Retirement of City Manager Darlene Burcham

As has been widely reported, City Manager Darlene Burcham and Roanoke City Council agreed to a March 1, 2010 retirement date for Ms. Burcham. These decisions are never easy, and given the circumstances I believe that yesterday showed great professionalism on both the part of Ms. Burcham as well as the council.

Ms. Burcham has dedicated nine years to the management of the City. While we all will never agree on every decision that has or has not been made, Ms. Burcham has been a dedicated, committed and hardworking member of the Roanoke family. She has accomplished many good things in her time in the Manager's office.

I am confident that the next nine months will be a fruitful time for the City Council and Ms. Burcham to work together to accomplish great things, from hiring a new Director of Economic Development to lead our increasingly important efforts in that area to the much-needed renovation of the Market Building. Ms. Burcham is committed to working tirelessly until the day she retires, and as a council we have come to expect nothing less from her. We will work closely and collaboratively with her to make decisions that are in the best interest of the most residents of the community.

As Council moves forward in its search for Ms. Burcham's successor, my focus and work will be to help find a new city manager with a strong background in economic development and financial management, and someone that recognizes the many wonderful attributes of our diverse community. I think this is particularly important for Roanoke in this economic climate and want to make certain that Roanoke is poised to take advantage of opportunities to attract more and better jobs to the area and encourage business growth and expansion.

Increased and expanded opportunity is in the best interest of each member of our community and I look forward to working to accomplish these goals.

Statement on Personnel Matter

I have received nearly two dozen calls or emails regarding the piece that ran in today's newspaper concerning the future of City Manager Darlene Burcham.

I am a true believer in an open and transparent government and believe that the citizens of Roanoke deserve and should expect that information be shared with them by their elected officials in a timely and succinct manner - our government is only as good as the citizens that support it and the faith that they have in their decision-makers.

Out of respect for the City Manager and the Office of the City Manager, however, I will not address current discussions surrounding a highly sensitive and important personnel matter. Ms. Burcham deserves the professional respect and courtesy to have public comments withheld until the appropriate time.

Thank you.

Court Rosen

Happy Memorial Day

I haven't posted in a little while as I have been decompressing from the long, protracted city budget work period. It had been quite intense for several months so it's been nice to have some quieter time to spend with our son, family and friends.

I hope everyone has a nice Memorial Day. It's a good opportunity for a long weekend and a time to reflect on and think about the hundreds of thousands of soldiers stationed overseas, both in areas with peaceful relations and areas entrenched in war. While we relax for a deserved day off, there are American men and women abroad working seven days a week to keep America safe.

Memorialize them on this day.

Pools Will Open, Schools a Bit Less Fortunate

Earlier today Roanoke City Council met for what is known as Budget Study. Essentially, Budget Study is where the Council finalizes the next fiscal year's budget before it goes to a formal vote to be adopted into law.

During this meeting, we discussed an item that I believe to be important to the youth of the City. We decided, after weeks of debate and searching for the resources, to open both the Fallon Park and Washington Park swimming pools for the upcoming summer. At one point there was talk of a public/private partnership that would have kept Fallon Park open and seemed to be the only financial way to do so. That fell through, however, and during the course of those negotiations the City projected a slight increase in revenue and other resources that could be available.

I would have had trouble supporting the opening of one pool and not the other. Though public/private partnerships can be a model for good government, in a City as divided as ours, opening one pool without the other would have sent the wrong signal to our residents. So I'm happy we were able to find the resources that will allow children from various parts of town to have recreational opportunities this summer that will hopefully keep kids busy and out of trouble.

On another note, we did not agree to provide the schools with additional resources to help boost enrichment in summer school offerings, stave off elimination of teachers' assistant positions or fill ten empty elementary teacher positions. I believe this is a mistake and, if you recall, made a proposal a few weeks back that would have provided $1.6 million of taxpayer money from the Budget Stabilization Fund (rainy day fund) to accomplish just this (http://courtrosen.blogspot.com/2009/04/proposal-for-additional-funds.html).

Our school division is ranked second worst in the Commonwealth of Virginia. We have suffered from declining achievement for years, and while efforts to attract new business and create new jobs have been many, until we make fundamental changes to the way we educate our children and prioritize our schools, I simply think these efforts will prove to be less than effective. We cannot make small, incremental changes in the way we educate this City - we must make a tidal wave of change to turn around a system that has not improved in many years.

I appreciate my colleagues willingness to increase City funding to the schools... I truly do. The state did not fulfill their financial obligation, and as much as we choose to blame the state for shirking its responsibility, these are still our schools whose success will affect the future of our City. Major policy changes and programs have been enacted over the last couple of years with the by a dedicated school board and superintendant. And it is my belief that until we dedicate ourselves to seeing through a major overhaul of our school division, a tidal wave of change, we will fail to see a major turnaround in our economic climate here and our ability to create new, highpaying jobs for our residents.

Education is the key to fighting poverty in our City and to improving the quality of life for everyone. I'm disappointed that we did not do more to avoid the programatic elimination that RCPS has been forced to undergo. But I know that they will do the best they can with the resources they do have. And we should be grateful for their dedication.

Proposal for Additional Funds

Yesterday, during discussion of the upcoming FY 2009-2010 budget, I proposed that the City withdraw a little over $1.9 million out of the Budget Stabilization Fund (BSF), also known as the "Rainy Day Fund." I did not take my proposal to use this money lightly and spent significant time researching and determining the benefits vs. costs of doing so. In the end, I decided that, in my opinion, the needs of our schools and certain city services were too important to not attempt to address additional funding for the next fiscal year.

