High Speed Google for Alexandria

At the last Council meeting, I brought forward a proposal that the city compete for Google’s high speed internet trial.  I encourage everybody to support this effort.

Stop Discrimination in Virginia

At our last Council meeting, I proposed the Council re-affirm its anti-discrimination policies and rebuke the Attorney General for making our state less inclusive and more anti-business.

News Highlights:

• Alexandria City Council authorized considering a maximum possible real residential property tax increase of nine cents, from 90.3 cents to up to 99.3 cents per $100 assessed value.
• City Council also authorized advertisement of the maximum possible add-on real estate tax rate of three cents on non-residential commercial and industrial property, for a total of $1.023 per $100 assessed value.

My comments about this:

1) The higher rate is not final and is intended to provide flexibility so the community can review significant and still uncertain cuts from the legislature in Richmond to schools and public safety as well as give us options for how we address major metro service and bus cuts and also to provide one alternative to pay more for urgently needed upgrades to our storm water system to prevent flooding.

2) It is not the final rate. We are likely to make additional budget cuts. If anybody has suggestions for $9 million in budget cuts or more, please suggest them; the council asked staff today to evaluate additional cuts and to bring them to us for review. After 4 years of budget cutting, it will take major service changes to fill that gap — we will be evaluating a wide range of choices to lower the rate.

3) Alexandria’s average tax bill has been flat for the last three years (see Revenue Issues). No other jurisdiction can make that claim as others have seen major increases in response to the economic downturn. Except for Prince William County (see Revenue Issues), Alexandria has the lowest average tax bill in the entire region and nothing being considered in the budget will change that.

Making the Government Work Better for Kids, Families and Seniors

I have spent a lot of time over the last year working to make our city services for families and children more efficient and effective. There is more to do, but this is a good summary of where we are.

Winter 2010 Krupicka Council News

Updates in this issue:  Mentoring Needs; City Budget; Snow; FIOS & Google; Transportation; and US Census Hiring Needs

Dear Friends,

The first two months of this year have been quite a ride.  From the economy to the snow, we are seeing one of the most intense winters in a long time.   It’s times like these, though, that bring us all together as a community, and I see that happening everywhere I go.  People have been amazingly supportive of each other through a lot of hardship.

After years of work to streamline city departments, to audit and improve program efficiency and to hold the average property tax bill flat for the last three years, or down if you account for inflation, it was gratifying to see Alexandria recognized as one of the lowest taxed jurisdictions in our region in our Monthly Financial Report.  This is the result of years of work to re-build the city budget, to audit city departments and to create results-oriented program metrics for city programs.  As we enter another very challenging budget year, this foundation will help us navigate our way to a final budget for 2010-2011.

The City Manager unveiled his budget proposal last month. (The budget section of the city web site has the details, including a schedule of meetings and public hearings.) Last year I met with hundreds of residents in small gatherings to talk about the budget.  If you’d like to sit down with me and neighbors to go through the budget, just let us know.  Send an e-mail to my aide, Elizabeth.jones@alexandriava.gov, to schedule a time.

As I recently wrote on my blog:  David Broder is right — this economy is different than past downturns. Any budget decision made by government now has to take into consideration that reality.  We have been aware of all of this for the last few budgets in Alexandria and have been working accordingly. We know that programs and services that are cut won’t come back and we have avoided one-year budget gimmicks to balance the budget.  Unfortunately, our state is poised to use a number of one-time tricks this year and those will only make it worse for the next budget.  The severity of the economic times means we have to understand that what gets cut will not be reinstated.  Given that most of our local city budget is education, public safety and basic community infrastructure, we have to be even more mindful of the impact of cutting public safety, or schools, or not fixing sewers and roads to the point of harming overall quality of life. An erosion in the desirability of living in the city will further weaken property values and harm our long term economic prospects.  We started cutting city programs four years ago in a very methodological way for this reason.  As we go through this year’s budget, we must remain very mindful of the long-term economic picture.  Governments have to re-set what normal revenue and expenses are.  That isn’t easy to do, but it is what everybody should be doing.

Stay warm and please contact me anytime.

Rob

Your Help Can Make a Huge Difference

Looking for a way to make a difference this year? Adult male mentors are needed for at-risk, middle-school age boys in Alexandria, VA. The commitment is one night a week for one year. Through lasting, meaningful mentoring relationships, the program aims to prevent youth from engaging in risky behaviors such as gang involvement, violence, and substance abuse. As a joint activity, the men and boys work together to learn movie-making and film-editing skills from an Apple specialist, and throughout the year will create public service announcements as well as a short documentary. To see last year’s videos, visit our website at www.alexandriava.gov/imoviementors.

