Regular Meeting – March 13, 2013

Regular Meeting, Wednesday, March 13, 2013, 7:00 p.m. Government Center, Verona, VA.

PRESENT: Jeffrey A. Moore, Chairman
Larry J. Wills, Vice-Chairman
David R. Beyeler
David A. Karaffa
Marshall W. Pattie
Tracy C. Pyles, Jr.
Michael L. Shull
Timmy Fitzgerald, Director of Community Development
Jennifer M. Whetzel, Director of Finance
Patrick J. Morgan, County Attorney
Patrick J. Coffield, County Administrator
Rita R. Austin, CMC, Executive Secretary

VIRGINIA: At a regular meeting of the Augusta County Board of Supervisors held on Wednesday, March 13, 2013, at 7:00 p.m., at the Government Center, Verona, Virginia, and in the 237th year of the Commonwealth….

Chairman Moore welcomed the citizens present.

Josh Flower, a senior from Fort Defiance High School, led us with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Josh participates in track, shot-put and discus, Public Forum Debate (just won Gold in Districts), Key Club, National Honor Society and Student Council. He hopes to attend Virginia Tech and pursue the degree in Chemistry and Pre-Med. He hopes to go into Med- School at either Duke University or UVA and become a practitioner.

Larry J. Wills, Supervisor for the Middle River District, delivered invocation.

GOLF CART SIGNAGE – ORDINANCE

This being the day and time advertised to consider an ordinance to allow Ivy Ridge Town Homes Association the usage of golf carts or utility vehicles on the following designated highways as allowed by Sections 14-61 and 14-62 of the Motor Vehicle and Traffic Ordinance (South River District).

St. Ives Drive (Route 1160) and Roxbury Drive (Route 1161) Funding Source: South River Infrastructure Account #80000-8016-71 (4@ $250 each) $1,000 Timmy Fitzgerald, Director of Community Development, displayed property, designated in blue, and noted that these are the only two streets that have been accepted into the public system. The other streets are remaining private at this time. Both the Sheriff’s Office and VDOT saw no problem with approval.

Tommy Shields, Jr., Applicant, felt that this would increase interaction amongst neighbors and that it was a nice amenity for the complex.

The Chairman declared the public hearing open.

There being no speakers, the Chairman declared the public hearing closed.

Mr. Beyeler moved, seconded by Mr. Karaffa, that the Board adopt the following ordinance:

AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND

SECTION 14-63

OF THE AUGUSTA COUNTY CODE

WHEREAS, the Board of Supervisors has received a request to designate additional streets upon which golf carts and utility vehicles may be operated; WHEREAS, the Board of Supervisors has deemed it desirable to grant such request.

NOW THEREFORE be it resolved that the Board of Supervisors of Augusta County, Virginia hereby amends Chapter 14, Section 14-63, Paragraph A of the Augusta County Code by adding Paragraph 3 as follows:

CHAPTER 14.

MOTOR VEHICLES AND TRAFFIC.

ARTICLE VIII. Operation of golf carts and utility vehicles on public highways.

§ 14-63. County public highways designated for golf cart and utility vehicle operations.

A. The Board of Supervisors hereby designates the following public highways within the County upon which golf carts and utility vehicles may be operated in accordance with the provisions of this Article:

1. Gloucester Road (Route 1512), Dundee Court (Route 1516), Lynn Circle (Route 1591), Windermere Road (Route 1514), Brighton Court (Route 1515), Eavers Circle (Route 1513), Yarmouth Road (Route 1500), Sylvan Drive (Route 1507), East High Street (Route 1509), Skyline Avenue (Route 1508), Kay Street (Route 1518), Crestview Drive (Route 1505), Wilson’s Drive (Route 1550), West High Street (Route 1509), York Avenue (Route 1503), Virginia Avenue (Route 1501), Cambridge Drive (Route 1502), Stuart Avenue (Route 1510), Forrer Road (Route 1506), Parker Road (Route 1504), Rose Avenue (Route 1501). (Ord. 09/28/11) 2. Hampton Drive (Route 1150), Canada Court (Route 1151), Emperor Court (Route 1154), Queens Court (Route 1153), Prince Court (Route 1155), Jester Court (Route 1152) Kennedy Ridge Court (Route 1154). (Ord. 09/12/12) 3. St. Ives Drive (Route 1160) and Roxbury Drive (Route 1161).

B. With regard to each of the public highways listed in subsection (A), the Board of Supervisors has considered the factors set forth in section 14-62(B), as required by Virginia Code § 46.2- 916.2.

This Ordinance shall be effective upon enactment.

Mr. Wills expressed concern of the close proximity to Ladd Road and asked for assurance that signage will be placed to not allow golf carts on the main road. Mr. Fitzgerald confirmed that “end of golf cart area” signage will be placed at that area.

Vote was as follows: Yeas: Pattie, Karaffa, Shull, Wills, Moore, Beyeler and Pyles Nays: None Motion carried.

MATTERS TO BE PRESENTED BY THE PUBLIC

Dr. Chuck Bishop, Superintendent of Augusta County Schools, made the following comment:

For a number of years, I think it’s fair to say that the School Board and the Board of Supervisors have had a much better relationship than most boards in other communities. County and School Board staff has enjoyed a wonderful working relationship. Collectively, past and current boards have accomplished a great deal until we start talking about money. As a fiscally-dependent body, the School Board is beholden to others to provide financial resources. For the past three years (during my tenure), the School Board has presented to you a balanced budget, which actually could be interpreted to be in direct conflict with the Code of Virginia, which states, “It shall be the duty of each division Superintendent to prepare, with the approval of the School Board, and submit to the governing body or bodies appropriating funds for the school division, by the date specified in § 15.2-2503, the estimate of the amount of money deemed to be needed during the next fiscal year for the support of the public schools of the school division.” The phrase “deemed to be needed” is what causes one of the conflicts; although, the School Board has not, in my three year tenure here given you a needs-based budget. The Code also states, “that each School Board shall manage and control the funds made available to the School Board for public schools and may incur costs and expenses.” Whether or not the School Budget is being managed properly is the second point of conflict. Certainly, as a Board, it is your duty to ask questions as we go through this process every year.

Recently, things have taken a turn for the worse in terms of the working relationship of the two elected Boards. It has been suggested that the School Board, and by default, staff, has engaged in a willing waste of taxpayer dollars. I can assure you that is not the case. It has been suggested that the School Board, and specifically me as Superintendent, do not have a plan as we move to the future. I can assure you that is not the case. Over the past two plus years, the School Board has been presented with strategic plans addressing the following areas: School bus replacement, replacement of basic technology, not anything new—Ipads, Ipods, tablets, regular desk-top computers, where students and teachers work every day, a 5-year salary improvement process aimed at improving pay and repairing a broken scale, a Phase VI capital improvement program, a plan for a move of the Central Office to Verona, and a detailed overview of the possibilities for a shifting of students to the western part of the County to make use of available capacity in our facilities. To date, the School Board has not been able to implement many of the plans because most require additional resources. I am currently working a more detailed strategic plan which will be shared with this group once it receives School Board approval.

