At the last Town Council Meeting, we started with a presentation by Jim Politis requesting that the Town of Christiansburg endorse a movement to allow the growing and processing of industrial hemp.  Before you jump up and rant or applause, depending upon your personal perspective on this, let me remind you that industrial hemp is NOT the same critter as that “other form of hemp” (Cannabis, aka marijuana). To learn more about industrial hemp check out some of these sites for additional information:

• http://www.industrialhemp.net/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp
• http://www.agmrc.org/commodities__products/fiber/industrial_hemp.cfm
• http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/sb/sb681/
• http://www.uky.edu/Ag/CDBREC/introsheets/hemp.pdf
• http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h1831/show
• http://www.hemp.com/

There are a ton of others available. What you will ultimately find is that industrial hemp and cannabis are two very different things. The active ingredient in cannabis is THC. In the cannabis version this THC level ranges from 3% to 20% concentration. In the industrial version, the average is only 0.3%. (At those levels, it would require about 10 times more industrial hemp to accomplish the same purpose as cannabis … I’m thinking people would die of asphyxiation from the smoke before they could get a buzz from this stuff!)

But, back to Mr. Politis’s arguments: Mr. Politis has taken on the campaign to legalize the growing of industrial hemp in Virginia and the country.  http://www.roanoke.com/business/wb/301840 . He presented information to the Christiansburg Town Council that focused on saving farms and creating jobs. His goal was to obtain an endorsement from Town Council in support of legislation legalizing the growth of industrial hemp. He left without a clear endorsement as council will be thinking about it and discussing it. Hopefully, they will also be doing some research on the topic.

I came home and went straight to Google and came with a few interesting thoughts. First, an example of another plant and it’s family plants. The wonderful Poppy. Various cultivars of the poppy are grown around the world. You can even find them center stage on many floats in parades where flowers are used. They are probably in Grandma’s garden. Now, those poppy plants are in the same family as the poppy from which opium is derived. In fact, a minute amount of the same active ingredient in the “drug” poppies can be found in the common cultivars. It is simply not in the same level of concentration. This scenario sounds quite similar to the hemp issues. Why are exceptions made for cultivars of poppy but not of hemp? Why aren’t poppies banned like hemp?

To the issues raised by Mr. Politis that allowing for the growth and associated manufacturing related to industrial hemp, the plant requires rich soil and a good deal of water. It is equivalent to corn or a high quality wheat in it’s demands on the soil. Like both corn and wheat, it takes a good bit of land to be able to raise a marketable size crop for manufacturing. Hemp requires little or no in the way of herbicides and pesticides which is good for the environment, but the high nitrogen demands could require extra fertilizer use which could affect nitrogen runoff into streams, rivers, and lakes. Overall, hemp appears to be less detrimental to the environment. Hemp also requires a long front-free growing season in order to mature the plant.

If the goal is to preserve farmland, this may not be the best of options. If the National ban is lifted, it is more likely that growth of the product for manufacturing will likely focus on those areas with the soil, water, and warmth required (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and parts of Texas). What does this mean for our area? Well, we could certainly look at the facilities required to process the hemp into the many usable forms that it can provide (cloth, foods, auto parts, and “concrete” block). For small scale farmers, there could well be a good market for locally grown hemp as a source of seeds, oil and oil products, and “milk”.  It may be unlikely that it could be grown here in a quantity to produce bio-fuel BUT, there are such areas nearby and we are on major transportation routes for grain and plants to be easily shipped to manufacturers here.

There is definitely a lot to consider, but I’m not seeing much of a “down side” in allowing the growth and processing of industrial hemp. The difference in height and foliage density in the 2 forms of the plant (industrial hemp and cannabis) makes it easy to tell them apart.  However, I’m sure that someone, somewhere will try to slip some cannabis in to their fields. For those few, simply come up with a couple of new laws concerning the growing of cannabis in those fields of industrial hemp and make the penalties tough. Give them some really long jail time and the loss of the land farmed for industrial hemp.  After all, how many opium poppies are growing in Grandma’s garden?:) If we can manage it with a source of opium/morphine/heroin, I’m betting we can manage it with cannabis.

