lester to make sure he's aware and can
add them in as appropriate
thank you for what you do thank you
kelly
thank you
next for public comment concerning the
budget is kim
help me fife i apologize kim
so i'm kim vapp i am a part of the
library board and i you know go pretty
much what kelly said that there is some
salary issues that we would like to see
that addressed in the budget because we
have several workers for the library
some i know one of them has been there
for 20 years we've got a really good
loyal staff and you know
with the increase in minimum wage and
stuff most new people are making similar
as what they've made after 10 15 or 20
years so we'd like to see that reflected
please
thank you thank you
okay
this is the two comments that i have on
my list is there anyone else here that
would like to make a comment concerning
uh tonight's budget
meeting
i'm with the home acre lions club and we
have submitted a donation request for
help with our independence day
celebration for july 2nd
just wanted to see if we could get some
help from the board of supervisors
they've been a big help to us in the
past
name and address please uh my name's
josh barrett
uh address is 1079 wiser valley road
home acre
thank you thank you thank you
thank you mr barrett i appreciate it
anyone else in the room that would like
to address
concerns on the budget hearing tonight
i don't believe i hear anybody all right
thank you mr lester i'll turn it over to
you
thank you madam chair um
of course everyone knows that
this is uh if rosa county fy 2223 budget
that that board of supervisors has
already set the tax rate there was no
tax increases on either real estate
personal property machine and tool
throughout the county for
the fiscal year 22 and 23 which is good
news with the rate of inflation they had
concerns about putting any additional
burdens onto camp rosso county citizens
um
but again we're back here today and as
some of you all know you've been
watching the news and some of the
audience has
the government the state virginia has
still not proved its budget so
we as the county have our numbers
compiled all of our departments have
submitted we're also
re
having rediscussions with them as the
information comes in and updating their
numbers as they come in but again the uh
the government the state of virginia has
not fully you know
adopted the budget as of yet and the
governor has signed it
so
we are having a workshop next
tuesday at uh six o'clock in here with
the board of supervisors there's
additional public hearing if anybody
wants to speak but again we're waiting
on the state numbers thank you madam
chair
thank you mr lester and moving on on the
agenda
is another citizen's comment so
this could be
outside the realm of the
budget so if there's anybody here that
has something they need to talk about
that'll be a fine time to do that
kelly is not going to miss an
opportunity
i'm actually just curious i know
mr lester had talked about how difficult
the situation was and i was just curious
how it panned out that
we're managing to have a balanced budget
because is this
so the um
what is it the prison the uh
southwest virginia regional jail we're
staying level there
it it's as it's a various of things that
we the board of supervisors has worked
on
uh
of course we work on a very fine line
margin as far as our operations and then
we look at anywhere that we can do a
cost there's no additional revenue and
the cost of inflation is going up
so
of course the regional jail is won we're
working many of the community work
program and that is saving a lot on the
jail so
we've also have worked on uh additional
things like disposal trash
uh leche throughout the county trying to
cut our costs on various operations
and we're down to now and to where uh
we're working within our means as
as the saying goes but again we're we're
trying to and we will be delivering the
same amount of services that we do
without raising taxes throughout the
county and again we're open you know for
any cuts or additional you know
efficiencies in operation so it's about
it's a various of things and i want to
thank all the county
russell county departments were working
with us everybody has been so great
through this and everybody has has
worked so hard at trying to get these
numbers this closes that we have without
knowing what the government has said
and and we are dependent on you know
each other for this so again thank you
russell county departments
okay um
we're ready for our adjournment we don't
have any comments but
since it's a budget workshop okay just
bring up a recommendation for everybody
think about you can okay thank you thank
you madam chair
uh
i know back
years ago when me and steve was on the
budget committee we
had a great relationship with everybody
and i made a comment that i felt like
that all the money
was
in one pot which everybody argued with
me and said no when we budget it to
certain entities they can do whatever
