, Melrose Loudon and Old Southwest neighborhoods as well as folks associated with the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

Also attending was Ms. Estelle McCadden, President of the Melrose Rugby Neighborhood Forum and Chairperson/Founder of the VSNC. It was obvious to all of us in attendence the level of respect that Ms. McCadden has of other neighborhood leaders around the state for her dedication to the conference and her dedication to making sure that neighborhoods have the leadership, programs and knowledge necessary to help build strong communities.

I participated in a number of workshops and learned a great deal from regional and national experts in community development and also from people from other parts of the state who are community activists and committed to their own neighborhood's development.

I hope to use what I learned to help improve relations between our government and neighborhoods. Strong neighborhoods help to make a strong community.

A long night

As many folks already know, last night's City Council meeting was a long one. There was a lot of debate over two issues that have been at the forefront of City Council for a few years: the future of Countryside Golf Course and whether and where the city should build an amphitheater.

If you watched or read the news, you may also know that at times things became a little heated. Suffice to say that I stand by my words and look forward to a more inclusive, respectful process in the future. I hope that we can work to make certain that every member of Council is aware of what is happening before it is set in stone.

Out of respect for my fellow members of Council, I don't want to focus on this debate and will leave it at that.

What I do want to focus on is the future of Countryside. I voted "yes" for the motion offered by Vice-mayor Lea -- a vote which may seem contradictory to my words last evening.

The motion is what the city attorney called "a statement of policy." It is a non-binding vote that essentially formalizes a process that was already beginning -- to delve into the numbers, issue an RFP for a management company to run the course and determine capital needs. This is the information that I believe is necessary to have to make an informed decision about the future of Countryside.

I fully recognize how difficult the last several years have probably been for residents who live on or near the golf course. There has been a level of uncertainty that would naturally concern someone who has made a large investment in a home and who wonders what the future holds for their neighborhood.

I truly believe that we are finally nearing a decision on Countryside, and I believe that the non-binding motion will speed the process along, allow us to gather the necessary and relevant information, and once and for all make a decision that provides certainty to the residents at Countryside but also is the fiscally responsible course of action for the entire City of Roanoke and its taxpayers.

Oh, and I'll leave the amphitheater for another time...

Self-imposed Policy

New policy: only city matters and local issues will be discussed on my blog. Though I am Democrat and obviously have opinions about the current presidential race, I am going to stick to my goal of being focused on diong what's right for our city rather than discussing current national politics.

When it comes to making Roanoke a better, more progressive city, it doesn't matter what political party one is affiliated with.

What do you think should happen to the Market Building?

A lot of debate lately has been centered on what the Market Building should look like once the city renovates it. I would love to hear from folks as to what you believe the city should do to improve this deterioriating building that is an anchor for our downtown.

As a city, I believe we need a vision and goal and should accordingly work to accomplish our vision for the future of the Market Building.

What do you think?

The Market Building

As you probably know, this past Tuesday City Council got into a lively discussion regarding the DRI/Coalition proposal to overhaul the Market Building. This was the only proposal received in response to an RFP issued seeking a public/private partnership for the future operation of the building. See the RFP here http://www.roanokeva.gov/DeptApps/PurchasingBids.nsf/4932692bdcc8a5d885256fc00069a3f5/cecc8411a230eac0852573fc006400f7?OpenDocument.

There were a number of good aspects of the proposal, but one significant problem: it did not conform to the guidelines as set out in the RFP. Some folks within the Coalition dispute this, but a unanimous vote by a board of city officials all agreed on this point, as did a number of area business folks who were a part of the coalition. But this is beside the point. The point is that Council decided that the city should issue another, broader RFP that allows for flexibility and hopefully creativity in responses. And DRI/the Coalition will be able to re-submit their proposal, with improvements based on our discussions. To me, this is a good thing.

Additionally, there are legal requirements when a response to an RFP does not conform to guidelines. Though many of us would have liked to have discussed/negotiated/worked on the one proposal we received, the law requires that we issue another RFP that affords others the opportunity to submit broader proposals. I wish this point had been shared in media accounts more clearly.

But the main point of all this is that members of City Council were not allowed to read the proposal before we had to make a decision on whether to accept or reject it. This is a big problem.

In a City Manager form of government, the city manager should be the person responsible for working on the details of everyday business within the city. But when there are proposals, particularly ones of this importance, Council members should absolutely have the ability to ask for and receive a copy to read. Unless it violates a law, harms the civil rights of an individual or otherwise directly hurts the city's ability to negotiate with an entity, we as members of Roanoke City Council have a responsibility to know, question and understand what it is we are voting on and how we are spending taxpayer money.

It is true that I asked for a copy of the proposal the week before we were first briefed on the DRI/Coalition plan. And it is equally true that I was told it was against administration policy to receive one. Instead of arguing, I called a local business person and asked if they could get me a copy which was done and in my hands within the hour.

The administration works hard and we should all, whether we agree with or do not agree with decisions made, respect their efforts and know that they are doing what they believe to be in the best interests of the city. But as members of City Council, we are answerable to the citizens. We are the ones who must explain why we decided to spend taxpayer money in certain ways. We should always keep this in mind.

I will work to make sure that in the future members of City Council have access to any information deemed fit or necessary to make the important decisions that affect our everyday lives as residents of Roanoke.

