County conducts virtual budget public hearing – over 50 citizens participate

Welcome to the future. – At 7 p.m. Tuesday evening, April 14, just one day, and this year three months, before tax deadline day, the Warren County Board of Supervisors held, to this reporter’s experience, the community’s first Fiscal Year Budget Public Hearing without any public present. That absence was due to emergency management restrictions on public gatherings due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic.

The supervisors are scheduled to vote on approval of a $118,594,872 budget proposal, including a flat tax rate, at their meeting of April 21^st.

But on Tuesday, if not there physically, over 50 citizens made their opinions known by pre-submitted questions sent to Board Clerk Emily Ciarrocchi; with a few additional texts “chat” comments being posted and acknowledged during the meeting by online hookup.

The tension was high in the half-hour lead-up to Tuesday evening’s Warren County FY-2021 Budget Public Hearing, as virtual sign-ups were met only by the County ‘hamburger’ logo; and pictured below, a small boxed clock countdown to the 7 p.m. meeting time. Royal Examiner Photos/Roger Bianchini

With no citizens present to speak their mind, it fell on the shoulders, or should we say larynx of Ciarrocchi to read the submitted comments into the public hearing record. And her flawless reading, combined with pre-meeting oversight of gathering public input electronically, drew praise from County Administrator Doug Stanley.

“Mr. Chairman, I want to thank Emily for handling tonight – this is what, 20 budgets for me as County Administrator, but it’s unusual, and thank you, Emily, for trying to help us through this a little bit,” Stanley said of the unprecedented public-gathering limitation circumstance all levels of government are now traversing.

That unfamiliar societal landscape is a struggle to balance the people’s right to participate in the conduct of their government’s use of their tax dollars to the entire community’s best advantage, with efforts to minimize the impact of a new strain of Coronavirus for which humans yet have no inherent or acquired immunity, nor vaccine.

And while it will be up to historians to give context to the COVID-19 pandemic and its governmental responses, it is up to us in the virtual trenches with our elected municipal officials to report on the immediate conduct of the people’s business.

FY-2021 Budget Public Hearing

That business the evening of April 14 was the consideration of the above-referenced $118,594,872 budget proposal for the County and its Public School System that in any other financial climate might seem like a no-brainer, done deal. That is because projected County General Fund revenue of $83,320,288 and School’s revenue of $62,247,344 totals $145,567,632, which is about $27,000 above proposed expenditures.

And those expenditures include an additional $1.25 million for Economic Development Authority civil legal expenses to handle, not only the EDA’s attempt to recoup $21.3 million of allegedly misdirected EDA assets but also defend itself against the Town of Front Royal’s civil claim of over $20 million (“she promised us too-good-to-be-true deals that we gambled on”) against it.

The supervisors gathered a masked quorum – Mabe, Cullers, Fox – with both masked and unmasked staff in the caucus-work session room adjacent to the WCGC main public meeting room, as tech wizard Dwayne Coates takes care of filming duties.

But can revenue projections be trusted in this pandemic environment of massive small business and public function shutdowns and revenue shortfalls? The final slide of the county administrator’s PowerPoint presentation on the Fiscal Year 2021 budget proposal recommended three options that would hold about $1.53 million aside on implementation of salary increases and capital improvement projects, and a fourth that would hold additional funds by freezing “non-essential” position hirings and vehicle and equipment purchases.

Of the 53 or so public comments read into the record, only the first 12 commented on the general budget proposal. The estimated final 40 read into the record were specific to various Sanitary District lot fees or tax hike issues, pro or con.

Of the dozen general comment speakers, eight were school system teachers, administrators, or from public school educational liaison organizations. All eight urged the County not to cut its investment in its children and its future and to approve the full school budget as proposed.

One speaker, Kevin Smith, lamented the closing of the County’s municipal golf course, wondering if a way couldn’t be found to make it a viable investment or at least a break-even operation for the county government, and the ongoing recreational and public golfing gift to the community the William Carson Sr. family intended it to be in memory of their deceased son William Jr. dating to the late 1930s.

Gary Kushner lauded the new board majority and the flat tax rate in the budget proposal. Kushner noted he favored tax cuts but observed that “isn’t realistic” in this year’s volatile COVID-19 municipal revenue situation.

A lone speaker, Fred Schwartz, railed against multiple aspects of the budget proposal, raising the specter of the EDA financial scandal to criticize, not only EDA and County Administrative aspects of the budget, but also the public school budget. That latter critique was due to former Schools Superintendent Greg Drescher’s former positions on the EDA Board of Directors, including the chairman, during which Schwartz wrote Drescher became the “highest-paid (municipal) employee in the country.”

Board Clerk Ciarrocchi offered some editorial assistance, observing that twice in his message, she believed Schwartz wrote “country” where he meant “county.”

Oops, that was another recent virtual meeting of the minds – with slightly larger budget implications one might imagine. Hey, I had time to kill during that 30-minute virtual meeting countdown.

And one speaker, Deborah Duckworth, told the supervisors that half of her residential tenants were unable to make their rental payments due to consequences of the COVID-19 business closings and layoffs. She asked the County to facilitate financial assistance as quickly as possible to those actually in immediate economic need from the pandemic emergency management situation.

With the reading of those submitted general budget comments completed and facing another 40 on particular County Sanitary District fee and tax issues, Board Chairman Walter Mabe suggested that the clerk simply do an accounting of the numbers for the proposed hikes and against them. Consequently, Ciarrocchi abbreviated the presentation of those remarks and stances as they applied to the various Sanitary District proposals at hand.

Several references to text-written comments on the meeting message board were also acknowledged before the closing of the budget public hearing at 8:16 p.m.

After the presentation of Sanitary District comments, she noted general numbers indicating a 61% to 69% approval rate, with opposition in the 31% to 39% range, with particular focus on Shenandoah Farms numbers.

Hear and see those comments read into the record, and the county administrator’s detailed PowerPoint explanation of the FY-2021 budget proposal, its foundation, and potential variables, in this virtual recording: