My Presentation re: County FY 2009 Budget

Owen Wormser’s Presentation to County Council re: FY2009 Budget 6 May 2008

President Foster, members of the Council, I am Owen Wormser, of Royal Oak, Maryland. It is my pleasure to provide my input to your deliberations surrounding our County’s proposed FY 2009 budget.

I commend the County Council and County Manager for several significant accomplishments during preparation of the proposed FY 2009 budget and during execution of the FY 2008 budget. I am are particularly supportive of our Board of Education’s continued endorsement, support, and encouragement for advanced technology initiatives in our schools. I believe our young people leaving TCPS will have benefited greatly from their exposure to, training in, and use of emerging technologies such as advanced laptop computers.

I am deeply concerned County revenue projected for FY 2009 and beyond may well be considerably less than earlier projections, especially revenues derived from county income taxes, recordation taxes, transfer taxes, and development impact fees. This potential impact on both Operating and Capital expenditures will require skilled and careful fiscal management to weather the economic storm expected to intensify over the coming years.

My review of the proposed FY 2009 budget produced two areas of major concern:
• The Board of Education’s (BoE) request for FY 2009 funding is highly questionable in our opinion. In a era when we are witnessing a slow but steady decline in overall Talbot County student population according to the Maryland Department of Education’s county-by-county analysis through CY 2007 and our BoE’s projection of below 4400 students for the coming school year, I ask County Council to consider this budget most carefully. I encourage the Council to scrutinize thoroughly proposed expenditures in the BoE’s budget to ensure there are appropriate justifications. Though I strongly support an annual increase in classroom teacher’s salaries and other classroom teacher benefits, I am not supportive of the continued increases in the non-academic employee ratio to classroom teacher. It appears to me TCPS is becoming top heavy with Administration and non-classroom-specific employees at a time when overall student population is on the decline.
• I believe Council should provide the authority to the BoE to move a given year’s appropriated funds as necessary during the fiscal year and to incentivize BoE efficiencies by allowing such funds to be re-programmed allowing for TCPS expenditures in other areas in need.
• My second area of major concern is the capital expenditure of $6,000,000 for a multi-sport facility to be built at the Talbot Community Center (TCCC). I oppose this expenditure for the following reasons:
1. There has not been a Statement of Need or a requirements study made available to the public according to my research. Thus, there is no known documented need upon which to base such a significant expenditure of taxpayer dollars on a facility we believe is extraneous to Talbot County needs at this time due to many other competing priorities. To wit: Public Safety (i.e. fire & rescue), roads and grounds (infrastructure repairs and replacement), classroom teacher’s salaries, vocational training, to name but a few.
2. Though Department of Parks & Recreation intends to provide scheduled transportation to and from this new facility, from after school until late evening, I do not concur with an expenditure of taxpayer dollars for such an enterprise when capital investment in vehicles, transportation insurance, fuel, maintenance, and personnel costs are all experiencing exponential cost increases.
3. I am equally aware of some limited discussions between the Easton YMCA leadership and our County staff about the planned expansion of indoor sport facilities at the “Y”. In my opinion, there has not been an adequate exploration of alternatives for the proposed $6M multi-sport facility planned for the Community Center. Some argue the “Y” could change leadership and close the door on use of their facility. If this is a widely held view, the question should then arise as to what are the legitimate alternatives and to what extent have these been explored and reported to the public with the end result being selection of the Community Center site? I am not aware of any such efforts.

My Summary of Other FY 2009 Budget Issues
Public Safety Concerns: Volunteer Resources and Planning

