[0:00] Good afternoon. It is march the 29th at 5:00 and I call the board of supervisors of prince

[0:07] george county to session. Please call the roll.

[0:12] mrs. Waymack yes, mr. Hunter here, mr. Brown here.

[0:17] mr. Carmichael here. Mr. Webb, here.

[0:22] this is our budget work session.

[0:27] and we have a resolution for award of contract for janitorial services.

[0:39] good evening, madam chair. Board members, we as you are aware, the board awarded the contract to star commercial

[0:47] janitorial last week. One of the conditions included in the invitation for bid was that we receive a

[0:55] certification required certification for housekeeping with a particular institution.

[1:03] as part of our addendum, we did indicate that a comparable certification could be

[1:08] accepted and that certification was due within five days of the award notice.

[1:16] star janitorial cannot furnish that certification.

[1:20] they did furnish an alternate certification yesterday. However, it was not comparable to what was required in the invitation for bid.

[1:30] we did very recently receive a letter from the owner of star janitorial, which ms.

[1:38] jackson, our procurement officer, does have copies of that I can distribute to the board,

[1:44] but our staff recommendation is to award or to adopt a resolution deeming the low bidder

[1:54] non-responsive for failure to comply with that particular part of the ifb and to award to

[2:01] the number two, which was professional maintenance corporation.

[2:06] the amount is higher and the resolution contains the new amount and the new rates for the

[2:11] alternate sections. I'll let me grab a copy of that letter and distribute it to you.

[2:34] thank you, ma'am.

[2:55] the letter does indicate that he would not be able to obtain the certification of

[3:01] executive housekeeper by april one, and he does indicate that he has forwarded it to his

[3:07] legal team. But I think the ifb was pretty clear it was a requirement of of the contract

[3:13] award. Mr. Whitten might have suggestions or recommendations.

[3:20] the only thing I was going to add is that the county did not sign the contract. So it's not a fully executed contract at this point.

[3:30] and madam chair. Oh, go ahead mr. Webb. So can I assume going forward we're going to require this up front?

[3:40] yes, sir. Yes, sir. We've had a discussion internally that all of our solicitations should require the

[3:48] minimum documentation as part of the bid package.

[3:52] yes, sir. We've already had that discussion internally. This language was in the previous solicitation and it did not present an issue at that

[4:00] time. But we will adjust it. That's all I have. Madam chair, just to be honest with you, my concern.

[4:12] first that our meeting was a budget work session, and I understand that emergencies come

[4:19] up or certain things come up. I guess one of my concerns is, is it something that we have to do tonight?

[4:29] if not is why could this be something that would flow to our next business meeting, the

[4:36] first meeting in april? I do realize we're in a situation now where we probably don't have a contract.

[4:44] but could this board not couldn't this board authorize our interim county administrator to

[4:51] negotiate with our current vendor to carry over services until we address this?

[4:58] I'm just. We typically don't vote on things in a work session.

[5:03] work sessions are more informational, giving us the details into things to make other

[5:10] decisions. So when it comes to money, we've been trying real hard not to pass resolutions

[5:17] at a work session. Absolutely. We've tried to. I mean, a lot of people don't tune in to tune in to the public meetings.

[5:22] yeah, I don't want anybody to have looked at our agenda and said, oh, the board is having a budget work session tonight.

[5:28] and then later on they find out that we voted on several things that were business items

[5:33] where there may be people that are not paying attention tonight. It's just a perception thing.

[5:39] so I'm just I'm not that I'm one board member just raising my concern, that's all.

[5:46] the county administrator could negotiate with the current provider to continue services

[5:51] until the next board meeting if the board so desired.

[5:56] I'm an agreement since it's on the board, then. Well, it's up to you three.

[6:01] I'm an I'm an agreement with floyd. Yeah.

[6:06] [inaudible] everybody agreeable with that? I don't have a problem. As long as we keep some janitorial services however it's done.

[6:14] sounds like that's a consensus of the board. Okay, we will put this on your packet in your packet for april the 12th.

[6:21] april 12th. Yes, sir. Thank you. The next item is a discussion on health insurance for 2023.

[6:35] we have with us this evening mark browder from mark three our benefit consultant.

[6:42] he is going to walk you through our recent solicitation for health insurance.

[6:47] yes. Good evening.

[6:53] thank you for having me.

