We’ve got CHOCOLATE!!! Thanks to our old friend Chocolate Spike, we’ve got some wonderful take home holiday treats !

We’ve got sales on Trunki’s at 20% off for the weekend.

And, from now through the 15th of December, we got a package deal on the Melissa & Doug Multipurpose table and the Wooden Railway Set for 20% off when you buy them both. The table and train set do not have to be used together, so you can actually get two different gifts.

See photos of the train set and table here: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002809812890

Okay, gotta get back to work now: let’s see — veggie tray, cheese tray, cookies, mulled cider, apple juice, oh, where’s my list?

Back during the last Christiansburg elections some issues came up about the Registrar’s Office of Montgomery County. I am not going to go into the particulars of all that in this article, rather I am going to give you links to certain documents that were written following those events. These are part of the documents that I presented to the Local Electoral Board and to the State Electoral Board shortly after the election. I have also set up a new page on myvaresources.com that has links to many articles that have indicated an ongoing pattern of problems for the last several years at the Registrar’s Office.

• The first is a copy of an email that was generated by Montgomery County Registrar, Randy Wertz when irregularities were reported.

• The second is a copy of my initial response to that letter.

• The third is a copy of the letter that I sent to the State and Local Board of Elections. It was sent in a packet that included the other two items listed above.

I do not like to be falsely accused of something. I am only releasing this now, because I have finally calmed down enough to feel capable of discussing it. I will note that I am not the only person lied about in this letter, but those individuals provided their own information to the electoral boards.

When mistakes are made, it is much simpler to acknowledge those mistakes and work on correcting them than it is to blindly point fingers at other and try to place blame elsewhere. Finger pointing and lies are not a good way to build trust.

If I ever receive any sort of apology for the lies told about me, then I will let you know. But, do not think for one minute, that these types of fear tactics and threats are going to silence me or prevent me from exerting my rights. Attacks and efforts at intimidation usually just spur me on because I figure that they are indicative of more problems from which someone is trying to divert my attention. Given more recent problems with the November 2010 elections, I think that it has been made abundantly clear that many issues exist which must be dealt with if voters can trust that their vote counts and counts correctly.

While blame has been place on ‘poll workers’ and specifically, the age of those individuals, the ultimate responsibility rests squarely on the shoulders of the Registrar and the Local Board of Elections. Striving to divert blame on others is not only wrong, it does nothing to address the problems. Voters deserve more than having people working so diligently to place blame. They should have people working that hard to CORRECT the problems. Unfortunately, no evidence exists that the problems have been fully identified and any corrective actions taken.

As always: “Fixing Blame is NOT Fixing the Problem”. We need the problems fixed in order to protect the rights of voters and to be sure that EVERY VOTE COUNTS! How can we have faith in public officials when we do NOT have faith in the process that puts them into office?

The Mayor started the meeting with a short introduction that included my first “jaw-dropping” moment of the evening. He specifically noted that the public was invited to attend and that the public would be invited to be a part of the process after the presentation. Of course, being me, my first thought was “hey wait a minute, I walked through a door. I didn’t fall through a rabbit hole”.

That may have been the first such moment, but it was not the last such surprise by any means. Early on, the presenters noted that the economic issues we are currently facing are the result of an economic “Perfect Storm” that will result in long-term changes of how governments and citizens do financial business. Previously jurisdictions were seeing a decline in the rate of growth of revenue, it has now become a situation in which the total revenue is less than it was in the previous year.

Some of the information the presenters gave was that 48 of the 50 states are having to address shortfalls in 2010, 43 states have already reduced services to residents, economic growth has slowed due to ‘less spending’, and as a result local jurisdictions are ‘sandwiched’ in between 2 economic negatives (reduced amounts coming from the State and lower revenues from local taxes) that are worsening.

What this means in the short term is that ‘business as usual’ just does not work any more and new ways of budgeting must be accepted in order to provide services to citizens. This ‘business as usual’ has typically revolved around the concept of dealing with emergencies as they occur. The new era in economics for governments calls for a ‘prevention plan’ that is focused on keeping the health and well-being of government such that those emergency situations are minimized.

It is not unlike the way in which health care is shifting from treating a heart attack to intervening where the behaviors that can lead to a heart attack are more likely to occur, thus preventing the heart attack. In order to accomplish this, officials, both elected and appointed must develop new relationships with town departments and with citizens. A true partnership must exist between government, town departments and citizens. That is what this process helps to accomplish.

