Not including overtime in the budget–do they not expect to have any?

You don’t want your employees working too much overtime, but on the other hand, you should not have so many employees that they never work overtime, particularly when the workload is variable, as I would expect it to be for fire/rescue/police work. A balance must be struck between having so many employees that you never have anyone working overtime (and possibly have under-utilized employees) and having not enough employees so that too many are working overtime.

So I would expect that a budget include overtime. Otherwise, are they hiring another full-time employee to keep someone from having to work the occasional 45 or 50 hour workweek? That makes no sense.

Regarding the houses adjacent to the police station:

If the city has no definite plans for this property it should be sold at fair market value.

We also need to maintain the city infrastructure and keep it from degrading. Often, deferring maintenance simply means spending more money down the road.

Finally, I like to point out that it’s the people inside the building that actually matter. Without them, it’s just an empty shell. A well-maintained building is important, but the building should not take priority over those who work inside.

Leeper, Ferrell, any thoughts??????????????????????

I’d love to hear about how the candidates on the November ticket are interested in dealing with these issues, and if I feel they are the best people for the job, I would GLADLY do all I could to help campaign for them. What stands now in Manassas Park is totally unacceptable. I’m happy to do what I can to show the current board the door!

http://www.bvbl.net/index.php/2008/06/22/manassas-park-incumbents-motivated-by-what-is-wrong/

It will take time to develop a business base–that’s a long-term solution.

I’ve stated previously, on another post here on BVBL:

“We have a situation in Manassas Park where we do not have a strong commercial base. I remember why Digital Drive was named that. It was supposed to be for commercial development, which did not happen and now most of Digital Drive is zoned PUD[1]. Planned Unit Development. More residential. More of what we really don’t need right now. Particularly when we have so many houses for sale in the City. [Most developers are holding back on building new developments right now due to the housing slowdown, so the land will sit idle till at least as long as it takes for the housing decline to start reversing itself.]”

also I stated:

“I believe that off-track betting is no solution to the city’s economic issues.

In fact, I believe that as long as off-track betting remains an option, it will continue to serve as a “safety net” that the City can rely on.

You can’t expect someone to do the hard work when there is an easy way out lurking around the corner. I think off-track betting should be taken off the table as an option. [Currently, right now, it could be brought back up for referendum per Virginia law]. I believe that law should be changed so that it cannot be brought up for referendum, ever. Once it is clear that off-track betting will not be the solution to our problems, perhaps more progress will be made towards finding other solutions.”

I think it would be great if the City took a stance in line with the County and the City of Manassas. They are participating in 287(G) now but they waited far too long to do so. They essentially said, a year ago, that they weren’t going to do it. I was at that City Council meeting and I will tell you that I was disappointed.

I’m also disappointed that, to my knowledge, not a single MP councilmember has ever gone to an HSM meeting. In fact, I believe I’m the only candidate running who has.

“In addition, as a current City of Alexandria employee, maybe it is time for the City employees to forgo a raise for the better cause. Alexandria did not give COLA raises this year and it is looking slim next year but you will hear little grumblings because we realize the hard times ahead and we have a good job to go to everyday.”

In the private sector you don’t (usually) get COLA raises(I never have).. I suppose I don’t see why the public sector should need to give them out, particularly if times are tough.

“It is time for the Citizens of MP not have most of the tax responsibilities on their back.”

I fully agree.

I agree with you, to a point. But your answer disappoints me in that you fail to mention developing a business base. People need certain services, you can’t cut everything. When I talked to Naddoni and Farrell, they mention both cuts and business and had sensible ideas regarding both. I hope you will develop some as well, as the future of our community depends on it.

“The Manassas Park town council at a special meeting
Wednesday night, unanimously adopted the first real
estate levy in the two year history of the town.
The tax rate will be $2.75 per $100 of assessed valuation.”

Manassas Journal-Messenger
(October 1, 1959)

Back to the future?

You are correct. In 2006 the 5-year budget that I saw had a 10% per year increase in spending, every year. Whatever spending that was on the table from years past needs to be re-evaluated to ensure that it’s something that we need, as opposed to a “nice-to-have”.

We should not be using a budget created back in 2005 when some were under the impression that townhouses in Belmont Station would be worth $500k by 2010.

There will need to be spending cutbacks. There’s no other way to handle the problem. Some “nice-to-haves” may need to be cut back, others will need to be re-executed in a more cost-effective manner. There are guaranteed to be opportunities to create cost savings if we sit down and look at how and why the money is being spent.

Within the last couple of months, City Council did something I agree with. They cancelled the land acquisition for the new City Hall. I thought that was a bad idea when they decided to move forward with it last December. I’m glad they’ve seen the light on that. Now maybe they can spend a little money to fix the leaking roof on the current City Hall instead of a lot of money building a new City Hall.

“How do you think you will work with Frank Jones and the remaining members of the Governing Board? How will you foster a constructive working relationship with them, while staying true to your core values (which you are campaigning on) as a Republican?”

Nearly everyone on the current Governing Body leans Republican, or they have said that they do. So I believe we can work from there. Sometimes all it takes is one person to suggest that maybe a different course of action is the better choice. This at least gets the idea out for consideration.

“Do you hope to work with Help Save Manassas once in office to address the impact of illegal immigration on this community?”

Help Save Manassas does a great job of bringing the concerns of citizens to the forefront, and we should listen to those concerns and do what we can to address them. Although some will throw their hands up in the air, declare it a “Federal Problem” and do nothing, the fact is that this “Federal Problem” is a local problem, or at least, it’s effects are, and they need to be dealt with at the local level. The Federal Government can’t do anything about a property blight situation on Manassas Drive; that’s our problem for us to deal with.

What will you do differently in terms of budgeting and city management in light of the current assessment crisis?

How do you think you will work with Frank Jones and the remaining members of the Governing Board? How will you foster a constructive working relationship with them, while staying true to your core values (which you are campaigning on) as a Republican?

Do you hope to work with Help Save Manassas once in office to address the impact of illegal immigration on this community?

Thanks!

Once on the school board they throw the idea of good fiscal management out the window and start screaming for more and more money from the city council/county board. We need to go back to appointed boards throughout Virginia.

The big problem is the spending, which is what determines the total tax bill. We’d be at somewhere around $3.00/per 100 if assessed values were what they were in 2000 (the tax rate was then $1.44/per 100).

We would not be in this mess if there hadn’t been a real estate bubble or if it had been recognized as one and spending held in check as a result.