The Board and staff have put the following measures in place to save money over the past three budget cycles. This is a representative sample:

o A shift of cloud computing saving the need to replace approximately 80 servers at a cost of nearly $5,000 each.

o A decision to close Ladd Elementary which to date will save over $630,000 and takes a school in need of renovation out of service. The subsequent Board decision to redistrict students to the newly-renovated Wilson Elementary School was also the correct decision considering the magnitude of the cost. A Central Office move to Verona will save additional money as well.

o The School Board and staff pursued the Qualified School Construction Bond program to save considerable interest on the Wilson Elementary project. Based on our calculation, staff’s pursuit of this funding source saved the County taxpayer nearly $5.3 million in interest.

o A restructuring of the health insurance program two years ago, which offered a base level coverage with the employee having the option to purchase a better plan if he or she so desired at a savings of approximately $900,000 based on the premium rates at the time and the level of participation. It is my understanding that County staff recently met with School Board staff to inquire about how we have changed our insurance program so that you may consider how it would benefit your budget.

o Offered an early retirement incentive in 2011-12 with 31 employees participating.

An incentive was also offered in 2010-11 with 69 employees participating. This allowed considerable savings through the attrition of staff.

o A restructuring of the Employment Training Program saving money for the three participating localities.

o The Board implemented a student activity fee of $25 per athlete per season to help offset some of the cost of offering extracurricular activities. All of this money stays at the school level to assist with maintenance of athletic facilities.

o At the beginning of the year, I issued our Transportation Department a 100,000 mile challenge to reduce deadhead miles. Thus far, it is reported that they have been reduced by nearly 70,000 miles.

The School Board has not used Jobs Bill money to fund positions that cannot be maintained in the future, but instead used those one-time resources to give to give a series of employee bonuses. There have been smart decisions made over the past few years. Can we do more to increase efficiency and keep overhead costs down? The answer to that question is absolutely. We will continue to procure goods and services by the appropriate means. We will continue to leverage our buying power using cooperative purchasing arrangements with other localities and the use of state contracts.

In the meantime, the battle over money continues. At last week’s School Board meeting, Mr. Pyles presented some information related to certain aspects of the School Board Budget. The information that he presented was accurate. The Riverheads School complex did spend nearly $62,000 in water bills. I won’t dispute that. That amount is significantly higher than Buffalo Gap. There is a reason. For months, now, we have worked to identify a significant leak at that complex. Our maintenance staff has worked very closely with Service Authority personnel to identify where the leak is on campus.

Collectively, the efforts of both groups have been unsuccessful. Not because of lack of effort, but we are simply unable to identify the location of the leak using all available methods. Buffalo Gap’s bill does not include any water used to maintain athletic fields since it is done using an old well on site. This was done through a cooperative agreement with the Buffalo Gap High School Sportsman Club. Wilson High School installed a new Bermuda grass playing surface last year—no School Board operating dollars involved in that, by the way. The field required higher than normal irrigation in order to have the field ready for play in the Fall of 2012. Irrigation meters have been installed on all athletic facilities with the exception of the Stuarts Draft High School baseball field and Riverheads High School baseball and softball fields. Those meters are in the works and all pertinent information is currently in the engineering department at the Service Authority.

Our leases, supplies and tech support equipment and hardware budgets have also been called into question. It was requested that we provide a copy of one of our copier machine leases and a year’s worth of copier bills. I have delivered those bills this evening. It is better than two reams of paper and took two employees time to pull them together. It is true that we spend more than $3.2 million in the previously mentioned lines in our budget. From that $3.2 million, approximately $600,000 is for internet connections in our facilities, a significant portion is distributed directly to schools for media materials, consumable materials, etc. It includes allocations for internet security, printer cartridges, and media inventory software. The bandwidth for internet connections was recently upgraded in order to provide a more robust network which could handle the SOL testing requirements.

As you look at the School Board’s Budget, there are a number of things that I would like to point out. I have prepared some basic information for your information.

(Report was displayed for the Board.) Classroom Instruction, as a percentage of our Budget, has remained relatively steady since FY2007, which has been used as a baseline comparison ($63,139,145).

The proposed FY2014 Budget, that was presented to the Board on February 21, was $61,708,249. Expenditures is a percentage of the Budget. Instruction has remained relative steady since FY2007. When you compare with proposed FY2014, it is a $1.43 million difference—from a revised budget to proposed 2014. During 2007, the state provided nearly 60% of our revenue with the County providing nearly 33% and the Federal government nearly 6%. In FY2013, the State provides slightly more than 55%, the County slightly more than 37%, and the Federal government slightly more than 5%.

The residual percentages are made up of local revenues for rents, tuitions, and the like.

As you look at the information, I will not dispute that Instruction, as a percentage of the budget, has reduced from 2007. The numbers don’t lie. We went from 81.8% in 2007, which was considered during a good economic time. We are at 80.73% as we look to next year. I can’t really speak for the budgets from 2006 to 2010 since I was about two hours south and I wasn’t a part of that process. What I would submit that over the last three years, Classroom Instruction has made some small gains from 79.55% to 80.73%. During the same time, we have reduced through attrition 6.3% of our teaching staff and 18.3% cuts in administrative positions, including 40% of our Instructional Department. We have reduced the number of technicians from our Technology Department. Many of those cuts are actually coded to Classroom Instruction because of the nature of their positions based on the guidance that we receive as we report expenditures to the Department of Education that requires us to do it in that manner. So, all of the reductions have not taken place in the classrooms. One sign of that is listed in the other factors toward the bottom of the spreadsheet. In 2007, our elementary and middle school ratios were 17:1 and 22:1 respectively. The proposed FY2014 Budget includes ratios of 18:1 at the elementary level and 22:1 at the middle school level. High school staffing is a bit different because it is based on student requests. When you look at those numbers, it tells me that we are staffed appropriately. Now, could we use more resources? We’ve lost math specialists and other positions as a part of this budget reduction nightmare that we have had over the four of five years. It’s affected everybody.

Although there are numerous examples, I will give you one. Last year, one of our high schools had two Ag teachers, but enrollment only supported one Full Time Equivalent (FTE). When we had an Ag teacher retire, we filled that position from within instead of hiring a replacement—reshuffled the deck and were able to meet the needs of the students in another school—not filling that FTE. It shows up as a reduction in Classroom Instruction, but we didn’t need the position.

If you look at Administration, it has increased from 2007. This has occurred in spite of reducing that department by 3.1 FTEs over the past 6 years. Much of this increase could be attributed to the cost of doing business: Legal fees, health insurance premiums, printing of student handbooks, calendars, and the things that we are supposed to do.