[7:34] okay, great. So to give everyone some background, anthem has changed their process for

[7:41] renewals. Historically, they have always given the county renewals in the february

[7:47] timeframe, which gives us plenty of time to respond or react if there is a challenge

[7:52] financially. Primarily, the challenge that we're going to face at any time would be

[8:00] around at least anthem's purposes would be the stop loss.

[8:05] and the stop loss insurance is there to protect high claimants.

[8:09] this year in the february timeframe, we didn't get the renewal from anthem administration

[8:14] but not stop loss. And then when we got the renewal, there was a significant transfer of risk to the county

[8:20] via what's referred to as a laser. A laser is a pooling level.

[8:26] in this case it was $650,000 for one individual.

[8:30] it was substantially higher than what the pooling level is for all the other participants

[8:36] that are covered under the plan. So essentially what it did was it put an extra half a million dollar liability on the

[8:43] county, which had a dramatic increase on the expected renewal.

[8:48] so the plan was bid. Anthem's philosophical change was part of that process, and then the school system was

[8:56] contemplating a possible separation from the county. So there was a lot of things going on that prompted a public bid.

[9:03] in that public bid, we received response from anthem local choice, which is administered

[9:09] by anthem, cigna, and optimum.

[9:13] there's just a couple of points that I want to place in front of you on this slide.

[9:17] so this is how we track the claims for both plans, the traditional plan and the hdhp

[9:24] plan. In the bottom, you're going to see a couple of numbers.

[9:29] one is going to say 165.5% and this is for the 2021 plan year.

[9:34] there was a dramatic increase in claims, a 65% increase in claims compared to the prior

[9:39] year. And this was high claimant driven as a part of that anthem, took a financial bath

[9:48] for every dollar of premium that was paid by the county. The county received back in reimbursement.

[9:53] so $7.50, that's 751% loss ratio essentially tells you that anthem paid out a

[10:00] significantly higher amount, which was $1.1 million in reimbursements to the county

[10:07] compared to the premium that it collected. And that was for high claimants.

[10:13] the plan stayed at a breakeven position. So financially the county was in good shape.

[10:19] but anthem took a bath. In the current plan year that we have, claims are only up about 11%, but that was on top

[10:28] of the 65% increase. So again, it's high claimant driven and anthem continues to to lose money in the process

[10:38] of providing this risk insurance called stop loss insurance.

[10:42] so an increase was anticipated.

[10:46] but part of the challenge that's going on with anthem is there has been a change at the

[10:51] top, at the leadership on the stop loss unit, and they're interested in riding the ship,

[10:57] but they're also putting their customers in a difficult financial position.

[11:01] hence the laser that we got at the renewal. So we bid the plan.

[11:08] in the process of the best and final responses, anthem removed that extra $500,000 of

[11:16] liability or that $630,000 laser which brought them back into a competitive position.

[11:23] there was still a significant increase in the fixed cost. Stop loss went up pretty dramatically by over double, but that is easily understood when

[11:36] one takes into consideration the losses that they've had.

[11:40] the stop loss renewal that we have now is firm. Optima also responded, but they did not provide us with a firm stop loss quote, which

[11:49] basically means that the response has all kinds of risks to the county, that they can

[11:55] change that number with additional claims so they were not considered.

[12:01] out of the gate cigna was extremely competitive. They provided fee holidays and implementation credits and wellness dollars.

[12:12] but in the end, it's a difficult it's difficult to be to have a compelling reason to make

[12:20] a change. So in the end, so this is our typical renewal expectation.

[12:27] if the county remained with anthem, there wouldn't be any change in budgetary allocation

[12:32] that we have today. From a fixed cost perspective, there's only about $29,000 of difference between cigna and

[12:41] anthem and a $3.1 million plan. That's really pennies, quite honestly.

[12:47] so if you stay with anthem, there's no change in funding. If you move to cigna, there would be no change in funding.

[12:56] but then you have the challenge of changes in pharmacy formulary, you have potential

[13:03] changes in physicians. So you've got disruption that would be potentially challenging for the employees that are

[13:10] covered by the plan and their families. The the response from local choice was an increase over funding of current funding of

[13:20] $450,000. It's always interesting to see what a fully insured response would look like

[13:27] relative to your current arrangement, where you buy risk insurance, you buy, you pay

[13:33] anthem to administer your plan. You're essentially self funded with that protection of stop loss.