Through this partnership you begin the process of clearly identifying what the needs and the wants are for the town. Needs are those items which fall into a ‘must have’ column similar to the fact that people need food. Wants, fall into that ‘what I would like for that must have item to be’ such as Lobster. It is also going to push a few buttons because there is variance in what people perceive ‘must haves’ to be. Some people feel that a meal must have a meat, a starch (rice/potatoes), a green vegetable, and dessert of some sort. Others, believe it must be only meat and potatoes. Still others, believe that meat should not be eaten. Those are all personal choices. When you break it into the basics, what is really needed is protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals.

What the Priority-Based Budgeting Process offers is a way to identify exactly which things are truly needed, then to expand upon those in levels based upon the degree of ‘need’. Those items which have the highest level of need (need can be related to health/safety/etc., or related to revenue generation) have the highest priority. It also forces an assessment of why the service is being provided (Is it mandated by state and/or federal law? Is it based upon specific needs due to geologic features in the area? Is it necessary due to the demographics of the overall population?) and how effective is that particular component/program? (Is it meeting the needs that is was established to meet? How is that evaluated?) While the Town has no choice in mandated programs or infrastructure needs such as water, garbage, etc., there is a great deal of latitude in many of the other programs that are offered. In conjunction with this, the presenters noted that funding sources must also be looked at in determining priority levels. There are cases where grant money is used to fund programs. Where that is true, a long range view needs to be taken in order to determine the reliability of that funding source into the future.

In fact, that ‘long range view’ is crucial in many of the decisions made concerning expenditures. A thorough assessment of not only the immediate cost of something but of the long term maintenance and support needed to keep it going, must be included in any determination of how to spend money. If something looks good at the beginning but is likely to become a ‘black-hole’ where revenue disappears in the future, is it a good thing to do?

This is really getting a lot longer than I had planned and I have only made it through 2 paragraphs of 3 pages of notes that I took at that meeting. The presentation was recorded and is going to be provided to citizens on the Town’s website! I recorded the interactive portion of the meeting that was much longer and I will either write about those here, or I will try to get at least the audio portions up for you to listen to but it will be a while.

I know that there are some who are a bit disappointed that this is happening without a lot more citizen input and that the only information source used for beginning this process was the ‘Vision 2020′ that Town Council wrote. However, I would like to note that in order for those measures to have been taken, this type of process would have had to have begun a long time ago. If the Town will but take this as a starting point and add to it in the next budget, they will be building a program that offers a lot of opportunities to save money, prevent layoffs of employees, have departments work more effectively and efficiently, and provide those citizens who are interested in doing so to have a much more active part in their government. Given the late start of this process related to when the budget work must be done, I must give kudos to the town for managing to encourage the degree of public participation that it has thus far. Anything else that the town might do in obtaining more citizen input would be an amazing accomplish and a ‘gold star’ for the town.

I will add one final statement and it paraphrases the statement I made at the end of the meeting: The process used to help determine the ‘values’ used to evaluate priorities were elicited using open-ended statements to which the participants provided written responses. When I have heard these same issues discussed in the form of closed-ended statements, I have seen huge arguments occur between the people discussing the issue. Using the open-ended approach, it was absolutely amazing the number of people who shared the same values and ideals. Citizens agreed with each other, with town employees, and with elected officials in the vast majority of incidences. It seems we have a lot more in common than we have differences when you take the time to look at things in a broader perspective.

If there are any more meetings which are open to public participation, I hope that you will take the time to come and be active. It was a truly amazing process and I believe this first step in this direction is a good step for the Town of Christiansburg citizens and government.

Christiansburg Mayor acknowledges 5 cent real estate tax needed.

In order to try to keep that prediction from becoming reality, Acting Town Manager Barry Helms began to actively look for different ways of budgeting that would offer a more progressive way of budgeting. Once he found information about a specific process, Priority Based Budgeting, he working with Finance Officer Val Tweedie to see if it could be applied in Christiansburg and IF it would be a good fit. They determined that this would be an approach that would be helpful in balancing Christiansburg’s budget.

Let me note that Mr. Helms and Ms. Tweedie chose to support this option despite the fact that it would create a lot more work for the two of them, setting the needs of the Town above their own personal wishes. This, in and of itself, should give citizens and elected officials an idea of how well they believe this system will work.

Recent TV coverage on WSLS 10 noted that many of the citizens that they spoke with felt it was unnecessary, an added expense that wasn’t needed.

Well, in my typical “I’ll believe it when I can document it” fashion, I did some research (I have to admit that I had already been doing some studying on this topic before it came up in Town discussions … nope, not getting special information, I just saw it and was intrigued by what I saw and wanted to know more).

