HomeMy Public PortalAbout2009_tcwsmin0908Council Work Session
September 8, 2009
Council Chambers, 25 West Market Street, 7:30 p.m. Mayor Umstattd presiding.
Council Members Present: David S. Butler, Thomas Dunn, II, Katie Sheldon
Hammier, Marty Martinez, Kevin Wright and Mayor Kristen Umstattd
Council Members Absent: Ken Reid. Council Member Dunn left at 8:45 p.m.
Staff Present: Town Manager John Wells, Town Attorney Jeanette Irby, Deputy
Town Manager Kaj Dentler, Director of Public Works Tom Mason, Chief of Police Joe
Price, Director of Planning and Zoning Susan Berry Hill, Director of Plan Review Bill
Ackman, Deputy Director of Planning and Zoning Brian Boucher, Zoning
Administrator Chris Murphy, Assistant to the Town Manager Scott Parker, Research
Manager Betsy Fields, Senior Planner Mark Browning, and Clerk of Council Lee Ann
Green
AGENDA ITEMS
1. Work Session Items for Discussion:
a. County Wide Transportation Plan Referral
This item was deferred until September 21, 2009.
b. Rules of Order
This item was deferred until September 21, 2009. Council Member Butler
distributed his changes.
Mr. Wells noted Council Member Wright had requested that staff consolidate
the ethics information in one place.
c. 2010 Legislative Agenda
Mr. Dentler noted there are five specific items on the draft legislative agenda
thus far. He stated they are 1) road funds to alleviate regional roadway
congestion, 2) long term transportation funding for projects in the VDOT six-
year plan including the Sycolin Road flyover, 3) state support for a GMU campus
in Leesburg, 4) insurance coverage for children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum
Disorder, and 5) restoration of 599 police funds. He noted the Council has
endorsed all of these in the past.
Mayor Umstattd requested that #2 be moved to the #1 priority.
Council Member Butler requested language to emphasize the flyover as the
top priority and that the widening of the bypass can wait.
Council Member Wright stated a very specific request for funding for the
flyover should be made. He stated the Town may need to partner with the
County to push for the acceleration lane to Rt. 9, as this may delay the need for
the widening of the bypass. He requested traffic counts for Battlefield.
Mr. Wells stated the new counts will be performed in October.
Town Council Work Session of September 8~ 2009 Page 2
Council Member Martinez stated there is still a concern about pedestrians
crossing the bypass near Fort Evans Road and Edwards Ferry Road.
Mayor Umstattd noted there is a problem that the crossing points are too far
apart to build only one pedestrian bridge.
Council Member Martinez suggested a walking path along the bypass from
Battlefield to Fort Evans Road and one pedestrian bridge at Fort Evans Road. He
stated that will get some pedestrians off the shoulder of the bypass.
There was discussion regarding possible solutions to the problem of
pedestrians crossing the bypass and walking on the shoulder of the bypass. It
was suggested that this be discussed with VDOT since these are VDOT
maintained roads.
Council Member Hammier requested that #5 be moved to #4 and the
inclusion of wording about Towns retaining their authority to set their water and
sewer rates.
Mr. Wells suggested Council return with other changes at the next work
session.
d. Police Department Stimulus Grant Update
Chief Price stated the Town has applied for three grants, two of which are
part of the stimulus package. He stated the COPs program grant would fund
four positions for the Police Department for three years at 100% up to a capped
salary. Anything over that would be the responsibility of the jurisdiction. He
-- stated this differs from previous COPs grants as they were always on a sliding
scale. He stated as part of the stimulus package, this program would pay 100%
up to the salary cap for three years. He stated there were a significant number
of applications for these positions. He stated one billion dollars was allocated,
which is estimated to cover about 5,500 positions, but over 7,300 applications
were received equaling about $8.3 billion. The program was able to fund only
about 13% of the applications. He stated the Town has not been denied, but
has been moved to ~~pending" status. He stated the formula was primarily based
on fiscal need, but also on crime index. He noted the maximum number of
positions any one jurisdiction could receive was 50, which was granted to the
District of Columbia, which accounts for 0.19% of the population of the country.
Virginia accounts for 2.51% of the total population of the country and received
31 positions and Maryland accounts for 1.82% of the population and they
received 112 positions. He stated the formula based each jurisdiction on a fiscal
need index and then on a crime/community policing index. He stated the top
candidate in the Commonwealth of Virginia was the City of Petersburg whose
fiscal need index was calculated at 72% and crime index at 99.7% giving them a
total of 99%. The Town of Leesburg was calculated with a fiscal need of 14.3%
and a crime index of 27.8% for a total of 18.8%, which puts the Town very far
down in the list of jurisdictions needing assistance, but reflects very positively on
the Town from an economic standpoint and a crime standpoint.