[13:39] and almost inevitably, we've never seen a situation where a fully insured contract was

[13:43] more competitive than a self funded contract. So what you have been doing from a business perspective is the most efficient way to fund

[13:51] your health insurance. Can I make one comment, sir?

[13:56] yes, sir. Yes, sir. How long have we been with anthem?

[14:00] just a fifth. 15 years? 15. We've been with anthem for a very long time.

[14:06] however, there was a period of maybe 3 to 4 years where the county did break with anthem

[14:13] and go with cigna for a period of time. My comment is you said they took a bath.

[14:19] correct. Last year in 2021. The years prior to that, I could pull the data up.

[14:25] maybe not tonight, but would our argument be they made money every single year and then

[14:30] they get hit one time and then they want to penalize the client because they had one bad

[14:35] year out of 15. It's actually been two years, but we can look at the data and get that.

[14:39] just a comment. Sure. Understood. Thank you.

[14:47] so based on the best and final offer with anthem eliminating that liability, we still

[14:56] have serious concerns about the way that anthem is renewing. We do have a commitment for a on time renewal next year, so we won't be put into a corner

[15:05] where we're going to be in the march time frame trying to figure out exactly what the

[15:10] right solution is. This was a public bid, of course.

[15:14] anthem and cigna were essentially on top of each other from a cost perspective.

[15:20] as I mentioned earlier, the potential for disruption to the employees and the membership,

[15:25] both on the medication side and potentially on the provider side, can present a

[15:31] challenge. We do recommend that the county remain with anthem we'll continue to monitor

[15:38] anthem as a partner for the county. And if we see anything that is of concern, we'll have a conversation with the staff to

[15:47] look at the direction that we'll go. Questions?

[15:53] sir, what's your state statement at the end right there, referencing about hope they would change their philosophy of late renewal notices.

[15:59] what's that entail? Yeah. So this year we usually get it in february.

[16:03] we actually got it in march. The reason why february is an important date is because we have to fit within the budget

[16:10] cycle, and they're doing this across the entire state of virginia.

[16:16] so they're and the reason for a insurer of stop loss to wait longer so that they can get

[16:24] more data and feel more comfortable about the financial position.

[16:29] what anthem has transitioned from is a typically you'll see the insurers anthem, cigna,

[16:36] united, aetna will provide renewals at an earlier time frame than the independent

[16:42] insurers. So you'll have insurers like hcc and optum and others that you won't see a firm

[16:49] renewal until about 45 days prior to the renewal. So the philosophical change is the person that's at the top of anthem came from that

[16:59] traditional stop loss carrier market where they deliver renewals 45 days in advance,

[17:03] which doesn't work from a budgetary standpoint for the county. And so you've had a leadership change.

[17:10] so therefore they're trying to drag the renewals later into the year, which budgetary

[17:14] doesn't work for y'all at all. It also hampers our ability to do a public bid if the renewal is significantly high.

[17:26] that's key you know we would not have sufficient time to do a bid as mark indicated

[17:32] earlier, they have indicated they would give us a renewal in february next renewal.

[17:37] so at least for one more year we will get a timely renewal and hopefully that will become

[17:42] the philosophical norm again. Okay. All right. Thank you, madam chair.

[17:48] I have a couple of questions. So what I'm what I'm hearing is anthem's plan is the same as what we have today.

[17:58] affirmative, except for the school probably will not be a part of that plan, right?

[18:04] that's correct. And we still would be offering two options, the high deductible and the

[18:11] ppo. Correct. To the point of service plan? Yes, sir. Okay.

[18:17] all right. I just want to just verify those things. Thank you. Yes, sir.

[18:26] any other questions? No, ma'am. I'm good. All right.

[18:30] thank you, sir. Thank you.

[18:37] we have an updated assessed real property value.

[18:44] yes, ma'am. Good evening again, madam chair.

[18:49] board members. I'm going to flip over to a different powerpoint.

[18:54] so that's okay. No problem. This is a main powerpoint.

[19:00] and at one point during this presentation, I'm going to shift to spreadsheets.

[19:06] but of course, [inaudible] provided you with an update on on the renewal, and we are

[19:15] scheduled to bring that to you at your april 12th meeting with the recommendation to

[19:20] renew with anthem health and voluntary vision by up.

[19:28] we will be also recommending a renewal with delta dental.

[19:32] I'm going to talk a little bit about the budget impact.