It is true that Attendance and Health has increased from 2007. There are the same number of FTE positions in that area. These are our nurses and clinic aides who provide support directly in schools, plus, our regional coordinator. We have also made a shift from hiring CNAs to LPNs to now RNs and we don’t pay what they pay at the local hospitals and doctors’ offices. As a result, we get a lot of parents, usually, mothers, who have nursing degrees who come to work with us for a while; they take a pay-cut for a short period of time and they realize that approximately a 50% pay-cut may not be as smart as they hoped it would be even though they get additional time with their children.

Long gone are the days where student medication is distributed from a drawer in the main office. When I was a Principal, we did that. Students came in to get medication; we pulled the drawer out in the main office and handed it out, made note of what we had done, and the student went on about his or her business. This slight increase can be attributed to the cost of health insurance premiums, which has actually increased by $30,869.

Transportation has also increased. Over the past few years, our data indicates that we are currently tracking for FY2013 to reduce diesel consumption by 7.1%. We have also reduced the number of FTEs, particularly those in student transportation, by 7 positions. The cost of health insurance, alone, in that area is $120,000 of the $353,236 increase since 2007. In 2007, our average cost per gallon of diesel was $2.24 and average cost of gas was $2.09 per gallon. For 2014, we are projecting an average cost of diesel at $3.39 and gas at $3.04 per gallon.

As a percentage of budget, Operations and Maintenance has decreased; however, in terms of actual dollars, it has increased by more than $275,000. More than $115,000 of that increase since 2007 is related to health insurance. This area is also impacted by the cost of doing business in property and liability insurance rate increases, fuel for our fleet vehicles, and increases in utilities just to name a few.

In addition to health care premium increases, we have also experienced additional costs in each spending category due to VRS rate increases.

There are a number of other factors that are different between the 2007 and 2014 proposed budgets. Budgeted ADM in 2007 was 10,775; we are working right now at 10,250. The Composite Index was .332; it is now .3627 less State dollars. Basic aid per pupil is $196 less than it was in 2007. Based on the number of students we project next year, that would be a little over $2 million of additional State revenue if just the per pupil expenditure was the same.

There has been a fair amount of conversation on the topic of Instruction versus Construction. While it is true that the School Board has engaged in major capital renovations for two decades, this was not done without the support of the past Boards of Supervisors. We have collectively incurred the debt for those improvements. There are a number of things that still need to be done around the division. Of particular concern, is a growing list of capital items that are more routine and don’t include the borrowing of money. That list of over 100 items is nearly $3 million and includes $800,000 in electrical upgrades to Riverheads Elementary School and Verona Elementary School, both of which are of the same era as Cassell Elementary. Other items on the list are roof replacements, equipment replacements, parking lot and sidewalk maintenance just to name a few. The list also contains a number of items that are not critical in day-to-day operations. In the priority ranking from our Maintenance Department, they find themselves lower on the pecking order.

It has been suggested that we cut our substitute expenses or allow dual employment with certain classifications of employees. Our teacher substitute budget is nearly $700,000. Of that number, $227,820 (31%) was used on long-term substitutes.

These individuals must be properly credentialed/licensed in order to perform the long- term duties per DOE guidelines. The use of bus drivers as substitutes would be a possibility in some cases, but would require some shuffling of schedules on the back-end of the day when drivers would have to leave the classroom to complete their routine pre- trip inspections. Although we do have a handful of employees under dual employment currently, we have steered clear of this as a routine practice due to the advice of our attorney under the Fair Labor Standards Act. As non-exempt employees, we pay very close attention to the contracted work hours of our support staff. Instructional Aide positions now fall under the guidance of the DOE. These individuals must meet the standard of highly-qualified, which is defined as having completed 48 semester hours of study at an institution of higher learning; obtain an associate’s degree or higher; or, meet a rigorous standard of quality and be able to demonstrate through an assessment the knowledge and ability to assist in instructing reading, writing and mathematics.

Fortunately for us, many of our Instructional Aides have a 4-year degree in education with a teaching license. Many of these professionals want to be in Augusta County and are trying to get their foot in the door to obtain a teaching job later on. For different times during the day, our students have the benefit of two fully licensed educators in our classrooms as a result.

Last year, the School Board requested, and you granted, additional funding due to the Composite Index loss as well as some additional funding, including an advance on the Ladd closing to be used on capital expenditures. So, I am not here tonight to ask you for anything in particular. My hope is to provide a bit of clarity to a few points; although, it might fall on deaf ears. Even though I am a County taxpayer, as are many of our employees, I don’t want to appear self-serving. Plus, it only continues to fuel the fire.

At the School Board work session last week, the Board discussed bringing you a balanced budget. With our current budget situation, we will not continue to operate as we have in the past. There will potentially be some reductions that are probably long overdue. As a minimum requirement of the State, we will be providing a 2% salary increase for our employees. As I mentioned a few weeks ago during my comments to this Board, we currently rank 9, 10, or 11 among 11 neighboring jurisdictions in salary for teachers at different parts of the scale. The same could be said for other classifications of employees as well. If there are additional funds available, I would only ask that you consider appropriating additional money to be used for employee salaries.

The following spoke in support of the schools:

Mike Harmon; Mary Jane Carter; Jackie McGovern; Tom Gordon; Dale Fair; Bonnie Ball; Jennifer Glick; and Rodney Paxton Mr. Harmon, a teacher, felt that because of the lack of support, qualified administrators and educators were leaving the County schools because of “certain supervisors starving public education”. He noted that programs for at-risk students were being cut. He asked the Supervisors, “Will you be part of the solution, or will you exacerbate the problem?” Ms. Carter, Ms. McGovern, Mr. Gordon, and Rodney Paxton, who are bus drivers, expressed concern of losing their insurance or paying 50%. Because of their salary being less than $12,000, they would be unable to afford the insurance.

Ms. Ball, a teacher, expressed concern of the aging bus fleet, increased student-teacher ratios causing difficulty in teaching larger classes, outmoded technology and paying $25 supplemental for sports activities.

Ms. Glick, a teacher, supported an increase in taxes to meet the needs of the schools.

Chairman Moore appreciated the public input and stated that the Board may respond to those issues later in tonight’s meeting.

FISCAL YEAR – 2013-2014 ARTS GRANT

The Board considered submission of Arts Grant to State for the following programs:

STATE COUNTY TOTAL

Staunton/Augusta Art Center $1,583.33 $1,583.33 $3,166.66 ShenanArts 1,583.34 1,583.34 3,166.68 Stonewall Brigade Band 1,583.33 1,583.33 3,166.66 Shenandoah Valley Art Center 250.00 250.00 500.00 $5,000.00 $5,000.00 $10,000.00 Funding Source: Fine Arts Grant Account #81020-5698 $5,000 Dennis Burnett, Economic Development Director, reported that the purpose of this grant program is to encourage local governments to support the arts. The Commission will match up to $5,000 of monies given by county governments to arts organizations.