For now, the ball is in Town Council’s Court. I say go for an endorsement and let those in Federal Government do the yea/nay on the overall decision and whatever guidelines may be required should the growing of industrial hemp be approved. Then, let’s start checking into some of the economic development options should be be approved. Let’s be ready just in case, and be the first to take advantage of opportunities to create jobs while taking a positive stance on protecting the environment. After all, an endorsement does not mean it will happen.

Deregulation does not create jobs when you have a failure in …  nope…not there.

Deregulation will not create jobs- CSMonitor.com  nope…not there.

Congressional Budget Office Says Deregulation Will Not Create Jobs  nope…not there.

Cantor, Barrasso Signal That Republicans Will Make Deregulation A …  nope…not there.

Robert Reich: “Bizarre” To Think Deregulation Will Create Jobs …  nope…not there.

Talking Points and Facts « No Interior Design in House Bill 5005  nope…not there.

RealClearMarkets – Deregulation Will Not Create Jobs  nope…not there.

Deregulation Won’t Lead To Job Growth: Congressional Budget Office  nope…not there.

Ahh…maybe this is the one!!!  Daily Kos: Deregulation DOES Create Jobs!  well, there are some valid (if funny) insights here!

While I’m hearing a lot about how important deregulation is to the economy, I just can’t seem to find anything that really supports those assertions with facts. Quite a few potential Presidential candidates argue for deregulation as being the panacea for curing our economic woes by creating jobs, but when I read through all of their statements, I can’t find any real discussion on “HOW” it will do create those jobs.  Iowa caucus candidates point to deregulation for job creation – The …

Personally, I think Daily Kos comes closest to pointing out the potential for job growth due to deregulation. I mean if we create damage to the environment, just think of how many more sick people there will be to help create jobs for health care providers, hospitals, drug companies, and, if you get sick enough and treatment costs enough, all those bankruptcy lawyers, bankers, collection agencies, etc. If we deregulate toy safety, I’m sure we can count on having no more hazards than we have now, right? If we deregulate drug companies, we will all have a much safer source of medications, right? (This could go on for a really long time, but I’ll just stop with those few thoughts.)

Maybe it is important to come up with facts to support assertions concerning job creation. I certainly think so. But, then, I tend to be kind of weird that way. I figure just because someone (anyone) says something does not necessarily make it true. Gotta wonder what is really more important in decision-making, party politics or the facts. So, once again I’ll say, don’t take anyone’s word for things (not even me) … look for facts to support what they say. If the person is in elected office or running for one, take the time to look and see where their money comes from

OpenSecrets.org: Money in Politics — See Who’s Giving & Who’s …

and what bills they have aligned themselves with

GovTrack.us: Tracking the U.S. Congress

OpenCongress – 112th Congress – Track bills, votes, senators, and …

Sure, it takes a bit of time to dig for the details. How much time are you willing to invest in your future, the future of your children, the future of your grandchildren, and beyond! Before any deregulation occurs, shouldn’t citizen be provided with information on the cost-benefit analysis that surely our leaders are demanding before they make such decisions? Show me the facts!!!

Is it true? Well, one place to start looking is the Virginia Auditor of Public Accounts (APA). A lot of information can be found there if one but takes the time to look. However, I will note that you have to do a bit of reading as well just to understand what things mean. I figured it was about time for someone to take a look at the revenues and expenditures at different government levels to see if there really  is an argument for double taxation.

The APA does an annual report that includes data on revenue and expenses for all of the Counties, Cities, and Towns in Virginia. What I did was to cut and paste the information from Montgomery County, City of Radford, and the Towns of Christiansburg and Blacksburg so that if there is a difference between how tax revenues (and expenditures) are different, it can easily be seen. This file (pdf) is available here: LocalCompare2010. Although it is 30 pages total, use “bookmarks” to go to a specific section. Each section starts with a list of terms used and their definitions. All of the definitions used in Exhibit C including Exhibits C1-C8 can be found in the Exhibit C section. Section D did not provide any definitions in the APA report. For instance:

In Exhibit A – General Government Revenue and Expenditures, you will find that the Per Capita amount of local revenue for Christiansburg is more than twice that of Blacksburg. It is less than the City of Radford, but more than Montgomery County.