[19:36] we had placed a 10% increase in the budget as a placeholder with the solicitation that

[19:45] was done. We actually can leave our rates where they are today, which means a drop from

[19:53] the the budget that was introduced on the 23rd or the 22nd.

[19:58] and now based on this new information that we finalized with mark three just yesterday,

[20:06] that was a stopgap that the well, they did finalize the entire renewal with the stop loss

[20:13] and they removed the laser, which was very critical for us.

[20:18] otherwise, we may have very different recommendation for you tonight and on april 12th.

[20:24] but based on the renewal numbers that mr.

[20:28] browder just presented, we can actually take out that 10% increase placeholder for the fy

[20:34] 23 budget. We feel comfortable in what we have budgeted today at the same rates, our claims

[20:43] experience and the fixed costs that anthem provided.

[20:49] so so what that means is the budget that mr.

[20:54] stoke presented to you would drop in total by $289,000.

[21:00] the general fund part of that is $255,000.

[21:04] so there are some minimal impacts to the other funds, economic development and tourism $65

[21:13] . $2,096 reduction. Our cja would drop by just under $14,000, which would mean would mean our reduction in

[21:23] our local transfer to our cja as well as some savings to hopewell and surrey.

[21:31] utilities would also of course see a drop and the budgeted health insurance for their

[21:37] their enterprise fund employees of just over $18,000.

[21:44] okay. Questions on that? Yeah, I have a I have a question and I get where you're coming from with this.

[21:53] and I'm I'm just going to ask this question, though, even though our rates are holding

[22:00] and we've got that $289,000 there, right?

[22:05] yes, sir. Would we be better off to to tuck that to the side.

[22:13] I'd say whether that's in contingency or whatever, in case we get part of the way through

[22:18] the year and our claims are exceeding expectations, then we still have some monies there

[22:26] to work with without having to pull it from somewhere.

[22:31] and I'm just and that's exactly what happened when when we reduce the health insurance

[22:36] line items and all of the general fund departments, your contingency in theory, would

[22:41] increase. Would increase. Yes, sir. Okay. All right. True. Because, you know, your budgeted revenues are budgeted revenues at this point.

[22:47] yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. And that's that's also going to be another point.

[22:53] yes. A little bit later in the discussion. Right. So we have the savings, which technically becomes a resource.

[22:59] right. So so just just to make you aware, it's going to hit all of the funds, tourism and

[23:08] economic development. We would shift that to contingency.

[23:12] our cja we would need to lower that budget because it's state grant funded and funded by

[23:18] [inaudible] contributions. Utilities we would lower lower those expenditures and in theory either put it to

[23:29] contingency or use it on other needs. The next slide, it's not specifically on your agenda, but we thought it was important to

[23:38] mention it to you this evening. Are there any other questions on the health insurance or the reduction before I move on

[23:46] to the next slide? Does anything that mr.

[23:52] brown served on that o&m, the creative workforce.

[23:59] the workforce does anything in that reflect does anybody there get insurance through us

[24:05] or? No, sir. Disregard. Sir, thank you. I think they're part of plater crater planning

[24:12] retirement. Okay.

[24:17] so, so as we were discussing the non public safety employees being placed on steps, we

[24:24] cautioned the board that we felt certain folks were going to be crawling out of the

[24:28] woodwork, eager to give ms. Hurt updated experience information and signed or verified verifications of employment.

[24:39] and sure enough, folks have have come forward to provide corrie with updated, relevant

[24:48] experience, and it is employees both from the general fund and the utilities fund.

[24:58] so with that being said, in order to place them correctly on steps using the same

[25:05] methodology, it would be an increase in expenditures of $83,000 that health insurance

[25:12] savings will certainly help offset all of that.

[25:17] and then utilities, they have, of course, had health insurance savings that does not

[25:22] quite offset that increased expenditure. So there are overall budget would go up.

[25:28] we would recommend that we make these changes so that these employees are paid

[25:33] consistently with the others. We are hopeful that that we won't have any any more.

[25:40] but of course we would certainly we have a couple of months before we adopt.

[25:46] so we would certainly bring you forth any any other revisions.

[25:52] questions on this.

[25:57] okay. So no, ma'am. No, I'm good. So the next topic is in fact the update on our real estate assessments.

[26:07] mr. Cowan and his team have been working diligently on finalizing the real estate

[26:16] assessments and he did provide us with updates yesterday.