Chief Price stated the other two grants are still in a pending review process.
Council Member Dunn stated there was some confusion on previous
presentations about the shortfalls that Leesburg Police is experiencing as
Town Council Work Session of September 8, 2009 Page 3
compared to other jurisdictions. He stated there is some confusion as to
whether the Chief is requesting additional officers.
Chief Price stated the department is very proud of the work they have done
and use the Strategic Plan as the basis for budget submissions. He stated in
FY2010, based on the economic situation faced by the Town, it was felt that it
would not be appropriate to request the number of officers shown in the
Strategic Plan. He stated the Police Department does an extremely effective job
in keeping the community safe but due to a number of factors including the
economy, the urbanization of the community and improved transportation, the
nature of crime in Leesburg is changing. He discussed the future need for the
deployment of additional officers. He stated during the budget process would be
the timeframe to go through those discussions. He reviewed the training
process and verified that the department could only handle 6-8 new hires at any
given time.
Council Member Dunn verified that the two new hires from the budget process
did not make it into the August training session at the Academy.
Chief Price stated one of the new hires is a former officer who will not need to
be retrained at the Academy and will be ready for deployment in November. He
stated the other officers in the hiring process are coming from other law
enforcement agencies and thus are already certified. He stated they anticipate
the four new hires will be ready on or before November 1.
Council Member Dunn questioned whether the Chief bases his needs on
presumed budget restrictions.
Chief Price clarified he follows the adopted Strategic Plan and also uses
workload metrics to establish what the staffing needs will be. He stated his
realization that the Town would face financial constraints during FY2010; he felt
it better not to ask for additional officers at that time.
Council Member Dunn questioned whether the Town is short 20 officers and
yet no additional officers were requested.
Chief Price stated the 20 officers are a metric for the Council and the public to
consider when making budgetary decisions. He stated the department has a
good crime record -size of population, geographic area, and calls for service.
Council Member Dunn stated during the budget process, the majority of
Council did not want to fund additional officers until after it was ascertained
whether the Town would receive any COPs grant money. He questioned where
the funds for the two additional downtown officers came from.
Mr. Wells stated money will be utilized from existing general fund
appropriations. He stated the Council authorizes the General Fund budget, not
individual department budgets, and authorizes total FTEs. He stated those
positions can be reallocated within the General Fund.
Council Member Dunn questioned why this was not brought back to Council
since the majority of Council did not want to fund any new officers until after the
COPs grants had been awarded.
Town Council Work Session of September 8, 2009 Page 4
Mr. Wells stated due to circumstances at the time, he felt there was a desire
from the community and the Council that added public safety visibility was
needed at that time.
Council Member Dunn stated he was for that all along.
Chief Price noted the reduction of 599 funds by the Commonwealth to local
jurisdictions may affect the budget by between $60,000-$70,000. He stated
this may be an immediate cut or made during upcoming quarters.
Mr. Wells stated staff will be monitoring the Governor's plan to deal with
shortfalls at the State level. He added he will be providing an update regarding
the Town's financial situation in October.
Council Member Butler noted due to the Town's situation compared to other
jurisdictions, it is unlikely the Town will receive the COPs funding.
Council Member Wright recapped the FY2010 budget process. He noted this
included the addition of two officers paid for from the Town budget even though
they had not been requested and the grant application for four additional officers
with a reassessment of need after decisions on the grants had been made and
presently we will have four new officers by the end of November which includes
the two originally approved in the budget and the two emergency allocation
positions. He clarified that the other jurisdictions compared to Leesburg are not
all towns and but some are cities and counties with jails and court systems so
have higher needs for personnel. He noted that our main benefit of being
-- county residents is we have the benefit of the Sheriff's department for the
Courts and the county jail. He questioned how many officers the department is
looking for in the Strategic Plan for FY2010 and FY2011.
Chief Price responded that one of the initial officers in the department's
strategic plan for FY2011 is the school resource officer for Tuscarora High
School, which is slated for opening in fall of 2010. He stated FY2010 the
Strategic Plan shows the need for three additional officers and FY2011 shows
four additional officers. Further, he stated in response to citizen and Council
requests for additional traffic officers, the plan shows a need one traffic
supervisor, two traffic officers and one school resource officer. He discussed a
need to migrate the traffic officers into core business district officers, as needed,
for the major commercial centers in the Town.
Council Member Wright clarified that the plan called for three officers for
FY2010 and now there will be four. Further, the plan for FY2011 calls for four
officers so the Town is ahead of the Strategic Plan.
Chief Price added that, as in the past, the funding for the SRO would be
requested as anon-departmental grant from the County.
Council Member Wright questioned whether the Town should look for
additional resources for the two additional officers that were not covered by
grants or whether, in Chief Price's estimation, the Town can wait until the next
budget cycle to re-evaluate the need for additional officers.
