Councilman Williams Update 4/2/25

Planning Commission Updates, Detailed Budget Updates (including possible increases in water/sewer and cottage taxes), New Proposed Financial Policy and Online Payments were all part of Wednesdays agenda.

Tom Larson was absent

Amendments to the Agenda - School Superintendent Update was added to the agenda.

Meeting Minutes – February 5, 2025 and March 5, 2025 - I asked if there was any difference in the way the minutes were being prepared because it seemed that one set of minutes had no details on discussion items and the other minutes had a lot of detail.  The Town Clerk said not that she was aware of but asked me to provide details.

Council Member Liaison and Commission Reports - 

Economic development – There’s a business thank you breakfast coming up and a workforce development board meeting.

Parks and Rec – They had their first meeting of the year on April 1, they’re currently developing programs, and there’s a kite day coming up.

Public Works – Treatment plant is undergoing some upgrades, spring paving is done, drainage and beach maintenance currently underway.

Public Safety – 3 recruits recently hired; Sergeant Wright has been promoted to lieutenant. 

Planning Commission – Bailey Thompson was elected Chair and Pat Kurtz is the Vice chair, Floor Area Ratio updates to come.

Schools – Their budget process is underway.

Mayor – Ribbon cutting for new bait tackle shop on 205, community center currently refurbishing T-ball field, she toured the wastewater treatment plant again.

2024 Planning Commission Annual Report, Darla Odom., Interim Director of

Community Development and Zoning - We were given a brief review of what the PC is working on and some of their accomplishments.

Colonial Beach Public Schools, Dr. Addo, Superintendent - He presented the school budget to town Council, which had previously been discussed. He stated that the Governor’s budget had increased, but the impacts are minimal on local schools. We currently have 594 students, 60% economically disadvantaged, 17% with disabilities. Our current average daily membership ADM is 570 students which is the same as it was back in 2021-2022 budget. The local match in 21-22 was $2.5 million and the proposed local match in 25-26 is $3.2 million. The superintendent is asking for an additional $200k to cover a behavioral specialist and a math specialist. The school board will be approving their budget at their April 9 meeting.

Public comment- 

Citizen - Asked that council make it right by not allowing fees to be raised for the fireman‘s parade event.  Emphasized the importance of the fire department and the cost to the citizens if the volunteers did not run it.

Citizen - Member of the auxiliary speaking on her own behalf, stated she was appalled by the charges to the fire department and the over-the-top fees. Stated she was surprised that the mayor did not know about the fees.

Citizen – Please come to the Osprey festival, lots of activities.

Citizen - Since 1990 I’ve been working for the Potomac River Festival, cones belong to the citizens, take care of the fee issue before it becomes a 7-11 topic.

FY26 Budget Update, Lisa Okes, Director of Finance/CFO - Davenport presented the budget in greater detail than the brief overview from our prior meeting.  RJ stated the budget was still in progress. There was a lot of detail covered so I will just give a brief overview and cover the budget in more detail later. 

• Our expenses continue to outpace our revenues with an average increase of 7.3%.  

• There’s a new financial policy being proposed which will increase our funds balance from 15%, which is a two-month coverage to 30%, which would be about $3.3 million.

• He mentioned the impacts of the school budget, and how we were one of two towns in Virginia with our own school system.

• He mentioned that we have the ability to take on more debt, but may not have the ability to pay it back without tax increases.

• The town manager‘s budget includes a 2% increase in cottage tax.

• The general budget presented was balanced, which was a bit surprising to me since what I was presented with prior was nearly $700K short.  

• RJ stated the town staff did a good job of keeping the increases down.

  
  

The water sewer portion of the budget was a different story.  

Water fund –

• Expenses are outpacing revenues in the water fund.

• The water fund has an excess, and it was proposed that excess be moved to the sewer fund.

Sewer fund –

• Contract costs have increased significantly + 71% due to Inboden and our consent order.

• It was stated that there were over $30 million in needs identified that would need to be funded.

In the end, we were told that we would need an increase in order to cover the additional cost.  

*It was not clear exactly how much was being proposed but it could be as much as $95 a quarter.  I asked for the exact proposal to be emailed to council so I will share that when it comes. 

I did ask why we continue to get proposals each year for higher and higher water, sewer rates with significant increases versus planning like it should’ve been years ago with very small increases.  They seemed to like the idea of planning, but then started talking large increases every year of 9% or 10% which could be a ridiculous amount of +$100’s a year.  

At the end of the day, I think we can make the general budget work, but we’re going to have to really dig into the details on the water/sewer budget. Citizens can’t afford major increases every year to deal with what may have resulted from incompetence.

DRAFT, Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) Surplus Fund Allocation Policy, Natasha

Tucker, Town Manager - During our strategic planning meeting, the mayor suggested coming up with a new policy of putting excess funds into our capital improvement fund.  The town manager came up with a draft policy and shared it with council.  I’m not exactly sure how I feel about this new policy because in order to support it I would need to know that it benefits the Citizens. In a nutshell, we have a buffer built into our budget to ensure that we never go in the hole and anything over that buffer would go into the CIP to fund capital projects. More clarification to come on this proposal.

Discussion of Pier Lease Renewals, Powell Duggan, Town Attorney -

• currently leases are five years at $250 a year and he questioned if council wanted to increase.

• There was some discussion on Shoreline responsibilities.

• Homeowners require additional insurance and he stated the town should be notified of certification.

• He requested a public hearing for May 21 and council approved 6-0

  
  

Discussion on Improving Online Payments, Adam Schaefer, Assistant Director of Finance - this was just an update on how we utilize online payments. The mayor had concerns about fees being charged, but it did not seem there were any solutions to the charges.  Also, there were concerns raised about accounts being separate in the system, but we were told that was for security reasons.

Closed Meeting

Pursuant to Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711 (A) (7 and 8) for the purpose of consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members or consultants pertaining to an existing litigation, where such consultation or briefing in open meeting would adversely affect the negotiating or litigating posture of the Town Council, and consultation with legal counsel retained by the Town Council regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such legal counsel.

Councilman David Williams

Please email or call with questions or comments:

dwilliams@colonialbeachva.gov

540-604-4335