Before anyone shouts about VT skewing the numbers, yes it is true that the on-campus students at Virginia Tech do skew the numbers for Blacksburg. I believe that accounts for about 8,000 in population. If you could remove those from the Population you would see a difference in per capita. Some would argue that you have to compare Christianburg only to another town without a University. That is not quite accurate. You would actually have to compare Christiansburg to another jurisdiction within roughly the same proximity of a University the size of VT and of RU, having a similar population, having similar land features and similar weather. In other words, you can’t really do a direct comparison between Christiansburg and/or Blacksburg with anywhere else in the State of Virginia. You can make some assumptions, but nothing is going to be a close enough match. Soil types and slopes have a direct impact on the cost of roads, sidewalks, paths, etc. and on the upkeep of those things. Being more prone to snow and ice because of difference in elevation requires that extra steps be taken to handle those issues. The number of university students and traffic generated by the university’s events and visitors, increase wear and tear on roads, increase rescue calls, increase demands on police departments, etc.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s look a bit at how what you pay in County taxes may just provide for different things than how your local tax money is used. This information can be found in the sections for Exhibit C & subsections of C1 thru C8.

• Judicial Administration: Although Blacksburg had to pay for some Judicial Administration last year, typically Towns do not pay into those funds. That is a service provided only at the County and City level, and all citizens, whether County or Town pay for and utilize those services. The per capita costs of those for Montgomery County were $28.02, for the City of Radford it was $74.35 (see Exhibit C2 for details)
• Education: Again, this is a financial burden upon the Counties and Cities, not upon Towns. The Towns have no costs for education. In Radford the 2010 data shows $6,229,026 in expenses and Montgomery County had $98,824,370. The Towns have no money invested in the schools and they also have virtually no control over the schools. Each Town however can have a tremendous impact on school by the way in which development occurs. Large growth in specific areas can cause overcrowding of schools, require that more schools be built, require that more mobile buildings are required to provide spaces for students, can result in needing more buses or changes in bus routes which increase costs to the County. Cities are self sustaining and their growth decisions are met by their own taxpayers. (see Exhibit C6 for details)
• Treasurer & Commissioner of Revenue: These are positions which Counties and Cities are required to have, not Towns.  The Treasurer’s Office for the City of Radford had expenses of $307,556 while Montgomery County’s expenses were $1,057,518. The City of Radford’s cost for Commission of Revenue was $158,333 while Montgomery Counties was $1,585,966. (see Exhibit C1 for details)
• Exhibit C3 focuses on Public Safety Expenditures and you will see that Correction and Detention (the jail system) falls again upon City and County expenses but are not a function of Town governments.
• Exhibit C3 also gives details showing that the per capita expenses for Christiansburg are far higher than any of the neighboring jurisdictions but runs only slightly above average. Blacksburg, again we can see the skew generated by VT students being counted in the census shows about half of Christiansburg’s. The costs to taxpayer for inspections is also far higher in Christiansburg than in the other jurisdictions. And, the County and City are required to provide “Other Protection” which the Towns do not.
• Exhibit C5 shows that Health and Mental Health & Retardation services are only provided by City and County governments. If either of the two Towns invest anything at all in those areas, it is actually a donation. Yet, by and far, with the population densities of the two Towns, it could well be that the vast majority of people receiving those services live with the boundaries of the Towns.
• In Exhibit C7, note that Christiansburg has expenses for Parks and Recreation that are more than twice the per capita of any of the other jurisdictions and yet only Christiansburg shows no investment in Cultural Enrichment.
• Exhibit E shows that while all jurisdictions are eligible for state and federal grants only Radford and Blacksburg have any showing as sources of funds.

I haven’t covered all of the areas here, but I hope that you will take the time to look at the full comparison report I set up, and perhaps wander over to the APA website to look at the full reports where you can see what other Cities, Towns, and Counties are doing.