[26:22] we met at 1:00 and actually got adjusted information last night at 6:00.

[26:28] so we've all been hustling to get the impacts analyzed and the information updated for

[26:37] you to be able to make an informed decision about the real property tax rate between the

[26:46] 1st of march. When we got our initial numbers and yesterday, the assessed value estimates have grown by

[26:55] over $58.3 million. So that's another penny.

[27:01] the equalization was at $0.76.

[27:06] it drops to $0.75. You know, mr. Brown asked a question about why would we update the advertisement?

[27:14] we just we just want you to be informed that that's what it means.

[27:20] and we we would, in fact, probably not be able to delay that decision until your april

[27:29] 12th meeting and hold the public hearing on may 10th, because there is a 30 day

[27:35] advertisement requirement. So just just that being said.

[27:43] so so what does that mean? So basically in the introduced budget, the value of a penny was $343,000.

[27:54] it's now $348,000. Equalization was estimated to be at $0.76.

[28:01] now it's $0.75. So the effective tax increase of leaving that real property tax rate at $0.83, it was a

[28:12] 9.2% increase or seven pennies.

[28:18] if you left the tax rate at $0.83, it becomes $0.08 or a 10.7 increase in taxes

[28:27] effectively. So if you did reduce to $0.82, it would very closely mirror

[28:36] what was presented to you last week, the seven pennies and 9.3 versus 9.2.

[28:43] so it's essentially the same with the increased and updated assessed values.

[28:50] I say we go with the 82. So I'd say let's talk about the dollars.

[28:56] okay. So so if you were to leave the tax rate at 83, your real estate tax revenues would

[29:05] grow by $460,000 above where they are in the introduced budget.

[29:11] the county would garner $281,000 of that.

[29:16] see an increase in their transfer above what was introduced by nearly $179,000.

[29:24] all right. So so what does it mean to drop it to $0.82 if you're interested in

[29:30] entertaining or desire to drop it? Your revenue still grows by $112,000.

[29:38] so it does impact slightly the mobile home and public service.

[29:44] so overall, the revenue change from the budget that was introduced is just over $82,000.

[29:53] the county again would garner $43,000 and the school division would see an increase in

[29:59] their transfer above what was introduced of $38,965.

[30:06] so dropping a penny, we still see slight growth above the revenues that were introduced

[30:13] last week. And just so that you are aware, because the value of a penny did increase

[30:23] the the commitment to the apparatus and the fire and ems equipment also slightly grows by

[30:29] about $15,000. Right. And that is a carve out from the school system.

[30:38] so with your permission, I can certainly flip over to spreadsheets to talk with you in

[30:45] more detail about the details of what this means in terms of your budget.

[30:52] so, yes, sir? I hate to interrupt you, madam chair. Yes, sir. With this growth and what's going on, what would happen if we lowered the

[31:01] personal property from 3.95 to 3.90?

[31:06] we can certainly do that. It looks like to me reading this, it would almost offset what you just showed.

[31:13] it almost does. The school division would receive slightly less than what was introduced, and I can

[31:19] provide those figures to you again in on one end, but they may lose another. So it's almost it's not quite a net zero, but it's close.

[31:26] it is a net loss if you were to do both. Okay. So but but just just solely dropping the real property tax rate to 82 from 83 with

[31:38] the growth in assessed values, again, you have a $112,000 increase in revenues.

[31:46] the school division transfer increases by almost $39,000.

[31:51] so so those two offset each other. We can have a discussion on changing the personal property, but I wanted to to also

[32:01] mention your public service revenue will fall by almost $28,000.

[32:07] your mobile home revenue falls by just over $1,800.

[32:12] and because of the expenditure changes and social services, their revenue is expenditure

[32:19] driven. They had some folks that provided corrie updated service and then we had their

[32:26] health insurance savings. It's not a big amount, but it is a change. $803 increase in revenue for them too.

[32:34] so on the expense side, before we get into a discussion of personal property, this is our

[32:40] insurance savings. The 2255 general fund.

[32:46] this is the increase we would need to budget to get those other folks placed on the steps

[32:53] based on their updated experience. This is the reduction and the transfer to our cja.

[33:01] this is the increase and the commitment based on your ordinances for fire and ems

[33:07] apparatus and equipment. And then your general fund contingency would grow by $207,795.

[33:15] it was introduced was.

[33:20] can't really see that. It was introduced at just over $800,000.