It is my belief that the future success, prosperity and long-term stability of the City of Roanoke is directly correlated to the success of our public schools and certain other programs that benefit, in an educational way, the youth in our community. There is no doubt that we are faced with a national economic recession that has sent ripples throughout state and local governments. Had we not faced such an unexpected and immediate emergency, I would have been loathe to even consider using any of the more than $19 million of unencumbered funds in the BSF, but feel as though we have little additional ability to raise resources. I am not in favor of raising taxes as I fundamentally believe that raising taxes during a recession, with folks losing jobs and discretionary income in decline as well as significantly reduced pension and retirement plans, is not the answer.

The BSF is comprised of taxpayer money paid in over the years. It is not the City's money, and I don't believe we should fear using taxpayer money when there is a real need for it. That said, I understand why some members of City administration do not want to use any of these funds. There are two main reasons that some are opposed - I completely understand these reasons and would agree with them 99% of the time. To me, however, this is that rare instance where we should go into the BSF. The two main reasons not to go into the BSF are:

1) Bond-rating agencies look at local government reserves when rating the locality. Ratings are important because they impact the interest rate that a locality can borrow money for and a downgrade in rating will increase that interest rate. I contend, however, that a slight downgrade is not the end of the world. IF we were to be downgraded, it would increase the interest rate by .25%. In other words, if the City were to borrow $20 million, this increased interest rate would cost the City between $50k and $60k per year. Is this ideal? No. But given the state of the City's budget, I believe worthwhile given the immediacy of the need. Additionally, in the scheme of a $257 million per year budget, this interest payment is rather minor.

2) This is one-time money for what could be recurring expenses. That is, if we find ourselves in the same, tough budgetary situation next year, we would have the same expenses and would then have to decide whether to go into the BSF again to pay for the services. This makes sense, though again would contend that any emergency or unexpected need can always be recurring. No one can ever predict what will and will not be a recurring event. For example, even a natural disaster can be recurring. Locations are hit by tornadoes two years in a row, floods two years in a row or other uncontrollable events. Likewise, we may or may not be out of the current recession next year, and though it appears we will be in a similar situation, nobody can predict that.

I believe to the core that now is an emergency that we could have never predicted but that we should not ignore when the effects on our schools and certain city services that are vital to the future of Roanoke are in danger. Major decisions and policies have been set that we all hope will be successful and will fundamentally change and improve our schools. Now is not the time to watch those recently implemented programs to be allowed to disappear.

Below is a breakdown of the proposed money and where it would go. Please feel free to leave your comments, both positive and negative, regarding my belief that we should withdraw money from the BSF for the FY 2009-2010 budget.

Total $1,907,867

$202,867 - Would keep both Washington Park and Fallon Park pools open.
$60,000 - Would keep the bookmobile operational.
$25,000 - Would keep libraries open 5 days a week.

$300,000 - Would maintain enriched, technology and life skills courses in RCPS summer school.
$600,000 - Would retain 20 teaching assistants, all accredited and the future teachers of RCPS.
$120,000 - Would retain 2 guidance counselors.
$600,000 - Would enable 10 empty elementary teaching positions to be filled.

Again, I want to remind any reader that I did not take this proposal lightly, believe that the above needs are vital to the community's educational attainment and economic future, outweigh the costs associated with going into the BSF, and are the right thing to do.

Court

Budget Update and Roanoke Regional Partnership

City Council met Saturday morning, April 4th for a special meeting on the City and School budgets for the upcoming year. Overall it was a positive, collegial meeting at the end of which we voted to provide the schools an additional $1.5 million with a $500,000 contingency should some state revenue we expect to go to the schools not make it.

By working to provide this additional money, 31 teachers will not lose their jobs and three school nurses will remain in RCPS to provide health services to students, many of whom rely upon school nurses for their only source of healthcare. Given where we were financially only a month ago I'm proud that Council made this decision.

Truth be told I would have liked to have seen more resources go to our schools to avoid cuts in programs such as summer school, swimming classes for elementary students, pre-kindergarten and others. I believe we have a responsibility to make sure that kids in the City of Roanoke have access to an excellent educational system that prepares them for life. Our economic, social and cultural future as a city relies on it. And I do believe our current School Board and RCPS administration has made significant progress to this end.

The reality is that we have more than $19 million in a "rainy day" fund that we could use if the Council decides to. Using this money will certainly make it more expensive for us to borrow money (due to bond ratings, which are inherently flawed and likely to be changed at the national level), but if this is not a rainy day in the present economic recession then I'm not sure what we could consider an emergency. That fund is taxpayer money, so as we are forced to tell our citizens and employees that we have no money for X program or Y program, the fact is that we do have the money.

I totally understand why some in the city administration do not want to use this money, but again, I believe this is the rainy day that that fund is intended to offset. I do think this will be addressed again over the coming weeks. Taxpayers should expect it.

Finally, I do want to point out, and wish that it had been covered in the newspaper today, that the City Council restored 5% (half) of the previously decided reduction in funding to the Roanoke Regional Partnership. To me, this was very important because cutting economic development activities during times like these I believe to be an enormous mistake. Now is the time we should be ramping up activities. And I think this additional funding to the RRP signals Council's desire to focus on economic development, the efforts of which we must be successful at in order to create more and better jobs and to retain existing jobs.

More to come soon...

Baby Hiatus

As many of you know, Brooke and I were blessed with a healthy baby boy last Monday about this time. This has been consuming and enjoyable, which is why I have failed to post in the last week. I never thought that looking at my own child would be such a moving and emotional experience, and I love it.

The current budgetary situation with our schools and any additional funding to them from the City is coming to a head in the next week or so, and I will be sure to post as that process moves forward. Thanks for understanding my absence.