Criteria for evaluating applications:

o Artistic quality of the organizations supported by the city/county/town.

o Clearly defined policies and procedures for awarding local funds to arts organizations.

o Degree of involvement of artists and arts organizations in the local process of awarding grants.

o Responsiveness to community needs.

o Evidence of local government support of the arts.

Applications are due April 1, 2013. Mr. Burnett pointed out that if the State funds were not available, the County is not required to do a match.

Beth Hodge, of the Staunton/Augusta Art Center, thanked the Board for its many years of support. She stated that the Art Center is located on New Street in Staunton, Virginia. They have a strict exhibit selection process and exhibit variety that provides a dynamic setting for all residents, potential relocators, and tourists to the area, who appreciate and purchase art year around. In turn gallery exhibits and sales further the professional status of artists and provide them revenue; therefore, they consider themselves an economic stimulant in the area. After one exhibit, which lasted for 6 weeks, “Art for Gifts”, the Center represented 60 artists and was able to “put $32,000 in the pockets of those artists who went to Augusta County and Staunton to spend that money”. “Art in the Park at Gypsy Hill is a two-day art festival over the Memorial Day weekend and serves as a destination point for tourists. A wide variety of art instruction is offered at various times throughout the year. It offers residents of all ages an opportunity to hone their artistic skills and talents and provides paid teaching opportunities to teachers. She distributed information on “The Annual Juried Youth Art Show” to the Board, which runs from March 3rd to March 31st. Ms. Hodge added that they are collaborating with 35 different schools: public, private and independent in the area. She also mentioned that the Center is a nonprofit community service organization founded in 1961 and dedicated to offering diverse experiences in the creation and appreciation of the visual arts to all area citizens and visitors.

Bob Moody, of The Stonewall Brigade Band, reported that this is the oldest continuous municipal band in the United States. Currently, there are 101 active volunteer musicians on roll (over 900 in the history of the group). Out of those 101, 40 are Augusta County residents, 40 are Staunton residents, and the rest are scattered. The Band holds weekly rehearsals from October through May and weekly concerts from June through August. The band continues its community service by providing music for various civic functions, dedication ceremonies, and a benefit Christmas concert where a free-will offering is collected for a local charity.

Mike Conner, Board Chair of ShenanArts, advised that they have been in business 30+ years. “The dividend that I have seen over the past 9 years that I have been a part of the organization is children being employed in the field that they enjoy.” They have done 9 shows since last year and have done multiple music events and have experienced 10 to 15% increase over the past 3 years since they have moved to a new location. He noted that “Senior Mrs. Virginia Pageant” is being hosted here in May immediately following “Fiddler on the Roof”. He thanked the Board for its support.

Piper Groves, Executor Director of the Shenandoah Valley Art Center, reported that this Art Center is a non-profit organization located in Waynesboro and hosts approximately 40 exhibits yearly. They host the “Virginia Fall Foliage Festival Art Show”, which is a significant economic and cultural event. She thanked the Board for its support.

Mr. Burnett noted that the funding source comes out of the Economic Fine Arts Grant Account.

Mr. Beyeler moved, seconded by Mr. Wills, that the Board approve the request.

Vote was as follows: Yeas: Pattie, Karaffa, Shull, Wills, Moore, Beyeler and Pyles Nays: None Motion carried.

ERRONEOUS ASSESSMENT

The Board considered refund as certified by the Commissioner of Revenue and approved by County Attorney for the following:

1. Rexrode Enterprises, LLC, in an amount of $11,891.73 Patrick J. Morgan, County Attorney, advised that, on February 19th, the Commissioner of Revenue, in accordance with § 58.1-3981 of the Code of Virginia, delivered a memorandum reporting that she had corrected the assessment of Rexrode Enterprises, LLC, and certified that a sum of $11,891.73 was overpaid by the company and has asked that the Board of Supervisors authorize the Treasurer to refund the sum overpaid. Mr. Morgan explained that the trucking company had been reporting and paying a Business, Professional and Occupational License tax (BPOL) and appealed their current and previous three years of license taxes based on the tax code 58.1- 3703(C) which exempts motor carriers who are presently registered through the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The same taxpayer had been reporting and paying Personal Property Tax on their truck fleet at the assessed value and have appealed their current and previous three years of tax values based on the tax code 58.1-3511(B) which allows trucking companies to provide the local assessing officers documentation which represents the number of miles traveled in the State of Virginia versus total miles traveled and be assessed a prorated percentage of value. Rexrode Enterprises has been registered and has provided the Commissioner of Revenue documentation to have their truck fleet assessed by prorated mileage. Having reviewed the information, Mr. Morgan recommended that the refund be granted.

Mr. Wills moved, seconded by Mr. Pyles, that the Board approve the request.

Vote was as follows: Yeas: Pattie, Karaffa, Shull, Wills, Moore, Beyeler and Pyles Nays: None Motion carried.

WAIVERS/VARIANCES – NONE

CONSENT AGENDA

Mr. Karaffa moved, seconded by Mr. Wills, that the Board approve the consent agenda as follows:

MINUTES

Approved minutes of the following meetings:

• Staff Briefing Meeting, Monday, February 25, 2013 • Regular Meeting, Wednesday, February 27, 2013

CLAIMS

Approved claims paid since February 13, 2013.

Vote was as follows: Yeas: Pattie, Karaffa, Shull, Wills, Moore, Beyeler and Pyles Nays: None Motion carried.

MATTERS TO BE PRESENTED BY THE BOARD

The Board discussed the following issues:

Mr. Pyles made the following comments:

This budget year started when I read in the paper the School Board wanted us to raise taxes 10¢. That was in January. This is on the heels of last year. As Chairman, I contacted all the rest of my Board members except Mr. Beyeler because he and I already know everything so we don’t need to talk to anybody else. I did share with the rest of them, because they have e-mails, a proposal I had. How could we help the School Board in tough times–tough times for everybody; tough times for the citizens; tough times for the schools; and make note of some of the problems? One of them was the Composite Index. Composite Index, some of you may have been here four or five years ago, when the reassessment was going on, and I tried my darnest to stop that from going through because I predicted what would happen to the Composite Index. School Board members and members of education came up and said, “Go with the reassessment”.