Perhaps though, I have included enough information to help people see that County and Town taxes actually cover different things. Most of what town taxes are used for go to provide town residents with services that county residents do not have or to have elective services. After all, a town police department is not a requirement, the Sheriff’s department could handle all law enforcement (and just who would pick up the tab for the extra officers and equipment?). Fire and Rescue do not have to be supported by the Town, but isn’t it nice to have them close and to have the equipment that exceeds minimal standards?

Perhaps there is enough information here to help people see what a move from Town to City status is likely to cost Town taxpayers in the long run. A lot of people want to see things done differently with the schools. Ranting at Town officials about school problems will not help to accomplish that. Take those issues to the County and the County School Board.

Lastly, perhaps it is a bit more clear that there really are no duplicate taxes for Town dwellers. I suppose you could always try to get the Town to give up Town status and just become a part of the County in order to have only 1 tax ticket, but you’d have to be willing to give up a bit of the “comforts” associated with living in a Town.

So now, it’s off to work on other projects for me. It appears that there is a huge issue with poverty in this end of the state that gets overlooked by some of our state and federal lawmakers. Poverty affects all of us because of the impact it has on education, jobs, economic development, tax revenues, etc…etc…etc.

I first heard of the Annie E. Casey Foundation when I was volunteering as a Guardian ad Litem in Florida. Over the years, I’ve continued to use it now and then to answer a question I was pondering. The League of Women Voters of Montgomery County, VA is currently studying the Role of Federal Government in Public Education, and I find myself again drawn to the wealth of data provided by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Today, I am looking at Virginia Congressional Districts and  children living in poverty because I know that there is a direct relationship between poverty and education. Here is some of what I found:

 Poverty in Virginia: A Quick Glance

*data from the Annie E. Casey Foundation: Kids Count Data Center using 2009 data sets)

*Source – http://www.virginiaplaces.org/government/congdist.html

Sometimes a table and a map can make things more clear than hours worth of typing. Just take a few minutes to look at which Congressional Districts have the highest poverty levels in the table, then look at the location of those Districts on the map.  Maybe this gives some indication of which elected officials should be working to create jobs in their Districts. Maybe this shows a bit about how important it is to elect local officials who understand the need for Economic Development and creating jobs. Maybe this shows that people running for office this November need to be answering some hard questions about what can be done help the economy and insure that their constituents are getting the services that they need.

Just thinking. Now, I have to get back to the data I started working with on the impact of poverty on education. Believe me, that is even scarier to anyone who cares about education and the future of our Country. To get an idea of what I’m talking about:

The unexpected expense was the the Linebar Crew that performed billed more than was anticipated for their participation. They dropped a bombshell of a $500 fee about a week before the event, after all of the publicity had gone out. That made it a bit late to ‘change horses’. It had been suggested, that since the festival was a success and a lot of local residents came out for the event, that the Civic League should ask the Town for some of the money that is set aside each year for events.

(Note: Prior to the employment of the Town’s new Finance Officer, Valerie Tweedie, information on this sort of expenditure could not be found in the Town’s budget. It was buried in with other items that made determining the actual amounts set aside for this virtually invisible to the public. My grateful thanks to Councilman Michael Barber and former Councilwoman Ann Carter for pursuing the creation of the position and hiring of that Finance Officer. Good leadership LEADS to open government.)

With the new face of the budget, citizens can see that $8,000 per year has been being set aside for festivals but only about $5,000 has been being used. So, with a $3,000 balance in that designated fund, why shouldn’t the Civic League or any other civic group be allowed to request some of that money?

The asking wasn’t the issue though. The issue was in a sudden twist to apply a “Policy” that was adopted by the Town back on Dec. 7/2010 (first discussed on Nov. 2, 2010 video available on myvaresources.com). Agenda, Minutes, and Packets for both meetings are available on the Town’s website as is the video of the Dec. 7, 2010 meeting (you want to look at part 3, at about minute 8 in the video for the discussion).

What was clear to me in the video was that the policy was being adopted but would likely need to be tweaked in the future. “Tweak” isn’t the word I would use when the policy has been adopted but the ability to implement it have not been initiated. That is in reference to the “grants” process that requires a committee that doesn’t exist.