There is an URGENT need for mentors to start right away! If you are interested in learning more, please contact Karen Berry at mentoring@alexandriava.gov or at 703.746.4506.  We are having an orientation on March 9th for those who are interested in learning more.

DRAFT City Budget Unveiled

This year’s proposed city budget has something for everybody to love and hate.  At an increase of 7 cents (average of about $108 per year per household), the proposed tax rate is higher than many would like.  But there is no average home.  So while 30 percent of households (most of them with homes at the less expensive end of the market) will see a decrease in taxes, others will see an increase.  We have to look closely at everything: Proposed program cuts, like those to community policing positions and human services; proposals to phase out community pools; and many other cuts all require close scrutiny.  Potential state budget cuts and the dramatic financial distress of WMATA also have to be considered this year.  We can’t let our regional metro system collapse — the proposed cuts to service and proposed fee increases would dramatically re-shape commuting in our region.   In this economy, I am very mindful that  we have to look at any program and service cuts as permanent. Revenue forecasts are for slow or no revenue growth for the next few years, so we can’t expect to grow fast enough to replace eliminated programs.

Budget: Capital Projects

The proposed budget for capital investments is very constrained. For example, it plans for a phase-out of some city pools, like the one in Warwick Village, and includes scaled back plans for other city infrastructure.  I want to see if we can come up with creative ideas to keep our pools open for the long term, rather than accept that some pools will close in the next few years.  The budget tries to maintain adequate service and maintenance for our sewers, storm water systems and some other basic infrastructure and includes some new and increased fees to do so.  A new storm water fee would cost about $48 annually per household to build and maintain flood prevention and water systems and to help us comply with Chesapeake Bay requirements.  There is also a proposal to increase the sewer fee (bills from $1.00 per 1,000 Gallons to $1.25 per 1,000 gallons) to keep up with sewer system maintenance.  The storm-water fee is designed so that properties that creates more storm water run-off in the city pay more than those that don’t.  Another approach would be to raise the property tax rate to cover this basic infrastructure.  It would help me to hear which approach you would prefer. In addition, the budget includes less money for sidewalk repair, cross walks and traffic management programs.

I’m pleased to see money in the proposed capital budget to help build two new schools in response to rapid increases in student population; this does not meet all of our school capacity needs, but it is a good start. I’m pleased to see the budget has a plan to address our deteriorating fire departments, though it will take longer than I would like; many of our fire stations are in very bad shape and limited coverage on the west end of the city does lessen service capacity.

Budget: Education

For our public education system, the proposed budget lowers average per pupil costs significantly, but does maintain a commitment to quality schools. This is important for our city’s economic recovery because property values are very closely associated with school quality and also with attracting business to a city.  It will be harder to recover from the economic downturn if we walk away from a commitment to education quality. (For those of you not familiar with the intricacies of the schools’ budgeting process: The School Board develops its own budget each year based on what it expects to receive from federal, state and city coffers. City Council votes on the dollar amount it will allocate to schools each year.)

Budget: City Services

The city budget proposes to eliminate 67 staff positions. (We eliminated 119 last year.)  It also keeps a freeze on a wide range of positions –  staff is working with about 10 percent fewer people than a few years ago.  But the budget does add new Emergency Medical Service positions so we can keep up with demand for these important emergency services to protect the safety of our community.  We have been seeing reduced response times and have had to use Fairfax and Arlington EMS more than we should due to our constrained city capacity.  The city also plans to install electronic kiosks in City Hall to reduce costs associated with routine city functions, like paying bills and the processing of parking passes.  These will be phased in over a few years, but once in place will save staff resources while also providing a good quality service.

I’m happy to see a proposal to move to larger recycling bins with lids for the city.  This will require a slight increase in the refuse fee, but has the potential to increase recycling rates by 20-30% and also to cut down on the trash blowing around neighborhoods on trash pick-up days.

Proposals to cut community policing positions have generated a number of questions from the community and the Council.  We have asked the Police Chief to give us more information about this and I, for one, am looking for a way to replace at least some of these proposed cuts.  The community policing program has produced huge benefits for our community and moving away from it has the potential to create significant challenges.

One of the largest changes in the budget is a new emergency communications department that comes from consolidating the fire and police 911 systems into one system.  This change is meant to save money over time and improve service, but the consolidation process will take time and will require new communications and other equipment over time and is something the Council will have to follow closely.

