County skeptical about Charlottesville reverting to town status

County supervisors say a possible reversion to town status by the city would be too long a process to ease the budget woes in the city schools.

“Because reversion is a lengthy and expensive process, it would not be a serious solution to short-term budget issues that the city and county both face,” Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Ann H. Mallek said Wednesday.

City Councilor Kathy Galvin mentioned a possible reversion in an email to City Manager Maurice Jones and fellow councilors obtained by The Daily Progress Tuesday. Galvin suggested looking at reversion if Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, is successful in his pursuit of a budget amendment that would relieve city schools of $2.5 million in annual state funding.

Bell’s amendment adjusts the composite index, a metric by which state funding for schools is calculated, to take the revenue sharing agreement between Charlottesville and Albemarle into account when calculating the county’s ability to pay.

Supervisor Rodney Thomas said he sees the move partly as political.

“It’s kind of a bluff deal, I think,” he said Wednesday. “I don’t blame them, I wouldn’t want to give [the money] up, either. We’re all scrambling, trying to get more money for our locales, and if they decided reverting is the best way, then we can’t really do anything about it.”

Supervisor Dennis S. Rooker agreed with Mallek’s assertion that the reversion process is long and expensive, and said the city will face financial hardship even if Bell’s amendment doesn’t pass.

“If Del. Bell’s amendment passes, it may add to their desire to look at their options, but even if the amendment doesn’t pass, they still have financial hurdles, as we do,” Rooker said. “But reversion is not a short-term solution to what may be a short-term budget issue.”

Rooker added that reversion would represent an enormous change to local government, one that may not be advantageous to city taxpayers. When cities the size of Charlottesville revert, Rooker said, they generally maintain a city council and some responsibility for services like a police force. Money to pay for those services needs to come from somewhere, he said.

“Their citizens might have to pay Albemarle County taxes and city taxes,” he said.

The city spent several years in the latter half of the 1990s debating reversion as a possible solution to strained budgets. After a lengthy court battle, a pro-reversion citizen group dropped the idea in 1999, citing increasing court costs and a brightening budget horizon.

Supervisor Kenneth C. Boyd urged the city to review previous discussions of reversion before seriously considering the option.

“I’m not sure it’s really worth dragging that back up again,” Boyd said. “It might be worth looking into the history before you go jumping into reversion.”

Neil Williamson of the Free Enterprise Forum said Galvin’s “out-of-the-box thinking” encouraged him. Discussions of reversion could go a long way to improving understanding between the county and the city, he said.

“To reject it out-of-hand would be a mistake,” Williamson said. “I believe that after a fair amount of review, it may come to pass that Albemarle County may be opposed to the reversion, because of the burden placed on it and its citizens by taking on Charlottesville. That said, a better understanding of the services that Charlottesville provides may go a long way to … changing the tenor of the discussion.”

Williamson added that the two governments represent citizens who don’t see themselves as separate from one another, and encouraged the city and county to get back to cooperating.

“The community is divided in terms of government, but not in terms of citizens, we are one community and serious negotiations have been lacking over consolidation of services over the last five years,” he said.

In an email Wednesday, Charlottesville spokesman Ric Barrick said that for the time being the idea is just that, an idea.

“If it is the will of Council we will certainly provide support and direction but at this time we are not being asked for that,” Barrick said. “We are in the early stages of dealing with a large school budget gap and this is just one option among many that have been put into discussion.”