By the way, for those of you interested, you will find that the Christianburg document is a “cut-and-paste” of the document used by Lynchburg. I was at a couple of the meetings where a committee discussed designing this and I remember Lynchburg being mention in their quest to make sure that they had a policy that allowed alcohol to be served at events. When I pulled up the Lynchburg information from their website, I set up a line-by-line comparison with the Christiansburg policy and there are few changes. The most significant of those are far more relaxed standards for alcohol sale and consumption in Christiansburg and where Lynchburg includes run/walking/race events as needing to comply with the policy, Christiansburg appears to have deleted that. There are also significant changes in the policy for how grants are approved. More on all of that later as there are several people going over the comparison looking for more specifics.

One thing is for sure, any small group, community-based event planning to use any part of public property (streets, sidewalks, parks, etc.) better start months ahead of time trying to read and comprehend this document. Oh, and by the way, the way I could verify that the Lynchburg Policy was a cut and paste for Christiansburg’s … even the typos are the same, the same application form (which doesn’t work as a form on either site) is the same all the way down to the Revised 9/10/10 note found at the bottom of each page. Also note, that the documents on the Christiansburg website is part of the drop-down menu for Departments under Administration. You’ll find a section on Special events there with the Policy and the Application for an event. Although the last pages of the Policy indicate that there is a form for applying for a grant with directions to fill it out and how to submit it, the  actual grant application form does not appear to exist.

My question is how do you apply a policy when the policy itself is incomplete in it ability to be implemented. No grant form, no committee for review …. ah, but all of those will wait for future blogs.

Instead, let me ask this: If we are not Blacksburg, then just who in the heck decided that we were Lynchburg? (awaiting responses from Lynchburg as to the number of these events they host annually and a few other questions that may be applicable to understanding the how’s and why’s of this process). And, as far as “tweaking it” goes … it might be time to “simply jack it up and run a new one under it”. The policy adopted was done to accommodate the festivals Mr. Kevin Stoner was doing in Christiansburg … well he ain’t doing it anymore and we have an albatross policy that demands a lot of staff time that could be better used and makes it very difficult for any small group to do anything. (Just my opinion. And for those who will say it’s just “sour grapes” on my part because it involved the Civic League: Then obviously you do not know me. I would raise this same argument for any church wanting to hold an event, for the Kiwanis Club, for the VFW, for the NAACP, or for any other individual or civic group. It just so happened that the Civic League event was the first such event to come under the leaky umbrella of this policy. )

Other issues have examples of how to use spreadsheets to manage data for such things as public input, saving a lot of money. Contributing authors include public employees, contractors, reporters, educators, and citizens so that issues such as open government, plain text writing, public outreach and information, and simply understanding the concept of land use planning are shown from different perspectives. If you’ve ever tried to make sense of the ‘alphabet soup’ of the rfp/rfq process, then there is an article covering that topic, in earlier issues. (Although sold as a journal, copies of individual back issues are also available.)

Described as “Popular Mechanics Meets Planning”, the journal does bring the planning process into a form that makes the process more understandable for citizens. It also helps governments to understand the role of citizens and their input in the process of planning. Where possible, the jargon had been eliminated. Where that could not be done, definitions of those “key words and catching phrases” are provided.

Whether you are a professional in the field of planning, an elected or appointed government official who is involved in planning, or simply a citizen who wants to know what their government is doing, The Community Planner has something to offer you. Perhaps even more importantly though, it helps to start building a communication bridge between government and citizens. Why heck! Even your everyday little gray-haired old lady citizen activist will find a wealth of useful information. (Yepper, I’m talking about myself there.)

This is an excerpt from Volume I Issue 3 of The Community Planner. It is from an article on a citizen’s perspective of open government that I wrote and includes some of the tips and tricks I have learned over the past few years. It also includes some of the “watch out for things” that governments can use to insure they are not being perceived as being secretive.

If your jurisdiction does not have a website, there is a good likelihood that another area in your state does have. Taking the time to look at some of those websites can provide you with invaluable information as to they types of documents that can be available and what information those documents should contain. I will discuss another source for discovering what documents might be available to you in another section.”