Town Council Work Session of September 8, 2009 Page 5
Chief Price responded that the department can wait until the next budget
cycle to evaluate the need for additional officers.
Vice Mayor Hammler stated she was pleased the department was anticipating
the need for additional commercial area policing, which was one of her concerns.
She questioned whether the latest rash of car break ins is the result of youths
breaking into cars or cars being unlocked, as in the last episode.
Chief Price stated the majority of the time, the vehicle owner cannot
remember whether the car was locked, but there is no sign of forced entry. He
advised residents to keep their cars locked.
Vice Mayor Hammler stated the Town receives assistance from other agencies
for higher profile crimes such as hostage taking, homicides and armed robberies
so the main concern on a daily basis is for the chronic problems.
Council Member Martinez stated Council depends on Chief Price's expertise in
knowing what his staffing levels need to be in order to keep the Town safe. He
stated it appears the Town is not as far behind as some would like everyone to
think in keeping up with the Strategic Plan. He questioned whether not having
as many officers per 1000 as other jurisdictions affects Leesburg Police
Department's ability to keep people safe.
Chief Price stated there are a multitude of metrics used in determining the
number of officers needed, not just the officers per 1000 number. He stated
that number is valuable to give the community and the Council a common
measuring device to be able to compare it to another community. He stated the
-- budget is a planning process; a one year snapshot of what is needed to
incorporate the Strategic Plan. He stated they look at how the community is
changing, how the requests for service are changing and how the department
can address those changes.
Council Member Martinez asked Chief Price to describe how the County
Sheriff's department works with the Town.
Chief Price described regular meetings to discuss cases and crime trends. He
stated some of their major cases have impact on the Town and some of the
Town's major cases have impacts in the County.
Vice Mayor Hammler noted the Town should have requested funding for the
SRO for Tuscarora at the time water and sewer was being negotiated with the
County for the high school.
Mr. Wells stated the new high school will constitute a large portion of the
public safety requests for next year. He stated the Town is in conversations with
the County budget office and the County Administrator's office regarding this
subject.
Council Member Wright noted the County has not denied this funding, but
might need to be reminded of their obligation.
Mayor Umstattd clarified that the four new police officers puts the department
ahead of staffing needs by one officer for Year One of the Strategic Plan. She
Town Council Work Session of September 8, 2009 Page 6
questioned whether the Town will still need the two officers identified in Year
Two of the Strategic Plan. She discussed the need for officers for Village at
Leesburg.
Chief Price stated that is under the assumption that things do not dramatically
change. He stated things will not change overnight. He stated Wegman's will
have security and will supplement their security forces with additional off-duty
officers during the grand opening period and holiday season. He noted the
representatives of the Village at Leesburg did not have an interest in providing
additional security for the remainder of the site.
Vice Mayor Hammler stated her highest priority is those issues that involve
citizen safety, welfare and well-being issues. She stated if the management of a
private shopping center is not protecting its own businesses, then officers cannot
be taken from the neighborhoods.
Mayor Umstattd agreed most citizens want to keep their neighborhoods safe.
She stated she hopes the management of Village at Leesburg changes their
mind regarding how seriously they need to take the issue of safety of their
customers. Further, she added there have been no members of Council who
have opposed the hiring of new police officers. She stated everyone is sensitive
of the Police Department's needs.
Council Member Butler stated he would like to make sure the Town residents
are getting the same amount of service from the Sheriff's office as those County
residents who do not live within the Town limits.
~- 2. Additions to Future Council Meetings
None
3. Closed Session
Mayor Umstattd made the following motion:
Pursuant to Section 2.2-3711(A)(3) of the Code of Virginia, I move that the
Leesburg Town Council convene in a closed
The motion was seconded by Council Member Wright and approved by the
following vote:
Aye: Butler, Dunn, Hammler, Martinez, Wright and Mayor Umstattd
Nay:. None
Vote: 6-0-1 (Reid absent)
Mayor Umstattd made the following motion:
In accordance with Section 2.2-3712 of the Code of Virginia, I move that
Council certify that to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business
matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements under the Virginia
Freedom of Information Act and such public business matters as were identified
in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened were heard, discussed
or considered in the meeting by Council.
The motion was seconded by Council Member Martinez and approved by the
following vote:
Town Council Work Session of September 8, 2009 Page 7
Aye: Butler, Hammier, Martinez, Wright and Mayor Umstattd
Nay: None
- Vote: 5-0-2 (Dunn, Reid absent)
4. Adjournment
On a motion by Council Member Martinez, seconded by Council M
Wright, the meeting was adjourned at 9:42 p.m. .^, ~
i
L ~~
Clerk of Council
2009 tcwsmin0908