[33:25] it would become $1,000,032 with no other revenue actions.

[33:32] so the you wanted to have a discussion about personal property.

[33:41] you know, the board, I think was interested and dropping to 390 when you balanced.

[33:48] certainly this would afford you the opportunity to do that.

[33:53] the the school transfer.

[33:58] leaving it at 395 and and lowering the tax rate the real estate tax rate to

[34:07] $0.82 with the growth in values would mean that that increase of 38 165 taking both

[34:16] actions would mean a slight reduction below what was introduced to the school system that

[34:23] the local transfer would be $18,553,165, which is $1,496,522 higher than current

[34:33] year, but slightly less than the introduced budget of $41,000.

[34:41] well, just like the assessments on the house. Every citizen is getting hit with the new cars, and the used cars are over 42%, yes sir.

[34:49] and that doesn't look like it's going anywhere any time soon.

[34:54] madam chair, me personally, I'm game for the 390. Let me just say it's a small transfer.

[35:01] overall, with every coming plus what's being talked about in the general assembly, that's

[35:06] almost$ 9 million. So. So let me ask, though, if if we do the 390, the contingency was a little over a million

[35:16] before the 390. What would that take the contingency down to if we did the 390 for the personal property?

[35:27] yeah, I'm thinking it's going to take us back down closer to that $800,000-700,000 we had

[35:33] there before. I'm estimating you would drop your contingency by just over $120,000, that's all.

[35:41] yeah. I would support both moves personally the 390 and the $0.82.

[35:53] any other comments? No, ma'am. Okay.

[36:00] so if that's a consensus. That's the direction we'll take I'm going to go back to the powerpoint and I will

[36:09] certainly email you finalized numbers of what it means for the school transfer and what

[36:14] it means for our contingency. When I do, I certainly want to make sure I do a careful review.

[36:21] but so their discussion on updates to advertise to avoid

[36:31] confusion and not waiting maybe until april 12th.

[36:37] I think I think assessments are supposed to be hitting the boxes in early april.

[36:43] and they do have the estimated tax rate for the upcoming year.

[36:53] so we did place a couple of action items on your agenda for this evening just to make

[37:01] sure that there was no public confusion. And because we do have to meet that 30 day advertisement requirement for the effective

[37:12] tax increase in order to do that on may 10th, we would need to get that ad to the

[37:18] progress pretty soon. But, madam chair, I know, I know we were talking about something different when we were

[37:23] talking about dollars, but this were pushed against the timeline on this. I think this would qualify as an exception.

[37:30] can I go back to one thing first, though? Yes, sir. This is just my opinion, and I would probably lean on mr.

[37:38] whitten for advice. But when we give you a consensus on any item or give staff or consensus, shouldn't every

[37:48] board member weigh in? And we just don't stop when we just get three?

[37:54] I mean, because that's really not given the public a good feeling of where everybody

[37:58] stands. Majority of the board weighing in, but you don't have every member weighing in.

[38:04] so, I mean, I'm just it's really up to the chair.

[38:08] if the chair wants a majority to as the consensus if she wants to every board member and

[38:15] everyone wants to go around and ask each board member if they want to weigh in. It's really her decision.

[38:21] I just again, if the public is watching, they only hear three.

[38:27] they don't really know where the rest of the board members stand on items.

[38:31] so that's that was just my question. I'm fine. We can move on.

[38:39] okay. Just to talk a little bit more about timing.

[38:43] there are updated ads at your places.

[38:48] and mr. Stoke did email you the updated resolutions earlier today.

[38:54] the the public hearing on the tax rates themselves.

[38:59] we are recommending to keep those at april 26th because we are in need for the board to

[39:06] at least adopt the personal property tax rate that date on april 26th so that the bills

[39:14] can be prepared and mailed out and due on the later due date of june 24th that we had

[39:22] discussed with you at your last meeting as well. You certainly could defer the decision on your real property tax rate until may 10th, when

[39:33] you will be considering the effect of real property increase.

[39:41] that way you'd be taking out real property. That evening it's up to you.

[39:47] but the resolutions have been provided for updated action, the tax rate and the effective

[39:55] real estate tax increase from the growth and assessed values.

[40:01] so. The.

[40:07] the last thing on the agenda is the budget to advertise.

[40:13] if it pleases the board, if you wanted to go ahead and take action on the advertisement,

[40:22] the authority to advertise the public hearings. Then we can come back to the budget advertisement for the budget public hearing.