We did and we’re paying for it now. We’re going to get over it next year. The new assessment will be fair; it will be lower; and we’ll have a better relationship and our number one funding source for Augusta County is State funding for education as determined by the Composite Index. What we came up with last year was an additional $3 million for the schools. Nobody else, you talk about the other areas, nobody else was doing that kind of an increase. Some people weren’t hit as hard as we were. The loss of students, the Composite Index, and the general economy all came together and was what they call now “the Perfect Storm” of bad stuff for us. We try very hard to help get us through it recognizing the value of education and what we want to do. One of the ways we did, I don’t know if anybody is interested, we stripped our capital budget. We took $5 million out of capital budget. (He distributed information to the public.) You will see on the left all the stuff we were doing; any of the things we wanted to do in the future, we took them out took out $5 million to try and make it work. When we met with the School Board, was ‘just give us the money’. ‘Just give us the money’ as if we don’t have the responsibility to look at how the money is being spent. This year, when the School Board told us we just needed to raise the taxes 10¢, they’re kind of telling us how we ought to do our job. So I said, ‘Okay, if we want to help each other out, I’ll try and help you out.’ So I asked to look at things; and I look at a lot of other things. Dr. Bishop said I didn’t have anything wrong; I just didn’t understand things. Well, let me just explain to you, like with the water, we are wasting water at Riverheads. We’re wasting it in the high schools.

Here are the volumes used at Stuarts Draft each month of water and sewer the past year: 215,000; 237,000; 192,000; 276,000; 302,000 and 250,000. These are volumes from Riverheads: 532,000; 592,000; 579,000. It’s all over 500,000. Their water bill was $42,000. Stuarts Draft was $21,000. Stuarts Draft is a much bigger school. Why is that? I’m saying either they are not using good practices at Riverheads or they have other problems. $21,000! I don’t know if that’s a big deal to you, but as I look at all of these things; the comparison for Buffalo Gap water, I wasn’t comparing it to Riverheads.

My comparison was Buffalo Gap, because it is not on sewer, used $5,000 last year for all their water needs in the building. Wilson football field uses $5,000 just to water the field.

Now, they say they had some new Bermuda grass and it needed extra water or something, but they used $3,000 last year. Maybe, you know, that’s the cost of doing business, but when I look at other football fields, other schools, they didn’t run so high.

You’re charging our kids $25 to play sports; maybe, we ought to cut back on water a little bit and not do it. I don’t think it is wrong of me to ask that and point it out because I don’t think they’re looking at it. When Dr. Bishop says, ‘Well, they’re diligently looking for this leak.’ Since I went to the Board meeting, Mr. Houser has gotten in touch with the Service Authority and they have taken a meter out there. It was just sitting there until somebody raised the issue. We hear all the time on this Board the School Board wastes money. I don’t know if it is true or not, but shouldn’t I be looking at it? When they talk about tax rates from 48¢ to 58¢, do you know how much our tax rate would have to be just to pay for schools right now? 66¢ because we strip from all these other accounts. If you just had real estate, you would need to do 66¢. What I’m trying to propose and what I bring to them is look at your costs; look at them closely. I just did and I’m going to look at these—and I didn’t expect to get two reams of papers for billings—but I think that’s part of the genius of Zerox, having as many pieces of paper as possible so you will get more money for your copies. When I was in Purchasing, if one company was going to send me one bill for 50 copiers and 50 meters, it wouldn’t take 150 different pages; it would, maybe, take 4 pages and there it is for your monthly bill. I’m going to go through there because I want to see how much we’re paying for the actual copies. We’re paying leases 12 months a year. We don’t operate 3 months of the year for the most part. So we’re paying $360,000 a year for leases. Three months would represent $90,000 that we shouldn’t be paying for because people aren’t using them.

Then I look at things like there is $21,000 worth of leases at Central Office, Maintenance Garage, and Valley Vo-Tech Center. If we were to have the same contract there that we’re putting in this County for 1.5¢ a copy, when I divided the 1.5¢ into the $21,000, it was over 2 million copies. That’s a lot of copies; that’s a lot of stuff to be generated. I don’t know if they’re using that many. I’m going to see. When you figure the lease plus the copies, if you owned your own and you did it for 1.5¢, you would save $20,000. If you did half as many, you would save $30,000. If you did twice as many, it would be about the same. We have to look at it. If they want to fuss at me for looking at it, well, I didn’t set it up this way! I didn’t set it up this way! We’re the ones responsible for ‘taking money from the people’. I got 100 people here tonight and we’ll have other people that don’t want us to spend more money. What I’m trying to do is find out how do we make it all work? I looked at it and I saw that we have 1,542 people receiving medical benefits in the school system. Dr. Bishop, when I brought it up, said “that sounds about right’. That is 6.9 students per employee. Now, put that into focus. If we had a school of 690 kids, that means that we would have 100 employees who would be designated to them. Does a school of 690 need 100 employees? I looked at that all the way and said if I had 14 kids in a classroom and I had a Principal, Assistant Principal, and all this, I had trouble getting past 75, but it is because we have a lot of buildings. I know that. But I’m saying that we have to look at ways to reduce our overhead. When I looked at that, I wasn’t wanting to cut bus drivers salaries. One of the drivers called me today and I said, ‘Okay, would you rather get a 50% increase in pay and have full benefits; or would you rather lose 60?’ He said, ‘Well, yeah, I do. We know people who would do that.’ If 31% of the 90 people we have to have as substitutes every day are for long-term and can’t be used, we still have 60. If we have 40 bus drivers that wanted to increase their pay by 50%– Staunton, in school today, you heard what they have to go through, already, to manage the kids through a mirror they’re looking up here at, I think they can manage them pretty well when they’re right in front of them. Well, let’s hire people who could do both. The County would save $77,000 if we did that with 42 people. I know what you’re saying, ‘Just raise our taxes’. But what I’m telling you is we have to go through and make sure the things are right first and that is what I’m paid to do and do. Mr. Coffield, would there be a room available on Saturday morning? I will be here Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m.

Let me walk through the things I see. You tell me if we shouldn’t clean that up first before we ask for more money.

Mr. Coffield said he would reserve the Smith West room for Saturday at 9:00 a.m.

Mr. Pattie made the following comment:

I wasn’t expecting so many people tonight so I had to scramble and repurpose this PowerPoint for tonight. Why I ran for office, it was a real sacrifice. It was a known sacrifice that I knew I was going to make. When I left to come to this meeting tonight, my 22-month-old son cried. That has an impact on you. I’m the only elected official in God knows how big an area that hasn’t accepted a salary, so I’ve lost thousands of dollars being a Board member. Why am I doing this? I’m doing this because I want to improve my community. My family has roots since the 1700s. I want to improve our school systems. I’ve been working on our Fire and Rescue as well. And I want to see our community well. I’ve got a 6-month-old and a 22-month-old. I have just as much invested as anyone else in this room and I want to see it succeed. My background, I have 22 years of education. I’m a Professor in Management at James Madison.