The proposed budget eliminates much of our funding for affordable housing projects which will mean developer partnerships will become the primary source for these projects.  It eliminates funding for some human service resources.  With significant state cuts also predicted in these areas, we will rely on much fewer resources to support a wide range of community programs.  The waiting lists for all basic health and prevention programs are all growing quickly and the staff working on them are being stretched very thin — as one example I know of a doctor working for the city that has to literally run between appointments and answer the phone while doing so because the administrative position was cut from the budget and because the line of patients is getting larger and larger.  One bright note: Great staff work in the Human Services department is saving us $1.2. million a year in mandated costs — the staff has worked hard to more efficiently manage our comprehensive services act program requirements and deserve a lot of credit for their success in lowering costs without harming services.

Budget: Transportation

The proposed budget does not keep up with the replacement needs of our city bus service;  if this problem is not addressed, the quality of service will quickly deteriorate. In response to this and other needs, the City Manager has proposed a 3 cent commercial tax to help pay for expanded transportation services in the city  and to help the city coordinate our transportation efforts with Arlington.  Arlington and Fairfax have a similar tax, but at  much higher rate of 12.5 cents.  Improved transportation infrastructure is critical to our quality of life and our future economic success.  We need to look at this proposal carefully because Alexandria has a large number of small businesses, and I want to understand how this affects them and our overall economy. Whether it’s this proposal or something else, we need to find a way to meet our regional and local obligations to transportation infrastructure.  Arlington and Fairfax, with their add-on tax, have resources to help support regional transit projects.  Prince William County is considering a 12.5 cent tax this year for similar reasons. To work with our regional partners on transportation issues, we have to create a method to provide our share of the funds or we won’t be able to address local transportation needs or participate in regional transportation solutions.

Over the next three months we’ll be going over the draft budget line by line and proposing changes based on what we find. I encourage you to follow the budget online and at our many meetings.  And I also encourage you to share your thoughts on the city web site.  As a great example of government transparency, all citizens are encouraged to post your thoughts and questions about the city budget on the city web site.

Snow Update

Thank you to everybody who pulled out their shovels, helped neighbors, dug out strangers and otherwise showed amazing patience during this epic series of storms.  Like every other regional government, the city has expended enormous resources to get us through this last month — close to $10 million dollars. With the round-the-clock staff work, extra salt and hired private crews, this was a huge effort.  More than two feet of snow had to be cleared from roads, sidewalks and thousands of intersections, requiring staff to shovel, trucks to move the snow and other trucks to take it away.

The effort was crucial to our community, particularly from a safety perspective. During the storms, fires in Arlandria and on Bashford lane could have easily spread wider through their neighborhoods.  Because of the city’s work to clear roads and fire hydrants, our fire department was able to respond quickly.  If that work had not been done, these fires would have been much worse.

I am starting to evaluate what we can learn from our response to the storms, and how we can improve in the future.  I know myself and many parents would like to see schools open faster after snowfall.  I’ve heard a number of complaints that some people didn’t clear their sidewalks as quickly as others.  While city staff, residents and business owners in many areas of the city did a good job with sidewalk snow removal, not every area was well attended.  I’d appreciate any thoughts you have about ways to improve sidewalk snow removal efforts as well as the overall city response.

FIOS & Google Update

I regularly get questions about when Alexandria will get FIOS, the fiber optic lines that allow for even faster broadband Internet access to homes. Last spring, the Council approved a franchise with Verizon that would allow it to start installing FIOS infrastructure around the city.  The next step of that process was to approve a formal franchise agreement with Verizon for the new service.  Unfortunately, corporate decisions by Verizon have stopped their roll-out of FIOS around the country, including Alexandria.  In January, at my request, we sent another letter to Verizon explaining our desire to have them come to the city; we need real competition for these services here.  I am eager to see Verizon start investing in this technology in Alexandria, but at this point, we have no word from them as to if or when this will happen.

On a related note, at my request the Council will consider on Tuesday whether to apply to participate in Google’s high speed internet access project.  Alexandria is a technically sophisticated city.  We lead the nation in online charitable giving.  If any community was a prospect for a program like this, its us.  With our history and our great citizens, I am hopeful we can put together a proposal that can win!  You can read about this on the city docket here:  Fiber Optic Trial for Communities

Big Grants To Our Region with Transit, East and West End and More

The City recently won a very competitive federal stimulus grant that provides $8.5 million dollars to help build the new mass transit system that will connect Crystal City to Potomac Yard and the Braddock Road Metro.  This grant comes at a critical time in Potomac Yard development and city budget challenges.  It will help us create new jobs in the area when the project is underway and it will help improve the transportation options and convenience for residents in Alexandria. This joint effort with Arlington has been in the planning stage for years and we are now starting to move into the building phase.  The grant will help us build out this important transit way that will help us move more people, faster and more conveniently.