Anyway, here are a list of some of the most informative sites I’ve found on the topic of “Priority Based Budgeting”. As I looked through the videos and power points and waded through the documents, I did come to the conclusion that this may well be exactly what Christiansburg needs in order to keep that 5 cent tax increase from becoming a reality.

Take some time to look for yourself before you make a decision on whether you think it is worthwhile or not. Is an investment of $20,000 to $22,000 from the current reserves worthwhile if it can reduce that 5 cent increase to a 3 cent increase or even NO increase? Even more importantly, the process can be modified over time so that it forms a ‘best fit’ for Christiansburg regardless of changes in the economy. It removes guesswork and insures that ‘pet projects’ are not funded unless there is valid, measurable reason for it to be funded. But, enough said, check out these resources for additional information. You will find that some of these resources are about the entire process while some are about only parts of the whole.: (If you think I go overboard looking for information and researching things like this, you should see what I do for each toy and toy manufacturer that we choose to carry as products in the Cambria Toy Station. I am even more nutz about child safety than I am about good government!)

• Center for Priority Based Budgeting, home page
• The Principles of Fiscal Health and Wellness (Presentation)
• News Coverage on the Center for Priority Based Budgeting
• City of Monterey CA, Presentation on Priority Based Budgeting (Video)
• City of Boulder Colorado: Priority-based Budgeting
• Snohomish County Washington: Priority Based Budgeting
• State of Georgia, Governor Sonny Perdue: Priority Based Budgeting
• City of Gresham Oregon: Priority-Based Budgeting
• Nevada Policy Research Institute: A how-to guide for budget reform: part 1
• The Free Library: Anatomy of a priority-based budget process
• Boulder City Council Study Session: Priority Based Budgeting July 27, 2010 (Video)
• High Beam Research: Article: An integrated activity-based approach to budgeting.
• Voice of sandiego.org: What the Heck Is Priority-Based Budgeting?
• Evergreen Freedom Foundation: 2003 Policy Highlighter, Nov. 18, 2003: Next step in priority-based budgeting
• What Exactly is Priority Based Budgeting? (Snohomish County WA) (pdf)
• City of Monterey: City Budget: Priority-based Budgeting
• The Oakland Tribune, Inside Bay Area: Barnidge: Priority-based budgeting means asking residents what they want
• Priority Based Budgeting (PBB) (pdf)
• Priority Based Budgeting (from Multnomah County Oregon FY 2006 Adopted Budget)
• Government Finance Review: April 2010: ANATOMY of a Priority-Based Budget Process
• State Budget Solutions: Reality-Based Budgeting: How to permanently resolve state budget gaps
• WorldNews: Priority-based Budgeting Powerpoint
• ALEC POLICY FORUM: American Legislative Exchange Council, April 2009: Performance-Based (Priority-Based) Budgeting: How to address budget shortfalls in the states.

You can find links to the notes from the Town Council and Planning Commission Meeting Minutes for quite a few such topics at one of the myvaresources.com/blogs/depotdazed pages entitled “Christiansburg, VA Issues. Some of these pages are complete and some are being developed now.

Wow…talk about a great way to celebrate SUNSHINE WEEK!!!!

1. Aquatic Center (Complete)
2. Audit/Budget/Finance (2001-2004) (Complete)
3. Audit/Budget/Finance (2005-2009) (Complete)
4. Drainage/Stormwater (2001-2003) (Complete)
5. Drainage/Stormwater (2003- 2006) (Complete)
6. Drainage/Stormwater (2007- 2009) (Complete)
7. Grants/Funding (In progress)
8. Growth (complete)
9. Historic Preservation/Districts (in progress)
10. Sidewalks (Complete)
11. Taxes/Fees
12. Traffic (2001-2005) (complete)
13. Traffic (2006-2009) (complete)

From the review of those Minutes, the Comprehensive Plan and the Town Code, it is clear that problems have existed since 2001-2002 (I only went back that far in my FOIA request), and yet some of the statement documented indicate the problems existed before that time.

Sewage isn’t listed here but it will be because that is the one I am currently focused on and guess what. Those problems have been around for quite a while as well.

I think that a key reason why so many people are upset is because they do not perceive the Aquatic Center quite as necessary to their daily lives, health, safety, and well-being as issues with flooding, sewage backing up into their homes, traffic congestion, the lack of sunshine exhibited in previous budgets, sidewalks, and the tremendous rate of growth that impact all of those previously noted.

As I said, it is clear that citizens had problems in these areas since at least 2001. While there is a lot of discussion noted in the Minutes, it tends toward being primarily one way with citizens raising issues. Town Council discusses the issues a bit and even express concerns without there being any clear indication of how they plan on dealing with the problems that new growth will generate.