they want to with their money but
uh a recommendation that i have
to help us and help the county to get
through this troublesome time
is
uh
i was made aware that
uh we're doing pretty good i guess i
guess the county administrator and the
budget committee can answer this
question but
on the insurance itself i mean we we
were able to battle through that and
really
uh
sustain and keep a lot of money in that
but
uh
something i recognized i guess through
the budget is that
we had an opportunity to get two million
dollars back from the school system
instead they put it in the entrance fund
and they didn't give it back to the
county and i felt like that
if we'd had that additional money
because we're not going to allow the
insurance to go
but you know up
but this would have really helped us
tremendously because i know that fire
department rescues are going to need
additional radios for the new upgrades i
know that
we're going to have to meet some of the
requirements that's coming down and i
know it's going to be tight
but i would like to see legally if there
was a way because we all work together
consistently and we have a great working
relationship with the school system but
if if half of that could have came back
to us we would have been
in really good shape
really good shape
and
we could have met those requirements
that have been requested
but instead of them giving it back to us
they put it in the insurance fund which
i understand there's some legal
requirements in regards to that
but to me it's all one pot of money and
we all got to work together to make sure
that we sustain ourselves financially so
if we would have got half of that back
we could have
kind of got over the hurdle here with
some of these budget
issues without having to look at raises
raising anything or coming up some new
funding initiatives until we can get
more businesses more jobs and get
through this inflation uh situation but
madam chair i appreciate your time with
this and i just want everybody to kind
of consider that and look and see what
our legal uh opportunity is to take half
or a million of that and put it back
into our
uh opportunity funds or general funds
and then i talked to horse about this
and uh we
had a good conversation about it and
uh since you know he's on the budget
committee and
uh i i didn't get a chance to talk to
miss die i've been working in dickens
account didn't have no cell phone
service so
i've just been able to hit and miss but
if we could look into that i think that
because we're not gonna let the
insurance go belly up but if there's
seven eight nine million dollars in it
and we can take a million
and help us to help balance this i think
we'd be
in real good shape and some of these
requests and requirement requests could
be fulfilled
thank you anybody else want to say
anything concerning
mr eaton's remarks on the insurance
i would like to say something
in behalf of what he said
that has been done in the past
and you feel like it's
it's within our bounds in our
jurisdiction to be able to do it again
well i'm not a lawyer uh but i felt like
that
being on the budget committee we asked
all the different departments if they
had any additional revenues and they
weren't going to spend those revenues if
they could give it back to us because
we're all in this together and it would
help us as a board to be able to help
balance our budget
but instead they put the money in the
insurance fund they didn't give it back
to the county and and we're not going to
let that insurance go belly up we didn't
when we when we went through that rough
spot and got into a real pickle with it
we bailed out and everybody done a
fantastic job i commend everybody that
worked on that missed dying different
ones that done that and got us out of
that situation
but it would have really helped the
county
if they if the school system had gave us
that money back
and we could have really got over the
hump on this situation horse and then
um
i don't know what the legal uh
opportunity of that is to pull it back
out and for us to be able to get ahead
of the inflation situation
but it would really help us
if we're gonna come up with about six
seven hundred thousand dollars short
uh that would have really uh helped us
meet our requirement we had extra monies
available
nobody knows the unknowns of anything
and we didn't know about the pandemic we
didn't know about all this uh madam
chair and all the things we've been
dealt with but to me it's all one pot of
money and i don't think we are to
subject ourselves to cutting certain
programs or doing certain things
that are so critical to everything that
we've been able to accomplish as a full
board
to be able to look at cutting when we
need to look at ways to make money or
utilize the money that we
have in the full pot
uh to help us get through these
scenarios and situations
well um
maybe mr longo could you tell us where
we can
make any changes in there or not i only
spent a little bit of time on this
budget committee