• Changing demographics, population growth, and personal commitments are challenging the availability of Public Safety volunteers, a result which could necessitate use of some limited number of fire company career staff in the very near future.
• Once career staff is deployed to support our volunteer system, a clearly developed operational chain of command must be implemented to ensure uniform service delivery and proper organizational management within Talbot’s combined career and volunteer service provider system.
• Demands on the County’s combined fire and rescue system will increase as the population grows. Services such as ladder companies, heavy rescue, advanced and basic life support, water tankers, new stations, and new apparatus must be added to meet growing demands.
• The construction of campus-like facilities, multi-story buildings, assisted living facilities, large single-family dwellings, townhouse communities and other large facilities is creating new demands for innovative and proactive fire suppression.
• Planning for mitigation of natural and man-made disasters, to include prospective acts of terrorism, remains a key focus of the Office of Emergency Management. Responsible and collaborative regional planning efforts must continue to ensure safe and successful special events coordination with sponsors and agencies.
• Talbot County needs a comprehensive Fire and Rescue Service Plan with which to guide future budget development and service delivery goals.
• A Strategic Plan is needed that links a combined fire and rescue system service plan and the County's budgetary process, providing measurable goals for program development and implementation.
• Implement the Federal grant-supported respiratory protection program, which is mandated by State and Federal regulations for using, maintaining, and testing self-contained breathing apparatus for fire and rescue components.
• Conduct 150 fire and rescue training classes and programs; organize a recruit-training program and graduate an estimated 50 recruits over the next 3 years.
• Implement a Talbot County Evacuation Assistance Registry (TEAR) to quickly identify those requiring assistance that are living in evacuation zones.
• Gather additional Geospatial Information System (GIS) data layers for use in the County’s EOC / 911 Center to ensure road class and speed limits for automated dispatch of responders to incidents is consistent with best practices and safety.

Public Safety Concerns: Law Enforcement

The Sheriff is a constitutional officer by virtue of the Maryland Constitution, Article IV, Section 44, elected every four years, and has responsibilities outlined by the General Assembly in the form of State statutes. The Sheriff and Sheriff’s deputies have criminal and civil jurisdiction and are empowered to enforce the laws of the State of Maryland, and the ordinances of Talbot County. These powers may be exercised on any property within Talbot County.
• Population growth within Talbot continues to create significant law enforcement shortfalls with regard to adequate response throughout the county.
• Staffing levels are having difficulty keeping pace with the County's growth and have fallen below the levels needed to reduce response times and caseloads while expanding community policing.
• Proposed openings of new community- based substations will require additional resources.
• An anticipated increase in the number of local inmates requires future expansion of the County’s Adult Detention Center and its associated staffing.
• Increasing workloads are driving the need for additional support staff to handle administrative tasks while ensuring sworn resources are committed to street duties.
• Implementing a Public Safety Master Plan with concomitant identification of funding is critical.
• There is no Law Enforcement Capital Improvement Program (LECIP) for future budgetary consideration.
• Consideration should be given to rationalizing our County’s law enforcement resources into a single resource pool under the leadership and management of a single law enforcement authority. This individual would be a direct report to the County Council. The Office of the Sheriff should be reorganized to meet only those constitutionally mandated tasks associated with court and detention matters. Law enforcement resources currently funded by the towns and those of the county should be folded into a unified force and distributed throughout the county at appropriate sub-stations. This is the most economical way to meet both public safety response needs and the need to find more efficient means for future funding.

Parks & Recreation Concerns: Hog Neck Golf Course (HNGC)

• A feasibility study should be undertaken to assess the continuing financial viability of the HNGC as a publicly resourced facility under the purview of the County.
• More than190 golf courses are now within the same 200-mile radius of Easton that was the original rationale for a “Championship” course on the “Alton” property. At the time the property was donated there did not exist a championship-quality course within 200 miles of Easton – the tables have now turned.
• Given the present costs for personal transportation (with no expectation of any substantial decrease) and other related costs for recreation, we believe annually subsidizing operation costs of the course is not a prudent use of limited taxpayer dollars and that funds presently used for this purpose would be better used for other County priorities.
• There are several professional golf course management companies that should be approached to ascertain if they would assume responsibility for course operation and modernization at their expense while paying a lease fee to the County.
• If no such opportunity materializes, consideration should be given to closing the course and allowing the facility to revert to other recreational uses such as a large game park in keeping with the Alton donation.
• Barring favorable consideration of the above suggestions; as a minimum, I firmly believe the existing 9-Hole Executive course should be closed to ensure operating expenditure containment and put a halt to continued financial losses.

Though these are three of the lesser issues about which I am prepared to discuss, Council’s time constraint for presentations negates my doing so at this time. However, I am more than willing to have such discussions at another time convenient to the Council. In closing, I wish to thank Mr. John Lehner, County Finance Officer, for his time, effort, and responsiveness in helping me understand the complexities and competing demands within the County’s FY 2009 proposed budget.

Owen Wormser
25911 Goose Neck Road
Royal Oak, MD 21662
http://owenwormser.com
410-745-0138
owen@owenwormser.com