We also recently won a competitive grant of $670,000 for planning of new facilities to assist priority transit service in the Beauregard-Van Dorn Corridor.  The west end, as we all know, has significant transportation needs.  This grant will help us implement our transportation master plan calls for new mass transit improvements on the west end.

To help us put additional focus into west end transportation needs, I recently asked that the city include a request to Congressman Moran to help us coordinate transit planning between Alexandria’s western section with Fairfax and Arlington’s similar efforts.   We are in the early stages of this work, but it’s important that we get moving on this as the transportation issues demand our attention.  Many of our transportation problems require regional cooperation.  Congressman Moran is supporting this request and is working with the city to help us better coordinate our efforts with those of Fairfax and Arlington.

The US Census is HIRING

1500 census takers (inside the beltway) will be hired this spring to help collect census data.

The U.S. Census will pay $20/hour for part time temporary workers to walk door to door in their neighborhood collecting data.  All applicants must take a multiple-choice exam. More information is available online: http://2010.census.gov/2010censusjobs/

Paid for and authorized by Rob Krupicka and Friends of Krupicka

The Challenge of the economy

David Broder is right that this economy is different than past. Any budget decision made in government now has to take into consideration that reality.

We have been aware of all of this for the last few budgets in Alexandria and have been working accordingly. We know that programs and services that are cut won’t come back and we have not used any one year budget gimmicks to balance the budget.  Unfortunately, our state is poised to use a number of one time tricks this year and those will only make it worse for the next budget.  The severity of the economic times means we have to understand that what gets cut will not come back.  Given that most of our local city budget is education, public safety and basic community infrastructure, we have to be even more mindful as cutting public safety or schools or not fixing sewers and roads to the point of harming overall quality of life or desirability of living in the city will further weaken property values and harm our long term prospects.  We started cutting programs four years ago in a very methodological way for this reason.  We have worked to keep the average property tax bill flat for the last four years (down if you account for inflation) for this reason as well.  As we go through this year’s budget, we must remain very mindful of the long term economic picture.  Governments have to re-set what normal revenue and expenses are.  That isn’t easy to do, but it is what everybody should be doing.

VA Education Gains At Risk!

The proposed cuts to education in Virginia will erase achievement gains and will cause schools to fall behind. These are the largest cuts proposed in modern history. Business should be very concerned about the impact this will have on their workforce, economic development and future growth. Families should be very c…oncerned that the state is walking away from its constitutional requirement to fund our schools.

The VA State Constitution Says:

Section 1. Public schools of high quality to be maintained.

The General Assembly shall provide for a system of free public elementary and secondary schools for all children of school age throughout the Commonwealth, and shall seek to ensure that an educational program of high quality is established and continually maintained.

We all need to stand up for the economic power of education in Virginia. Taking apart pre-K and K-12 is a bad economic development plan. What high paying employer is going to see a diminished education system as a selling point when deciding where to locate?

This is a huge gain for city transit efforts.

City of Alexandria Awarded Two Department of Transportation Grants
Nearly $9 Million Awarded to Improve Transit on Route 1 and Beauregard-Van Dorn Corridor

February 17, 2010

News Highlights

· Grants are part of the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Program, established through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
· Nearly $9 million in grants will support improvement of transit services along Route 1 and the Beauregard-Van Dorn Corridor

For More Information

· alexandriava.gov/Recovery

The City of Alexandria has been awarded funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation today for improving transit services in two major traffic corridors. The first grant, for $8.5 million, is for construction of an exclusive transitway in the median of Route 1 between Monroe Street and East Glebe Street. The City was also awarded a second grant of $670,000 for planning of new facilities to assist priority transit service in the Beauregard-Van Dorn Corridor. Under the second grant, these facilities could include super stops (enhanced bus stops with real time bus information, solar lighting, and other amenities) and queue-jumping lanes (dedicated lanes that buses can use to advance from a traffic signal before the rest of traffic, moving more quickly through the roadways). These features should greatly assist future high-quality transit services in both of these corridors.

The grants are part of the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Program, established through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This competitive program, partially developed as an economic stimulus measure, can fund any type of transportation project, including roads, freight railroads, ports, passenger railroads, or public transit.

More than 1,400 applications requesting nearly $60 billion in projects were submitted from across the country. The nearly $9 million in grants to the City of Alexandria represented 30 percent of the $30.4 million awarded to projects in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
For more information, contact Tony Castrilli, Director of Communications, at 703.888.7166 or tony.castrilli@alexandriava.gov.