and uh
so i'm
i don't know a whole lot
of what went on what ain't going on
other than
well
the help
and i'll speak briefly on it now and
i'll speak more on it next week when we
get to workshop and i'll get all the
details on on the deposits
um
one thing about you gotta remember
health insurance and tim sits on on the
meeting we have a certain obligation to
match certain claims for a year so for
example if we
if we have a three or four million
dollar claims per year
that's what we got to keep in reserve as
a ketchup so in case something does go
wrong we this board worked really really
hard with the school board and like mr
eaton said
we had a 1.5 million dollar deficit at
one time and we had to
and i know the county employees they
during that time they
they
bit their tongue per se
and and they had their
benefits reduced and their premiums
increased so
we got it back stable we do have a
surplus in and we have talked with the
auditors on it and
but
when the those are reported into the
audits by the code of virginia under
what we cut the benefits are like under
pensions and when you obligate that
money there is certain legal terms so
let me get a full you know answer for
the board so that
we know that
based off of what we have in claims
coming we've got the money in reserves
to be able to do it and even if it is
possible or not so let me get a little
bit more details because the health
changes
about
a part the same pile of money but really
is he not all guidelines that we how we
can use that
money it's all under what we call the
general funds and like
it's all but it's not
about
guidelines that we have to go by
you do and and i i like david's thinking
i would love to be able to take some of
the federal money and use it at will but
but let me let me get the details i i
don't want to
i got to work with the school we got to
get it's actuaried on base what the
claims are
what we're looking at paying in premiums
and as you all can see in your budget
line items to make a long story short
we'll go into more you've seen that the
health insurance
line items have increased not from the
cost actually we're back at 80 20 we've
lowered the premiums and i guarantee you
you can and we've looked at 10 counties
and tim will tell you we have the
cheapest insurance and i can make this
anybody wants a copy of it in 13
counties
so we were willing to bet but
let give me time to go back and look at
what
the school claims are and what our
brokers are saying and what our health
program has got so i appreciate that
well only thing i'm saying is
if they would have gave us the money
back we would have made sure it was
going to be stabled and sufficient
anyway
and you know i mean i don't know do you
know how much is in the insurance fund
currently seven eight million dollars
we're about at 6.8 6.8 million
i mean if you had three million dollars
worth of claims but what i'm saying is
i know these are hard times i understand
that i've reviewed this and went through
this budget
uh i don't want to see us cut any
programs at all and
these people the library board all these
people have valid concerns you know
because we didn't create the minimum
wage we didn't create covet 19. we
didn't create these things but and we
don't none of us on this board wants to
put the burden on the back of the
the tax taxpayers but
we have to run this county like a
business i mean we have to and to me it
is all one pot of money and if we could
use that to get over the lucky time and
get through some of this till we get
back on our feet i think it would be and
i know the schools was great to work
with us i mean you know even in the past
we've done a lot of stuff and built new
buildings put on new roofs and done a
lot of things and upgrades and uh i wish
that they would have turned that money
back over to us and then we would have
been able to
make sure we could balance our budget
with about two million dollars of that
and then kept that because we're not
going to let that go under
none of those people on this board is
going to let that
we've actually had to
work with them to maybe even look to put
money in that you know what i'm saying
so the return on nets
could help us get through these hard
times that's all i'm saying i'm not a
lawyer but it would make good sense to
me if there's any surplus
at the end of the budget years
that
it needs to go back into the head of
this and then redistribute it back out
if needed
so we can keep everybody fluent and
running properly that's all i'm saying
yeah
and i'll have a full answer for the
board next week at the workshop
okay thank you and so our next before we
adjourn let me make sure everybody knows
and the public knows our next
uh public hearing concerning the
physical year 2012 23 county financial
budget
and our workshop is going to be
scheduled for tuesday june 21
at 6 00 p.m here in these chambers
so
at this time i'm going to adjourn the
meeting thank you all for coming thank
you thank you thank you guys