To see some of the topics covered here are the cover pages and table of contents for the first 3 issues:

Volume 1 Number 1 – Fall 2010
Volume 1 Number 2 – Winter 2011
Volume 1 Number 3 – Spring 2011

The most important question I have heard from people working through the exercise is that they do not understand why there seems to be duplication of things in the different sections. There are several reasons for that to have occurred.

First, and foremost, the process of working with a budget is a system process. That means that everything affects everything else. A town is not comprised of individual parts and pieces. It is comprised of parts and pieces that interact with other parts and pieces. For instance, if you are thinking in terms of trying to increase the number/types of events that bring non-residents into Christiansburg, there will be more people in town. This influx of people will likely increase revenues for the Town via sales taxes, meals taxes, and hotel taxes. Those people will arrive by car (for the most part) which means more vehicles on the road. This will result in (please remember this is just one example of how this can apply):

• increased traffic congestion
• increased wear and tear on the roads
• increased demands for parking
• increased number of vehicle related accidents
• increased number of people who could become sick while here
• increased amount of garbage produced
• increased amount of water and sewer usage
• increased other things that are too numerous to mention:)

That means that the potential revenue needs to be evaluated in light of the potential costs. What costs? Taking the above list and thinking in terms of what taxpayer funded services are affected I come up with this list:

• impact on law enforcement (more personnel, more overtime pay, wear and tear on vehicles)
• possibly altering traffic patterns or adding traffic calming measures requiring services for design, building, supplies, equipment, personnel, etc
• number of emergency response vehicles and personnel necessary to have available
• maintenance or replacement of Town vehicles due to greater usage
• upgrading or adding to existing water and sewer systems

No single item can be changed without having an impact on other areas. This is why you may see the same or similar item listed below one of the groups listed in the $100 exercise. Along with that is the impact upon citizens directly. It could mean standing in checkout lines longer. It could mean modifying your schedule for routine activities to bend around the impact of having more people in town. It could mean leaving earlier and returning later when it comes to getting to work or to meetings. Nothing is gained without some cost somewhere in the process. The role of good government is to be aware of all the potential impacts and to make decisions that result in the greatest benefit with the least amount of negative impact. This DOES NOT mean forcing all of the negatives onto one small group of people, it means spreading the negatives around so that no smaller section of the whole carries the entire weight of those negatives in order to gain positives for the whole. It DOES NOT mean creating a huge benefit for one segment of the Town at the cost of all. It is a balancing act of insuring that all citizens share in the costs and the benefits. AND, most importantly, where ever possible the benefits MUST exceed the costs.

Another contributing factor to what appears to be duplication is the fact that the basic platform used during the citizen input portion of the process (see the videos of the December 14, 2010 public meeting at: Part 1 & Part 2) was built upon the Town Council’s Vision 2020 document that was created by Town Council while at a retreat. Unfortunately, since it was constructed without public input, a crucial feature was deleted from the process, the values and needs of citizens.

The last portion of this Priority-Based Budgeting Public Meeting was not recorded by the Town. However, (drum roll please) Yep. I got got it. It comprised almost 3 hours and the first 1 hr and 20 minutes are pretty much a lot of deadspace because it was the time during which the audience was asked to respond to specific questions in writing. The written statements were then clustered into primary groups for the rest of the session. The sections that I have posted are where the consultants put those responses together in clusters so that we could see all the input. You will see that I have added text on the video to indicate the general topic of the section. Links to these videos can be found in the 2010 listing section on my main video page.

What I noticed during that section was that people have very different perceptions of what was meant when the questions were asked. Business people see it one way, general citizens see it a different way, and town staff have yet another perspective. There is nothing wrong with there being different perspectives, in fact it is normal and healthy. The trick is in creating a synthesis of those perspectives that encompass all of the varying values

There are a lot of ‘keywords & catchy phrases” used in that document that can have a lot of different meanings. While it is possible that Council Members discussed those and made sure they were on the same page (using the same definitions, for words like progressive community, revitalized downtown, commerce, tourism, and many more such words and phrases), there is no way to verify that fact. When the document was unveiled for the public, there is no list of definitions to make sure that all citizens understood what these terms mean. Agreement to the meaning of such words and phrases is the first step towards compiling an effective document.