Those times when issues were discussed by Town Council, there is seldom anything to document what has been done to correct the problem.

In the most recent Town Council meeting it was noted that a citizen had come in complaining because sewage had backed up into a home causing  a good bit of damage. The Town’s insurance company refused to pay for the damages because there was no negligence on the part of the Town. The Town had done an inspection and found that a blockage in one of the Town’s sewage lines is what caused the backup into the person’s home. The Town Manager advised something to the effect that sometimes these things just happen, that all kinds of stuff gets into the sewer system and can cause such things to happen … A discussion by Town Council occurred it appears the consensus is that it is not the responsibility of the town. The Town and the Town’s insurance will only cover if negligence can be proven.

A word to the wise here. Most homeowner policies do not cover such damage from sewage UNLESS you happen to know to ask for a special policy that does that. Now, I am going to have to spend some time asking around to find out if this is true in other jurisdictions or if this is a function of the type of insurance the Town chooses to carry. I have definitely heard of other situations of this type where the jurisdiction’s insurance policy did cover such damage.

Since this type of blockage, caused by so many different things (the Town Manager reported finding gears, chunks of asphalt and other such items in the sewer line). Therefore, there is no home in Christiansburg that is safe from this happening, unless, of course, you are one of those people who is unknowingly paying for sewer service but are actually still on the old septic tank like one gentleman a couple of weeks ago found out. This type of blockage could happen anywhere, including where it backs up into your home. If you don’t have the insurance coverage for such an event, you might want to check into it since it also seems that if stormwater gets into the sewer system and causes flooding into your home, that isn’t covered either.

At the end of the discussion, the Town Manager added that they do have a camera device for inspection of sewer system. He even suggested that it might be possible for him to get some of that video tape and see if I would be willing to post it on my website.

Well, the answer is YES! Of course I will, BUT….here’s the only way I will do it. I want to video tape the process of this being used so that citizens see not just the inside of the pipes but the process used. I have actually used such equipment myself in the past, it is not the most glorious of jobs and those people doing the work deserve the same air time as a robotic camera. So, Mr. Terpenny, if you can arrange this, please let me know, camera and I will be waiting to get some good footage of our town employees doing some of the dirty work that citizens seldom get a chance to see. You can reach me at 382-6431 or just drop by the Depot.

Wow…talk about a great way to celebrate SUNSHINE WEEK!!!! That would really be bringing in the light!

Hence, isn’t it possible that the concept for the Aquatic Center was acted upon in good faith by elected officals, but perhaps the information they were provided was a bit narrow or selective in focus? Things like that happen in business all the time. Once commitments are made, it then becomes a matter of trying to make the best of the situation.

In this case, I truly believe that the Aquatic Center can, if marketed effectively, be a benefit to the Town. Given the amount of finger pointing that occurred at the Town Council work session last Friday, I would like to see that type of wasteful behavior stop. It does not fix the problem. To fix the problem, it is going to take every single Council member getting behind this issue and working diligently to make sure that it is a SUCCESS!!

The following is a hypothetical discussion based upon what my warped little brain could create as a possible scenario:

That said, we are about to have an Aquatic Center that will provide a wealth of opportunities for citizens. I know there is significant interest because of the number of hits I have had on that particular page of my website. Aquatic Center. Along with several thousand hits from within the United States, several hundred people from 13 different countries have entered the site to look at the center. Countries represented include: Canada, England, Spain, New Zealand, India, Thailand, Australia, France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and Greece.

So, while I may joking call it the ‘catfish pond’, I know full well that the Aquatic Center is getting attention. What that means to me is that we need leadership to take advantage of that interest. We need leadership to insure that marketing and research are done and that creative ways of using the facility need to be brought to the table. We need elected officials to be making it all it can be, not using it as political platforms to lay fault or blame. We will all need to get behind this project to make it a big success.

Here is some of the information I found in a comparison of Christiansburg data with that of 34 other large towns For the 2007 fiscal year (n=35 towns) based on highest to lowest:

• # 26 in real property as a source of revenue
• # 29 in Public Service Corp. Property as a source of revenue
• # 27 in Personal Property tax as a source of revenue
• # 8 in Machinery & Tools tax as a source of revenue
• # 11 in Local Sales & Use tax as a source of revenue
• # 16 in Consumer Utility tax as a source of revenue
• # 24 in Business Licenses as a source of revenue
• # 14 in Franchise tax as a source of revenue
• # 23 in Vehicle License tax as a source of revenue
• # 29 in Bank Franchise tax as a source of revenue
• # 5 in Cigarette & Tobacco tax as a source of revenue
• # 8 in Lodging tax as a source of revenue
• # 5 in Meals tax as a source of revenue
• #7 in Emergency Telephone tax as a source of revenue
• # 21 in Other (whatever that means) as a source of revenue

Remember that these are sorted from HIGHEST to LOWEST.