Education is what I do. Education is what I focus on. I do free consulting for other County school systems in the Valley, helping them with some of their assessments of what they’re doing now with principals and other things. I do have working knowledge of the school systems. If you remember the previous slide that we saw and we reduced the Instruction by $1.4 million since 2007. My instruction versus construction article that I wrote . . . All I’m saying is about priorities. These are tough times. We should prioritize what we’re focusing on. Now, if you look here, it’s a little convoluted. In 2011 and 2012, we increased our debt by about $1.3 million. So we’ve added $1.3 million in debt per year for the Wilson Elementary expansion. At the start of that expansion, we had 2,600 empty school seats. Ladd has issues; we all know that. A lot of our pod schools have issues. At that point, our employees haven’t had raises in x amount of years and we consciously made the decision to increase our spending on capital rather than our people. So that’s one of my big issues and that is why I wrote the instruction versus construction because I do think we should focus on our people. When I teach, I teach how to manage people in organizations and I truly believe that if you focus on the people, that’s when the best things happens to organizations. (Another slide was shown.) So the School Administration building, I’m thrilled at what happened. It turns out we had 7,200 square feet that we could have used for the School Board for 20 years, now, and for the school system. Just two months ago, I would say the majority of this Board, the School Board was for spending $3.5 million on building right over there where the Farmers’ Market is; and I’ve been fighting against this for over a year. I thought $3.5 million was being taken out of our Education and they were going to pay for it by the selling of Ladd. I disagreed with that. I don’t necessarily think we should sell Ladd, but if we do sell Ladd, there is a better way to use it. (Went back to another slide.) The over/under in the very right column, that’s how much money we set a debt limit for the school systems—a $7.2 million. When it is in parentheses like that, that means they have exceeded the debt limit by that much during that year. So during the good years, they surplused $9 million in the capital account and then they used that money to spend on capital. I’m not for selling Ladd, but if we did sell Ladd, and we would propose for how much money could get for it, we could pay down that debt for the next six years bringing up enough money for that 2% raise over the next six years until our debt rolls off enough where we could afford it. So we don’t have to raise taxes, we don’t have to worry about reoccurring revenue. It’s not what everyone wants to hear, but it is the middle way of doing it and it would help the greatest good and it wouldn’t hurt the people. You know, going door-to-door, many of us are familiar within two miles of the 81 Corridor. You start getting out 15 miles, 20 miles out there, towards West Augusta, there are porches that I walked on that I almost fell through. There are people living in mobile homes, running electrical cords to five-foot trailers, living in those. When I was in college, my father was unemployed; I qualified for the Pell Grant. I had to live off of $10 a week for food. And so, you know, last year, we raised the taxes. I think Mr. Karaffa did the math, on a normal car, it was only $60 a year; $60 a year to some of the people I represent is a lot of money. I take raising taxes very seriously. They don’t vote. This isn’t for political reasons. It is because I’m representing all 10,000 people in my District. So if I can find a way to improve the efficiency of schools, to improve instruction, and not raises taxes, I’m going to do that all day. That’s a priority for me. (Next slide). Right now, our revenue split is 50-50. Just to clarify, it’s been confused a few times. I did want to clarify that for you. It does bother me because last year I asked for a Strategic Plan, Dr. Bishop; and you said, ‘We do have one.’ Now, when I think of a Strategic Plan, I ask for these three things. We have some big issues in the County, right? Teacher retirement, a third of Virginia teachers are going to retire in the next ten years so we’re going to have shortage of teachers over the next decade. We have declining school population, which means every year the State is going to give us less and less money. We have ample school space, which is a luxury that if you look at Harrisonburg and some of the other schools, they don’t have. When I think of a Strategic Plan, it is not the ten little plans on buses, on capital and all of these things. I think a Strategic Plan encompasses all of this and tells this Board what we are going to be using in the future to utilize our money; how we’re going to handle future recessions so that teachers don’t have to go without pay for five years. I think it is a reasonable request. I asked for it last year; you said you already had it; you said you would give it to me; I’ve never gotten it. That’s an issue. I asked for the same thing from the Fire Chief. I said, ‘Give us a plan; give me something I can fight for’.

And I went to Dr. Bishop’s office and I said, ‘Give me something to fight for’. Obviously, there are going to be some flaws, there’s going to be some mistakes, there’s going to be some controversy. That’s okay. But we need a plan to move forward. So I proposed a few things to improve our education. I think we can do this. I think Mr. Pyles and many of us on the Board know that there isn’t going to be enough in funds to the schools because of the Composite Index. The assessments are coming in under; the assessed value five years for property. That means five years, ago, during even a worse recession, values of houses were assessed higher than they are now. That’s going to be less. That’s going to be fixed. Those are my thoughts. I just wanted to clarify those for you guys. I appreciate all of you guys staying here to listen to what we have to say. As usual, you guys can always call me; you can always e-mail me. I certainly don’t hide. I don’t mind if people disagree, or agree with me, but I do want to say this is my prospective and clarify it further.

Mr. Wills made the following comment:

Having served both on the School Board and this Board of Supervisors, and having been involved in County government for over 20 years, off and on, I have a little bit of different prospective than the previous two speakers. I have realized that we have to be very careful about public comments we make about each others’ budgets and where each other spend money because the numbers can be right; information behind those numbers are so very important. I think to ask for the information is not wrong; ask for it and get clarification, but to insinuate publicly that money is being wasted, I think it puts both of us in a bad light. From the standpoint of the construction versus instruction, I was on this Board when, in 1991 when I came on, we had gone almost eight years in this County without doing anything at all to school buildings. There was no plan, no capital improvements plan, no nothing. We put a plan together at that point to start forward. At the time that we were planning classroom space, i.e., additions and enlargements to North River, building Churchville Elementary School, we were at a time when population was increasing. Trailers at North River, at that time, that school was busting at the seams, and we did put extra classrooms out there, but I don’t think it was money wasted at that time. Now, we have not grown. Churchville, we sized that school. When the School Board was putting that plan together, there was a plan within the County and at the Supervisor level at that time to bring sewer to Churchville. We had to anticipate growth if sewer was coming. But that plan was stopped after we had already made the plans and started construction. So plans do change and classrooms do show up in the wrong place at times. But I don’t think that all-in-all because we have some extra classrooms in one section of the County, that in the future we have to stop doing our improvements and our upgrades to the existing schools we have. We can’t afford, again, to get back in that position of not doing anything for five years. It just puts you behind the eight ball. We also have to make sure that we take care of our employees. I was one who worked toward a tax increase and worked for a larger tax increase last year on real estate. The reason for that is because I know, at some point in the future, we can’t continue to take money out of capital. We can’t take one-time money out and use it for year-to-year. We have to got to replace that money some time; not in that fund, but we have to have it for the operating budget. I would much rather do a couple of small tax increases, than I would do one large one. That’s probably what we’re going to be faced with doing a couple of 2¢, 3¢, 4¢ increases, rather than one 10¢ increase. That’s kind of where I come from. I know that some of my colleagues disagree with me on that and I respect their opinion, but I have mine on that. All-in-all, though, I do think we need to try to fund the schools in a manner that protects our employees as much as possible and I will work through the budget session; I won’t promise you anything, tonight, because I haven’t seen the School Board Budget and I haven’t seen the County Budget, and won’t see them until the end of March; but, once I get them in hand, I will work and try to make sure that our employees are taken care of.