If you want to have some fun, just start asking people how they define those terms as they apply to Christiansburg. I did it and came up with a tremendous variety of answers. Then, I started asking people about those terms/phrases in general then how they would define them for Christiansburg itself. The range of responses have been phenomenal. Had citizens been involved in the process of developing the Vision 2020, it is more likely that citizens would have been privy to some shared definitions and a more effective dialog would now be available.

People are using a variety of approaches to determine how they will spread their $100 ‘allowance’ around to the different sections/services. What I did was to start with each section independently. There are a list of items under each section and I gave those items a score of 0, 1, or 2 with 0 being not important, 1 being important, and 2 being very important. Then I totaled those for that section. These numbers then helped me to develop a prioritization for the importance of the main categories. That, then helped me to decide where to put my money. Maybe this way of looking at it will help someone else. If you do use it, remember it is only a worksheet, the actual form provided by the Town is the one that you need to submit. My modified Priority-based $100 exercise sheet.

Lastly, please remember that this process started late. It was clear, with the problems of the last budget process, that something needed to be changed. Because of the late start, there was not time to do the amount of citizen input that the Town really wanted to do on this. The plan is to use this as the base for a greatly expanded process in the future. Expect the next budget process to be much more interactive with the public. I respect Town staff for taking on this format and using it to try to make the budgeting process more efficient, effective, and with a greater involvement of citizens. This degree of transparency is rare in many other government groups. Thank you for taking the time to participate as a citizen.

Every journey begins with one step, followed by another, then another. The first step has been taken by the Town. Citizens need to take the next step in this process by choosing to participate. For all of those who I have heard say “I’m not doing it because it won’t matter, they won’t pay any attention to what I have to say,” the best way to guarantee that your opinion is not a part of the process is to keep quite, to choose not to be involved. The choice is yours.

Hopefully, if you are business owner who might be affected, you do know and have anticipated the possible impact to your business. Are any local restaurants offering a special entree for the event (i.e. the H2Okie burger) or for retail sales a discount for participants or all citizens in honor of the event? Maybe a package deal where you can see a movie at our local theater and get a discount ticket for shopping at the Mall? or dining in a local restaurant?

While the Aquatic Center may never directly pay for itself, the plan was that meals taxes, lodging taxes, and sales taxes would make up for some of that deficit. Of course, some will argue that if you are offering sales/specials, then you will not generate as much tax money….ah, but if sales prices are decreased and overall sales are increased … well, that’s where the enhanced income to the Town comes into play.

If you’ve checked out the Town’s website’s multiple locations for information on upcoming events at the Aquatic Center or the calendar that is now on myvaresources.com (note the icons help highlight those events and other special events around town, then you have a chance to plan ahead a bit and possibly make these events work for the Town and for your business!

Fortunately, VML (Virginia Municipal League) does an excellent job of outreach to citizens. They provide a website that includes a page of topics covered and handouts provided at: http://www.vml.org/CONF/10ConfHampton.html. If you are not one of those people who wants to sit back have information delivered to you, simply take the initiative to see what is available. Who knows, it may just give you the background you need to understand why some things are done the way they are, or might inspire you to come up with a different idea that would work better for your area.

Unfortunately, there are no handouts available online for several of the programs that I was particularly interested in such as Preserving open spaces and Saving Rural Virginia. There are handouts for:

• The economic forecast: Where have we been, where are we now, and where are we going? | Handout 1 PPT | Handout 2 PPT | Handout 3 PDF
  
• Future of public pensions | Handout 1 PDF | Handout 2 PDF
• Predatory lenders: What local communities can do to help their citizens | Handout 1 PPT | Handout 2 PPT
• State budget trends and local expectations | Handout PDF | Handout PPT
• Collective bargaining: Expectations and experiences | Handout Word
• Town track: Working with the private sector to accomplish big dreams: IDAs, CDAs and PPEAs | Handout 1 PPT | Handout 2 PDF