[40:30] I want a clarification, madam chair. I understand doing the repost just to make sure it's clear because things have changed

[40:39] since our last meeting on what was originally presented versus where we agreed to go.

[40:44] but even with the advertisement, if something changes between now and then, like an

[40:49] increase, we can still go lower. So I guess my point is why delay either one of them?

[40:58] other comments. I don't disagree with that, that rationale.

[41:05] I think the public needs to know and have an idea of what's going on.

[41:10] as soon as we have an idea, if we keep it up here and then all of a sudden bounce it on

[41:15] them later. I think it's a whole lot better served if they know about it as soon as we

[41:20] reasonably can. Good point. See it all at one time.

[41:26] all right. That's the general consensus.

[41:30] okay. There there are two items that were attached to your blue sheet.

[41:38] the notice of proposed real property tax increase. It looks like this.

[41:44] it has the updated percentage growth net of new construction at 14.3%.

[41:52] it has the equalized value updated to $0.75.

[41:57] it has the proposed tax rate going to $0.82 instead of $0.83, which is a

[42:06] 9.3% growth or $0.07. And the public hearing date has been changed to may 10th so that we can meet that 30 day

[42:17] advertisement requirement. It also doesn't have the personal property rate at 3.95.

[42:26] that's a separate action. This is your effective tax increase because of your real estate values.

[42:32] there's a separate ad for the personal property.

[42:36] okay. All right. I'm looking at the right. Okay. Very good. [inaudible] this second one would need to be modified to reflect 3.90

[42:49] instead of 3.95. Yes, sir. We would have to change that, and we can certainly do that before I send it to the paper.

[43:01] any questions on that. And there is a resolution. Madam chair, if I'm in order, if there's no more questions, I so move that we advertise a

[43:10] public hearing for the effective real property tax increase equalized rate consideration.

[43:20] and I think that would come back. May 10th, may 10th to this board.

[43:26] is there a second. Call roll please.

[43:31] mr. Hunter yes. Mr. Brown yes. Mr. Carmichael yes.

[43:35] mr. Webb yes. Mrs. Waymack yes.

[43:40] thank you. And the second advertisement and resolution that was at your places is an

[43:48] advertisement for all of the tax rates, the annual tax rates.

[43:53] it does show a reduction on the real property and mobile home rate to $0.82 instead of

[44:00] $0.83, which is what you approved last week.

[44:05] and we would certainly update the personal property to 390 instead of 395, which becomes

[44:14] $0.35 less than your current rate.

[44:19] chairman if there's no discussion, I move the authority to advertise a public hearing,

[44:24] setting a tax rate for real property, personal property, machinery and tools, tax and

[44:28] mobile homes. With the change of 3.95, going to 3.90 for personal property.

[44:36] is there a second? I'll second. Thank you. Call the roll.

[44:40] that comes back on may 10th also. That will be april 26th, that's april 26th.

[44:45] so that you can at least adopt the machinery and tools and person and personal property.

[44:51] yes, ma'am, you're right. Yes, sir. Call the roll please.

[44:59] mr. Brown yes. Mr. Carmichael yes. Mr. Webb yes, mrs.

[45:04] waymack. Yes. Mr. Hunter yes.

[45:09] okay. And then the the last topic, the budget that you would like for us to advertise for

[45:16] that april 26th public hearing, the introduced or what we've discussed with you this

[45:24] evening with modifications to the health for reducing health insurance, making those

[45:31] known step placement increases, changing your real estate revenues, reflecting the $0.82,

[45:37] changing the personal property revenues and school transfer to reflect the 3.90.

[45:43] that's not on the list because you just did that. The change in social services revenue, our school transfer change, the cip transfer

[45:53] change for your fire and ems commitments, the general fund transfer to our cja and of

[46:00] course our contingency. The other funds would also be impacted for the health insurance reduction and any service

[46:08] experience adjustments that they had. So there in the budget ad, there is a spot that has the tax rates.

[46:19] so it would probably be more in concert if we were to advertise the budget modified as we

[46:28] discussed tonight. I'm in agreement with that makes sense. I'm totally in agreement with that.

[46:33] the one we just talked about. Yeah, we'll get people confused if we if we advertise the

[46:38] introduce one yet we've made all these other changes. I agree. Yeah.