What Gets Measured Gets Done

Thank you Senator Warner.  This could not be more true. Good management, whether it is government or business, requires good measurement and data. When we limit our ability to measure, we essentially eliminate our ability to govern or manage well. This isn’t the kind of thing that gets on a bumper sticker, but it is the kind of thing that provides efficient, effective government. I have spent much of the last year pushing to move all city youth programs to a metric-driven mindset. We have added metrics to all city programs — but they could be much stronger. The process of measurement and refinement should be continuous.

Great News For VA Schools

For Immediate Release February 10, 2010

Contact: Charles Pyle, Director of Communications (804) 371-2420
Julie C. Grimes Communications Manager (804) 225-2775

Virginia Students Score Nation’s Biggest Five-Year Gain
in Achievement on Advanced Placement Tests

The College Board today recognized Virginia for achieving the nation’s largest five-year increase in student achievement on Advanced Placement (AP) examinations.

According to the College Board’s sixth annual Advanced Placement Report to the Nation, the percentage of public high school seniors in Virginia earning a grade of three or higher — generally qualifying for college credit — on at least one AP test has increased by 5.8 points since 2004. In 2009, 18,568 seniors in the commonwealth earned a qualifying score on at least one AP test, compared with 12,349 in 2004.

“Virginia has developed and implemented innovative strategies to expand access to AP courses and provides incentives for schools to identify students with the potential for success,” Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia I. Wright said. “And more of our young people are ready for the challenge of AP courses because of the Standards of Learning (SOL) program, which has raised the instructional floor for all students.”

Following Virginia in raising AP achievement were Maryland, Georgia and Maine, which each saw five-year gains of 5.4 points.

During 2009, 22.9 percent of the commonwealth’s public high school seniors earned a grade of 3 or better on at least one AP examination, compared with 17.1 percent in 2004. Achievement on AP tests in Virginia increased by 1.6 points compared with 2008, when 21.3 percent of Virginia seniors qualified for college credit on at least one test. Only two states, New York and Maryland, had higher percentages of seniors earning grades of 3 or better on AP tests during 2009. Nationally, 15.9 percent of 2009’s public school seniors earned a qualifying score on at least one examination.

Participation in AP courses in Virginia schools exceeds the national average by nearly ten points; 36.4 percent of Virginia’s 2009 seniors took at least one AP test during their high school careers, compared with 26.5 percent nationwide.

Virginia is one of 16 states that have eliminated the “equity and excellence” gap for Hispanic students, according to the College Board report. Hispanic students made up 6.3 percent of the class of 2009 and accounted for 6.5 percent of seniors earning a score of three or higher on at least one AP test.

The number of African-American seniors achieving a qualifying score on at least one AP examination has nearly doubled in the last five years. African-American students accounted for 24.4 percent of the 2009 graduating class and 6.5 percent of seniors earning a grade of three or higher on at least one AP examination.

Virginia students may substitute AP examinations for end-of-course SOL tests in the same subject areas. Enrollment in AP courses is among the criteria for recognition under the Virginia Index of Performance awards program created by the Board of Education to encourage advanced learning and achievement. Virginia promotes AP participation through the Early College Scholars initiative and the Virtual Virginia online learning program, and uses federal grant money to subsidize test fees for low income students.

Dr. Wright praised the contribution of the commonwealth’s affiliate of the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) in increasing AP achievement during 2009. The Virginia NMSI affiliate provided training and support for teachers and incentives for students in 14 high schools with traditionally low participation rates. Last year, 963 seniors in these schools earned a grade of three or better on at least one AP test, compared with only 546 during 2007-2008.

The 14 schools are as follows:
Amelia County — Amelia County High
Bedford County — Jefferson Forest High, Liberty High and Staunton River High
Franklin County — Franklin County High
Halifax County — Halifax County High
Henrico County — Deep Run High and Varina High
Martinsville — Martinsville High
Nottoway County — Nottoway High
Prince Edward County — Prince Edward County High
Richmond — Richmond Community High and Thomas Jefferson High
Smyth County — Marion Senior High

“Teachers, administrators and students in these schools were eager to accept the challenge of expanding participation in AP programs – especially in mathematics and science, “ said Dr. Wright. “We hope to build on this success as the initiative works with 11 additional schools this year and 20 more schools during 2010-2011.”

U.S. Government & Politics was the most popular AP course among Virginia’s 2009 seniors, followed by U.S. History, English Literature, English Language, Psychology, Calculus AB, World History, Biology, Statistics and Environmental Science.

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