City Section: Preparing youth for productive lives | Handout 1 PDF | Handout 2 PDF | Handout 3 PDF
Urban Section: Affordable housing solutions for local governments | Handout PDF
Town Section: Approaches to downtown revitalization | Handout 1 PPT | Handout 2 PDF
Freedom of Information Act | Handout 1 Word. | Handout 2 Word. | Handout 3 Word | Handout 4 Word.
Civic participation: Connecting community volunteers and non-profits | Handout PPT
Ingredients of a successful farmers market | Handout PDF
Massage therapists: What they do, who they are, and how they’re regulated | Handout 1 PDF | Handout 2 Word. | Handout 3 Word.
Public safety coalitions | Handout PDF

Another of the offered webpages offers a section entitled Christiansburg Town Section Meeting which contains links to the following documents:

• Annexation and town-county relations (PPT)
• Strategies for dealing with state funding reductions (PPT)
• VML-VACo Finance bond pool included 14 participants (PDF)
• 5 ways VML-VACo Finance can help town budget costs (PDF)
• Legislation enacted by 2010 General Assembly affecting towns (Word)

I will also note that this same page offers Handouts  from past conferences as well. All together this represents a great resource for citizens and elected officials. As in any case where a particular group is providing information, keep in mind that they may have a particular focus and that other perspectives of the same issue are likely to exist. When in doubt, look to the Legislative Information System or your specific jurisdictions Codes in order to verify things. Contact your elected officials about any ideas that you may have or questions that you would like answered pertaining to your specific Government group.

Overall, this gives a good idea of what attendees to the Conference heard and talked about. There is some very good information here and some excellent ideas for dealing with problems. Maybe some well work where you live:)

Thanks to VML for doing such a great job of encouraging citizen participation.

Happy reading.

First off, let me state that I may have a bias here. I have used Citizens services, as much as is available at the Depot here in Cambria, as a host for multiple websites. They have consistently provided good pricing and excellent customer service. Over the years, they have earned my full trust and respect. (I sincerely hope this new project will allow them to expand services.) In fact, myvaresources.com was originally hosted with them until I started loading so many videos online. However, I have kept every other website with them.

Needless to say, when I heard and saw the presentation on this at the Sept. 21, 2010 Christiansburg Town Council Meeting, my jaw hit the floor. (See this portion of the meeting on part 2 of the videos @ myvaresources.com.)  During the discussion there were very few comments from Town Council other than how will this benefit residents. Obviously, a full understanding of the implications of such a system was missed.

The “NRV Regional Open Access Network” is like having Interstate 81 here. It doesn’t mean that every single street, road, and goat track will directly connect to the Interstate. What it does do is open up the potential for those other areas to access the main highway. So, in short, no you will not necessarily see every single home in Christiansburg suddenly, miraculously connected to the internet.

The grant was for something that would help to generate jobs, not necessarily to provide internet access to residents. Although, in the process of generating jobs, existing and new companies providing that service to residents will now have a virtual “red carpet” rolled out for them to do so.

This is simply a “backbone” from which a LOT of other services can spread. The most important part of this whole concept was not the focus of Town Council at this time. The system would connect a lot of “target sites” such as:

Now, the added benefit to this is the potential for Economic Development. Many if not most businesses these days require reliable, dependable, fast internet services. The corridor route that will be developed could be like a clover field to a hive of bees IF the various localities take advantage of it and us it in their Economic Development approaches.

So, bottom line, residents will not be able to suddenly have internet access from this. Is it likely that existing and new internet providers will take advantage of this in order to do exactly that? Probably. Is it likely businesses which have previously avoided the area due to lack of this type of quality internet access will now take a second look at our area, you bet they will. Residents will likely see more and better paying  jobs, more businesses, improved school programs, faster and more effective communication between healthcare facilities resulting in better patient care and cost savings, enhanced resources at the public libraries, more effective communication for public safety issues, and greater opportunities for government (maybe even enhanced openness and transparency:)

Kudos to Citizens and the NRV PDC for getting this grant. I feel this is something we definitely need to get behind and push in order to make it happen as quickly as possible. This could open up a wealth of opportunity for our area. Then, once it is in place. In the meantime we need to have people working on the potentials that are inherent in the project to start using it as the Economic Development boom it can be.