The Auditor of Public Accounts has in dept information that shows you where money goes and where it comes from. It takes a bit of time to get use to the format used, but then, it is piece of cake to just download the whole files, cut and paste the areas of interest into a spreadsheet and  run all kinds of tests on the numbers.

I haven’t finished the 2008 data yet, but I look forward to a comparison of the results since there were some significant slow downs in a lot of the major areas.

Considering the loss of businesses due to the economy, one would expect to see some decreases in some of these. However, the town did raise taxes last year in some of these areas so maybe there will not be that much of a drop. Guess I’ll have to wait and see what the data shows:)

By Carol Lindstrom On April 9 at 1:00 AM

VIDEO OF FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING

It was noted that Mr. Terpenny (Town Manager) and Mr. Helms (Assn’t Town Manger) had worked to compile a list of only the most necessary of items and that had been trimmed down even further, as noted by several items being lined out. You can see this document on my website. KEEP IN MIND THIS IS A WORKING DOCUMENT, THIS IS NOT THE FINAL OR PROPOSED BUDGET!!!

Each and every item was discussed with Council Members Ann Carter and Michael Barber asking questions. The Mayor was also at the table and gave some input. Mr. Helms brought with him a large packet of files and referred to them in answering the questions that warranted more details. Questions focused on the necessity of expenses and I find the answers provided to be complete and phrased in terms that were easy to understand.

Although only a first meeting, the materials that I saw did not contain much fat. A position for an IT Technician is well warranted if you look through the Pay the Bills Summary report and find the companies that have been providing IT support to the town. It is likely that having a person in that position will likely save the Town money in the first year!

The position for another Planner is necessary as Mr. Terpenny (Town Manager) reported he would be turning over all duties as Zoning, Subdivision , and Sign Ordinance Administrators are being turned over to the current Director of Planning,  Randy Wingfield. It was noted by Mr. Helms that the Town of Christiansburg’s Planning Department has from 1/5 to 1/2 the number of staff that similar sized jurisdictions have. (Perhaps this will mean that Staff Analysis Reports are on the horizon? That would be a tremendous asset to the Planning Commission and the Town Council for future land use decisions.)

I could go on at some length concerning my observations and opinions about this meeting. Perhaps the best thing would be if you look and form your own opinions. I think you will be impressed with some of the tough issues that were addressed and how elected and appointed officials dealt with them.

Having been one of the few citizens to attend the one meeting on the budget last year, I must say I think this meeting was great! There was a concentrated effort to make sure that needs were met and systems were adequately maintained to allow for future growth, while striving diligently to make sure that taxes did not need to be increased.

However, I’m not an expert in finance by any means. In fact, I only have that one previous meeting with which to compare anything. The Town Charter and Code specify that department heads report to Town Manager and the Town Manager then presents a budget to the Town Council. So, a lot of the detailed work, the sorting and sifting out of ‘earmarks’ and ‘pork barrel projects’ was done by the Town Manager and Assn’t. Town Manager before the Committee ever saw the draft budget paper. I am sure there are people out there who think that some of the stuff that was cut out during that process should still be in there, but that’s the way things work. Request for items have to be prioritized. That process is all the more important in the current economic climate when it will be MUCH harder to project revenues with less revenue coming in from sales, lodging, and meals.

I feel that I learned a lot today. I hope you get a chance to watch the video and give me your opinions.

SPRING IS HERE!!!!

BICYCLE REGISTRATION

CHILDREN’S FINGERPRINTING

Saturday March 21st

12 to 2pm

Depot in Cambria (630 Depot St. NE)

Come on down and meet officers from the Christiansburg Police Dept. who will be present to help with bicycle registration and fingerprinting of children. I hear some special guests might be present and there are some bicycle helmets to be given away. I’ve also heard some irritating little old lady may be present with her video recorder to take some footage to post online.

You can bring your bicycle if you want help with putting the stickers on, or you can just pick up the forms and take them with you to fill our later. You can also pick up some brochures on bicycle safety. With the economy the way it is, count on seeing more and more people on bicycles this spring! Your participation in these events (along with a bit of writing and video) will help to raise awareness of drivers to be alert for those people on bicycles.

Child or adult, citizen or from neighboring jurisdictions, just come on out and let our police officers know you appreciate their work! Hope to see you there!

By Carol Lindstrom On March 20 at 5:00 PM