Mr. Beyeler made the following comment:

Thank everyone for coming tonight; it’s good to see a big crowd out here. I’ve been on the Board; this is my 26th year, now. I’ve seen a lot of things happen in Augusta County; a lot of things. And, to the gentleman talking about bus driving, I graduated from Wilson High School; and back in those days, Mr. Paxton is back there; he and I both drove a school bus, and we were in high school. Now, I’m not recommend that, today, but I’m here to tell you that our record was as good as the rest. I understand the responsibility to do that. I began driving a bus in November and I was the third bus driver that year. The other two quit because it got too rough for them and they looked at me and said, ‘You look like you can take care of them,’ and we did. They had cut a bunch of seats and they broke a bunch of windows and that didn’t happen after I got on that bus. Those were the good ole days. Now, bus drivers can’t do, today, what we did back then. Let me thank everybody for coming. I appreciate you coming and expressing your opinion. I’ve always had trouble saying too much before you have the information. We do not have the County Budget; we do not have the School Budget; we do not know what the tax assessments are going to be; and some people can’t help but talk about things they don’t know what they’re talking about. I just say, ‘Hey, get your information and then go by that.’ We, in Augusta County, have a good school system. We, in Augusta County, will continue to have a good school system. If it takes tax increases to do it, yes, we can do that, too. I don’t want anybody go out here and think that I will support something because I don’t know what we’re talking about at this point. Why make all these comments before you don’t know what you’re talking about? Now, you all have seen the School Budget. You’re here requesting money. I understand that. That’s natural and that’s what you should do. Again, thank you for coming.

Mr. Shull made the following comment:

I would like to thank everyone for coming out. I praise all of out teachers in Augusta County. Could I see a show of hands how many are teachers here tonight? Bus drivers; how many? I appreciate everything that you all do and I know it’s a big risk when you’re out there on that road. Parents at Riverheads have said many times with their students that have to travel from Riverheads to Beverley Manor. We lose hour’s education riding buses every day. We face the liability with them on the road. It’s a lot or responsibility there. I will make one comment. The salary that we get up here is less than the bus drivers. I understand where you’re coming from. I have two kids in Riverheads. They started out in Riverheads. I’m a product of Riverheads all the way through except from Spotswood for the first two years. If I turned out poorly, it’s because of our education; but I don’t think that I did all that bad. As far as the sports there, I have a daughter that plays sports and I hear it from some of the older people and they say, ‘Well, we don’t have kids in schools no more’. I pay the $25 and I’m willing to pay it because a lot of parents say, ‘Well, my kids don’t participate in sports’. I know we have extra costs and I’m willing to pay that for my daughter to play the sports that she plays. We are facing a lot of challenges. Riverheads is 40 years old; just as Verona. We’re going to have to look at what we need to do there. As Mr. Beyeler said, we don’t have all the facts and figures before us. I think that each one of you know that we came through last year. We didn’t let you down. I don’t think we’re going to let our kids and our teachers down for what is needed. In the upcoming weeks, we’ll be looking at it and see what we need and we’ll do what we can do. As Mr. Pattie said, we represent 10,000+ people in our District. Not only do you chew on our ear with what you need, we get a lot of chewing from a lot of other people, too. We have to try to represent them all. Somewhere, we have to meet in the middle. I think that’s what we’ll do. We’ll do our best.

Mr. Karaffa made the following comment:

(It was mentioned in the crowd that there were cafeteria workers here tonight.) How many cafeteria workers do we have tonight? I really do appreciate everybody coming out. I agree with a lot of the comments that were said up here, especially, yes, we do make less than a bus driver. We do not get retirement. We do this job because it is what we believe in and it is how we want to serve the public. School Budget is tight. I understand that. The County Budget is going to be tight. I understand that. It’s a tough job. Nobody really wants to deal with it; nobody really wants to sit down with a pencil and draw lines. They all have meanings behind it and it is all going to affect either our lives or our children’s lives so they are all important. A couple of facts. You see a lot of numbers bounce back and forth. This one up, this one down, this one up, and so forth.

Mr. Shull is right. We put forth $3 million. We stood up to help public schools when they needed it. We’ve seen the numbers where the amount per pupil has gone up steadily that is invested in our children. We have seen where the percentage of total revenue coming into the County, that has gone into schools, has gone up steadily; not as fast as some may wish, and I understand that, and I appreciate that. But it can cause some general frustration. When I speak to some of my constituents, who are living in poor conditions, who work two and three jobs, that don’t have health insurance and they hear about the possibility that their taxes may go up by something of 10¢, they freak out; because as much as Dr. Pattie was saying he had been living on $10 a week for food, so are these folks. It is probably not $10; it’s probably $20, but it only buys what $5 did back then. There are two sides to the balance that we have to take into consideration. It is frustrating when I talk to those folks and they say to me, ‘Where is all the money going?’ It is frustrating for me as well. I wrote a letter and put it into the newspapers and I was talking about the mandates that are coming down from the State level. They are steadily increasing. The cost of doing business is steadily going up, but we’re not seeing those revenues that are going into the schools ending up in the classrooms. I got an e-mail today with new requirements for 2013 from our General Assembly and a lot of them are tied to schools. My question is, how much of that money is going to actually make it into the classroom? How much of those requirements in mandates and expenditures is going to make it into the classroom? You want to talk about frustration? We could fund more dollars into schools that would cover all of these new regulations and you can see no help in the classroom, that’s frustrating. The problem, ladies and gentlemen, is you need to communicate to your State representatives. The problem is a lot with the SOL structure. We talk about how we need computers. There are strings of laptops plugged into cords that are sitting in some of our elementary schools, and other schools, that are only used a couple of times a year for SOL requirements. The reason they are laptops is because the schools don’t support the Ethernet connections to plug them in and we have to use ???. We can’t have them all plugged into the walls at the same time because it will throw the breaker. The requirement is that we have the laptops, not that we fix the school. It is extremely frustrating when we see these regulations come from Richmond with people who know best how to run our school systems, our parents, and our teachers and right here are School Board and School Administrator. Now, I respect very much the School Administrator and what he is trying to do. I respect very much he has come forward with information about the budget. I do want to point out two things. When somebody asks that we be part of the solution, well, we try. The second part was somebody said that kids are coming to school only on the days that we have sports, and that sports are the things that are making them show up. That makes me angry. Parents should be making sure that their kids show up to school. Parents should be communicating with their teachers and listening when their child is misbehaving or not showing up. Responsibility needs to be left at the feet of the parents who are not parenting and not at the feet as a reason to keep sports in schools. I’m going to wrap up by saying that we do not have all the information. I agree with Mr. Beyeler that there are principles that must be upheld. Before we look at a tax increase, we are going to look at the system. If the system isn’t working, than us just putting money into it so that more requirements and mandates can be fulfilled before we even get to fixing the problems in the classrooms, doesn’t make sense.

