Efficiency study offers up host of improvements

Charlottesville should review how it funds its public schools, consolidate some services and possibly increase the personal property tax from 4.2 percent to 4.28 percent, a new efficiency review recommends.

The report, which broadly reviewed the city’s services and departments over five months, was presented to the City Council at its Tuesday meeting. The Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia and the Virginia Institute of Government conducted and managed the $50,000 study, which was designed to find ways to reduce costs without changing results or outcomes.

In seeking to improve governmental efficiency, “we thought it was important to keep the quality and level of service,” City Manager Gary O’Connell said.

The study found that the city is on the lean side in terms of staffing, with the exceptions being the police department and the social services department. Brad Hammer, who presented the report Tuesday and used to be Chesterfield County’s deputy administrator for human services, said this was understandable given Charlottesville’s demographics and crime levels.

“You do have a challenged population of folks who are struggling,” he said. Hammer also urged the city to discuss renewing vocational education opportunities in the area.

“You really need to think about creating jobs for people who do not necessarily graduate from college,” Hammer said.

The report said the large departments of public works, police, fire and utilities do not have an excessive number of positions, and Councilor David Brown said he thought it was interesting that both the city and Albemarle County’s efficiency studies noted that more staffing might make local government run more smoothly.

But changes could be in store for the city-school division revenue set up, which councilors did not discuss at their meeting.

The current method to fund the city’s public school division is based on a fixed formula involving real-estate tax revenue, which the report pointed out does not factor in performance or how many students are served in the division. Over the last decade, Charlottesville’s population has remained almost stagnant and student enrollment has declined steadily, yet the city’s contribution to schools has increased with each passing year.

In the fiscal 2010 budget, O’Connell is proposing that the school division receive about $40.3 million from the city. The amount is a 1.28 percent increase from what was approved for this year.

The report states that the local government and school division should develop a balanced approach that considers both tax capacity and school programming needs.

“The taxpayer will want a more accountable approach that can assure citizens that effectiveness and performance are also considered,” the report concluded. It also stated that the nuances of the housing market “do not have a large bearing on what is ‘fair’ to either the schools or the city when considering support to local education.”

The study found that per pupil spending in the school budget has gone from $8,286 in fiscal 1999 to $14,269 this fiscal year. Hammer also said that only about two-thirds of city ninth-graders go on to graduate from Charlottesville High School.

“This is a very big challenge to the city,” he said.

The property tax adjustment, if approved, would make the city tax identical to Albemarle County’s and would yield between $150,000 and $200,000 annually.

The change was proposed as an option to rebalance the city’s general fund revenue structure, though the study noted that the city does an “excellent job” in keeping real estate and personal property taxes at reasonable and fair rates. Other options include increasing the parking ticket fee from $15 to $30 and change the minimum business and professional license tax from $35 to $50.

To save more money, the study suggested that the city consolidate several services with the school division and Albemarle County. Between the city government and school division, these could include central mail services, summer school facilities and warehouse operations. With Albemarle, future shared services could include fuel procurement, road maintenance and affordable housing for suburban areas.

The study also recommended that the Charlottesville Fire Department undertake a detailed cost study to examine the cost of providing services to the University of Virginia; that the city stop funding drop-off recycling centers because it offers free curbside recycling; and that a new customer service system be incorporated to better address resident and neighborhood complaints.

“Tonight is just the start of this conversation,” Charlottes-ville Mayor Norris said Tuesday, adding that there will be a work session so city leaders can further discuss some of the report’s recommendations.