No off-Tuesday for supervisors this budget season – board pulls double duty

Emergency Management Oversight Deputy Coordinator Rick Farrall, standing left, discusses the County’s Emergency declaration and response management processes with County Emergency Services Chief Richard Mabie and Fire Marshal Gerry Maiatico, seated at right. Royal Examiner Photos/Roger Bianchini – Royal Examiner Video/Mark Williams

After an hour and a half of work session presentations on various aspects of the county governmental functions; available state grant options to help expand some county services or capital improvements; the dynamics of the County’s contract with the Humane Society of Warren County on animal impoundment at the Society’s Wagner Animal Shelter in conjunction with the Sheriff’s Office’s Animal Control Department; and the best operational placement of a “Fraud, Waste and Abuse” hotline, the Warren County Board of Supervisors, minus the absent Tony Carter, took a 10-minute break at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday evening.

Sheriff Mark Butler, standing at left, discusses advisability of his department taking the point in reports of suspected governmental Fraud, Waste & Abuse with citizen Gary Kushner, seated right.

Then it was out of the Warren County Government Center meeting room and into the adjacent caucus room for a once-delayed budget work session presentation led by County Administrator Doug Stanley with assistance from finance department personnel. After nearly two more hours of sometimes mind-numbing budget detail on anticipated expenses and revenue numbers for the coming fiscal year, board Chairman Walter Mabe adjourned the work session as the clock approached 10:30 p.m.

Watch the 7 p.m. work session open with Emergency Management Oversight Deputy Coordinator Rick Farrall’s PowerPoint presentation on the County’s Emergency Operations Plan and process, followed by the above-cited presentations on the Pre-trial Services Expansion Grant that can help funnel eligible criminal defendants into out-of-jail programs delivered by RSW Jail Superintendent Russ Gilkison; …

RSW Jail Superintendent Russ Gilkison listens to question from a board member about the dynamics of adopting a Pre-Trial Services system were a State grant to be won by the County – save the county money on incarceration costs, expand services that jail personnel is not trained for to qualifying defendants, was Gilkison’s general answer.

… and the VDOT Transpo-2020 Smart Scale Grant Application by Deputy County Administrator Bob Childress, as well as an update on the status of the County’s Front Royal Airport (FRR) land acquisition grants – local funding of 2% of total costs, not a bad return on the County dollar; the Humane Society Impoundment Agreement presentation – another good return on investment by the County according to the sheriff; and the Fraud, Waste, and Abuse anonymous reporting system update, the latter two with input from Sheriff Mark Butler, not to mention an “exciting” update from Board Clerk Emily Mounce who fields those calls currently, in this Royal Examiner video.

Let the numbers be presented – board members and staff begin a nearly two-hour marathon on early budget figures. Doug Stanley left, took the lead in budget presentation. Former Finance Director Andre Fletcher, third from left at the far end of the table, now employed with Prince William County, was back to add some part-time assistance, with some additional assistance from Connie Oden, to left in back row seating.

And then for the daring, you can proceed to the Budget Work Session video for an overview of the County’s financial picture, including impacts from the EDA financial scandal, planned staff raises and the county administrator’s overview of early projections of coming departmental expenditures and revenue numbers.

Those numbers include a projected $712,168 revenue shortfall based on early revenue-expenditure figures that could change, Stanley, noted. That number is based on a projected local General Fund requirement of $81.65 million compared to a projected General Fund revenue of $80.94 million.

See the second, budget work session video for the rest of the numbers, more numbers, including Sanitary District projections and other involved variables like movement toward added implementation of phases of the staff comparative compensation study conducted by consultants in recent years. Implementation of that consultant report over a three-year period is designed to slow the attrition of staff to higher-paying, surrounding governmental jurisdictions.