[46:43] so that that's what we will do. Do you think there's any close if I may.

[46:50] I'm sorry. The only thing that would come anywhere close to being in the negative realm

[46:56] would be the 41 grand. And I think that's the figure for the schools.

[47:01] the change. Yes, sir. It's larger, but smaller than large.

[47:06] smaller, smaller than what was unveiled last week. Right. Okay.

[47:11] I just want to make sure everybody understood that that one little thing is in there.

[47:16] okay. So so just to recap, if you had your pre budget work sessions, you balanced on the

[47:23] 8th, mr. Smith did present the introduced budget on the 29th, may 3rd.

[47:30] we have our next scheduled work session, but we may need to kick that down the road based

[47:39] on the general assembly adjourning without having adopted a budget, and they are

[47:45] reconvening certainly on april the 4th, but we do not know a timeline of when they will

[47:50] adjourn from their special session. So, so other key dates that are upcoming, april 26th, you will have your public hearing

[48:03] on the tax rates. And certainly you could defer real estate and adopting personal property and machine and

[48:13] tools on the 26th. But maybe taking that real, real property on may 10th, april 26th, we would hold the

[48:21] budget public hearing. May 10th, you would hold the public hearing on the effect of our real property increase

[48:28] equalization consideration. And may 10th is when we had earmarked adoption of the budget.

[48:37] but mr. Stoke and I have had discussions that that it might make more sense to delay that

[48:42] to may 24th, particularly if we do not have state revenues.

[48:48] the school system will have updates prior to the adoption of their budget for state

[48:55] revenues, just like we will. The comp board will probably be delayed in getting us revenue numbers and and it may make

[49:06] more sense to delay that action until may 24th, particularly because we are delaying the

[49:14] real property effective tax increase until may 10th.

[49:19] I think the comp board is consistently into may getting this numbers.

[49:26] it's the way it always was normally may one very late in the afternoon.

[49:31] but with the general assembly delays, we actually got an email from robin de sochaux late

[49:37] last friday afternoon. They they really can't provide the budget, I believe it was a number of weeks after the

[49:45] veto session ends. So they really don't don't know a date.

[49:52] the sixth wednesday after special session adjournment so is when we would get

[50:00] constitutional office budgets.

[50:05] so on the horizon again getting board information.

[50:13] general assembly actions. What final decision will they make on pay increases for constitutional offices and state

[50:22] supported positions like social services and cja.

[50:28] any funding that we might receive for the police department? House bill 599 revenues.

[50:35] ms. Lane from the commissioner's office indicating that we might need to fine tune our

[50:40] poll revenue prior to adoption. I have not had an opportunity to meet with her.

[50:47] we will meet in the next few days to discuss that.

[50:51] any other salary revisions that the board wants to entertain or experience and

[50:59] information that corrie receives. There will be conversations on our constitutional officers and board employees.

[51:08] and then, of course, we always update our personnel complement just prior to adoption.

[51:14] with new hires, retirements and resignations so that we have better salary and benefit

[51:19] information closer to adoption. The school division did indicate that certainly once the general assembly approves the

[51:28] budget, their state revenues will likely change from what they provided to us initially.

[51:37] so any more questions on the budget?

[51:43] any questions or comments? Looks good. I'm good.

[51:49] okay. Thank you. Thank you very much.

[51:53] thank you. Thank you. Great job. Thank you very much.

[51:59] our next action. That concludes our work session.

[52:03] our next session is closed session, madam chair.

[52:08] I'll move that the board go into closed session under provisions of section 2.2-3711 of

[52:14] the virginia freedom of information act for the following purpose.

[52:20] number one section 2.2-3711.8.1 discuss or consider a consideration of the assignment

[52:30] appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, discipline, or resignation of a

[52:37] specific public officers, appointees, or employee of the public body.

[52:44] I further move that such discussion shall be limited to the hiring of a new county

[52:49] administrator and the salaries of the county attorney.

[52:53] commissioner of revenue. Commonwealth's attorney. Clerk of the circuit court.

[52:58] registrar. Sheriff and treasurer. My motion ma'am.

[53:03] is there a second? I'd second. Call the roll please.

[53:08] mr. Carmichael yes. Mr. Webb yes, mrs. Waymack yes. Mr.

[53:12] hunter yes. Mr. Brown yes.

[53:17] the board will now enter into closed session.

Mar 29, 2022 Work Session

Agenda

Transcript