Council and Countryside

Today, during City Council's 2PM session, I made the request of the City's Director of Finance that she put together a projection of what the debt service, capital needs and other necessary expenditures will be over the next five and ten years if the City retains ownership of Countryside. During my request, I made mention of wanting to have as much information as possible, and as a businessperson, the most effective way for me to look at the future of the course is to, as part of that outlook, know what the numbers will look like.

I made the mistake, admittedly, of mentioning that as we rush to put out a Request for Proposal with five and ten year terms for management of the course, we should not eliminate the option of selling Countryside if it makes the most sense. As you might imagine, this set off a firestorm amongst the mayor and a few members of the audience who are strong advocates of permanently keeping Countryside as a golf course. I was not intending to debate the highest and best use of the property itself, though it provided a political opening that was taken advantage of.

I have learned my lesson in terms of being more direct and clearer in what I am requesting.

I believe one can never have too much information. As our national, state, and to a lesser degree, local economies contract, we as a City government must also contract budgetarily. To me, this isn't a matter of politics, it's a matter of fiscal responsibility and the ability to be disciplined when times are tough and the budget is tight.

After forty-five minutes of banter about the merits of selling Countryside or seeking private management or the City itself managing the course, we finally came to a vote on my request (for the record, I really was only requesting information so no vote was actually needed).

The mayor stated that the voters had spoken and that they clearly wanted Countryside to remain a golf course. First, I am not sure who "the voters" are and when they made a decision on this particular issue, and second, the request was for information, not a determination on the future of the course (again, the request was not a vote on the highest and best use of the property). It was simply a request to have all the information available when deciding whether to contractually obligate the City to a five or ten year lease. If we don't take a look at the numbers now, it may be ten years before we can revisit this decision.

Council Members Price, Mason, Trinkle and I voted to request the information. Councilman Nash wants the information but did not like the process and how we arrived at needing a vote for information, and the mayor voted "no." I simply don't understand how one could not want more information to make a decision that could have such significant and long-term implications for the financial stability of our community.

Sometimes, you've got to put being good stewards of the taxpayers' money and a willingness to learn as much as possible ahead of politics. Let's take one step at a time, know what our options are, and understand the impact the decision we may make today will have on our community ten years from now.

This Past Week

This past week, I heard from many constituents about some of the issues in front of Council. As you might imagine, the future of Countryside is on the minds of many, particularly those who have enjoyed the golf course as an amenity, beautiful backyard or green space for the community.

But the golf course should also be on the minds of all taxpayers in Roanoke City. It was a large purchase paid for with taxpayer money, with debt service payments of more than $460,000 per year. The course has some major infrastructural needs including the replacement of the irrigation system as well as golf cart paths.

I am a golfer, so I would be perfectly fine with the golf course remaining just that. But I am also involved in the business of real estate development, and from this perspective, the real property that is Countryside presents a number of issues that, in my mind, will prevent it from being developed into a residential community. Now is not the time for me to go into these, but suffice to say, I am convinced that the course, given market conditions and other factors, will likely remain a golf course. And again, I have no problem with this at all.

I do not, however, think that the City should be in the golf course business, and would like to begin a dialogue as a Council, community and taxpayer about the possibility of putting the golf course on the market and working to find a buyer who would put the necessary resources into making Countryside a long term success.

I will continue to learn as much as possible and hope residents of the Countryside neighborhoods as well as other taxpayers will share their thoughts with me.

An Exciting Start

This is my first offical post since taking office on July 1. I wanted to get grounded in my responsibilities and learn as much as possible about our city government, the finances, operations, etc. I still have much to learn, but am confident that I have gotten off to a solid start.

So far, we have not as a Council dealt with too many substantive items, and have spent a lot of time talking about procedural changes and the like. I am hopeful that we can put these items behind as I believe that our citizens deserve to have our full attention on matters that directly impact their lives, such as infrastructure, parks, economic development and the continued revitilization of our downtown. And I think we are getting to this point.

Monday we'll have a joint meeting with the School Board at Addison Middle School, which I am looking forward to. We have a wonderful new Superintendent, a committed and hardworking Board that is willing to make some tough decisions, even if we don't all agree with each and every one, and a committment from the Council to appropriately fund our educational system.

We will then return to the city building where we will deal with a number of items, including the upcoming appointments to the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority. This board is vital to the many folks who live in housing that the RRHA controls. And it's important that we appoint the best and brightest based on qualifications. I'm excited about this opportunity, and look forward to Monday.

I will continue to blog during the course of my tenure on Council. I hope citizens will share their thoughts, ideas, opinions and concerns with me here, or you can call me anytime on my cell phone at 597-3193. Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you.

My New Blog

Thank you for visiting my new blog! During the four month campaign for City Council, I had a blog that was intended to help me share my thoughts and experiences on the trail from week to week. I met so many great people, attended so many great events and celebrations, and received so much feedback as to things our City can do to make it a better place for EVERYONE.

While I have retired my campaign blog, I now invite you to my new blog, http://courtrosen.blogspot.com/.

On this new blog, I hope to share the current happenings of Roanoke City and the debates and policies before City Council at any given time. My hope, too, is that residents of Roanoke City will share your thoughts, ideas and feelings about what we can do better as a city, how we can better serve the residents and neighborhoods that make up this wonderful place.

Join me in a dialogue to help move Roanoke forward into a positive and progressive future. It is only through your regular input that I can best serve your needs.