Chairman Moore made the following comment:

I first would like to thank everyone for coming. This is a great crowd. This is really not our public meeting on budget, so what I would ask is that, as we do go through the process, Mr. Beyeler is exactly right, we don’t have a lot of the information that needs to go into the decision-making process for the Budget. As we get that information, and we start compiling the Budget, we will have a public hearing on the Budget, and at that point, I ask that you all come back because you all are a very passionate group about the schools. There is another passionate group out there that absolutely does not want any taxes raised at all. I think it is important that we hear from everybody at our public hearing. A couple of things that were brought up. The solution we have come up with getting Central Offices down here, I think the School Board voted last week to make that move. I think that is a great solution. The problem was the construction cost and that is the reason they’ve been in those old buildings as long as they have is that no one wanted to pull capital money away from kids to do something with Administration. Up till just recently, we didn’t know there was 7,200 additional square feet here in Verona that we could utilize. By being able to utilize that, and reallocate or moving some people around within the building, I think we’ve come up with a good solution to getting everybody down here at a fraction of cost of what something new would have been. I will have to disagree with Mr. Karaffa. I think our technology is grossly under-funded. That is something that I will fight for. It is a huge ticket item to buy computers. The Ladd asset, the school where Ladd is, once it closes this year will become an asset. Once the School Board moves out of that office buildings, that will become an asset. What we do with those buildings is still yet to be determined. One point I’ll make on the capital side is there are 21 schools that we currently have before we close Ladd. Typically, we do construction project; we finance them for 20 years. With 21 schools, if we’re not constantly working on something, then we have problems because we have not updated things that need to be updated. After 20 years, things start getting worn out. As Mr. Shull said, we have a school that we are utilizing right now in Riverheads that is 40 years old. There are needs that have to be addressed even though they are expensive. I think everybody knows I served on the School Board for eight years and I have been accused of being too close to the School Board, but every one of those eight years, I signed off on that Budget and I thought it was a good budget and the best budget that we could come up with. I will say that I will continue to be an advocate for schools and doing what we can for not only the students but our employees and the families that are tied to our schools.

A ten-minute break was taken at 8:45 p.m.

Mr. Wills:

1. General Assembly 2013 –information had been given to the Board on new requirements on local governments. It did not include requirements contained in the budget. The document was assembled with the assistance of the Virginia Municipal League and the staff of the Commission on Local Government.

* * * 2. Fire & Rescue – Weyers Cave Voluntary Fire Company, Inc. – Agreement Mr. Wills advised that an agreement had been previously distributed to the Board. He noted a change made on Page 2, Paragraph 6: “75% County/25% WCVFC”. The reason for this change is that the ambulance, men and equipment is being provided by the County. Other agreements indicated 65%/35% because they provided the equipment. The only thing that Weyers Cave is providing is the building.

Mr. Wills moved, seconded by Mr. Pattie, that the Board approve the agreement, as revised.

Vote was as follows: Yeas: Pattie, Karaffa, Shull, Wills, Moore, Beyeler and Pyles Nays: None Motion carried.

* * * 3. Fire & Rescue – Used Ambulance – 2002 Diesel An ambulance is available from Buena Vista Fire Department; ten days have been given for acceptance of the offer at a cost of $50,000, including minor repairs and equipment. Mr. Wills has offered $25,000 out of his infrastructure account and asked if other Supervisors wanted to participate.

Fire Chief Carson Holloway reported that the ambulance is a 2002 International Detroit Diesel with 116,000 miles. There are no major problems. It has been projected to serve five to seven years and will be put on the road by mid-April.

Mr. Wills moved, seconded by Mr. Pattie, that the Board approve the request with the following funding sources:

Middle River Infrastructure Account #80000-8012-79 $17,500 North River Infrastructure Account #80000-8013-41 17,500 Pastures Infrastructure Account #80000-8014-86 5,000 Wayne Infrastructure Account #80000-8017-82 5,000 Beverley Manor Infrastructure Account #80000-8011-65 $ 5,000 $50,000 Vote was as follows: Yeas: Pattie, Karaffa, Shull, Wills, Moore, Beyeler and Pyles Nays: None Motion carried.

* * * Mr. Shull: Riverheads Volunteer Fire Company – asked if the gutters that were damaged during the snow storm have been repaired. Fire Chief Holloway said that roofers have looked at the project of installing snow brakes, but was unable to take care of that before damage occurred. Insurance claims have been made and they are getting estimates. They will proceed with repairs as quickly as possible.

Chairman Moore: Preston L. Yancey – Fire Chief Holloway is working on shower issues. Infrastructure funding has been allocated for repairs.

MATTERS TO BE PRESENTED BY STAFF – NONE

CLOSED SESSION

On motion of Mr. Wills, seconded by Mr. Beyeler, the Board went into closed session pursuant to:

(1) the personnel exemption under Virginia Code § 2.2-3711(A)(1) [discussion, consideration or interviews of (a) prospective candidates for employment, or (b) assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, disciplining or resignation of specific employees]:

A) Boards and commissions (see attached) (2) the legal counsel exemption under Virginia Code § 2.2-3711(A)(7) [consultation with legal counsel pertaining to actual or probable litigation regarding Fire & Rescue, as permitted under subsection (A) (7)].

(3) the economic development exemption under Virginia Code § 2.2-

3711(A)(5)

[discussion concerning a prospective business or industry or the expansion of an existing business or industry where no previous announcement has been made of its interest in locating or expanding its facilities in the county]:

A) Industrial Prospect On motion of Mr. Pyles, seconded by Mr. Wills, the Board came out of closed Session.

Vote was as follows: Yeas: Pattie, Karaffa, Shull, Wills, Moore, Beyeler and Pyles Nays: None Motion carried.

The Chairman advised that each member is required to certify that to the best of their knowledge during the closed session only the following was discussed:

1. Public business matters lawfully exempted from statutory open meeting requirements, and 2. Only such public business matters identified in the motion to convene the executive session.

The Chairman asked if there is any Board member who cannot so certify.

Hearing none, the Chairman called upon the County Administrator/ Clerk of the Board to call the roll noting members of the Board who approve the certification shall answer AYE and those who cannot shall answer NAY.

Roll Call Vote was as follows:

AYE: Pattie, Karaffa, Wills, Moore, Shull, Beyeler and Pyles NAY: None The Chairman authorized the County Administrator/Clerk of the Board to record this certification in the minutes.

ADJOURNMENT

There being no other business to come before the Board, Mr. Beyeler moved, seconded by Mr. Wills, the Board adjourned subject to call of the Chairman.

Vote was as follows: Yeas: Pattie, Karaffa, Shull, Wills, Moore, Beyeler and Pyles Nays: None Motion carried.

Chairman County Administrator H3-13min.13