Martinsville City Council members heard a draft of the proposed fiscal year 2025-26 budget at its Tuesday, April 1 meeting, with proposed revenue of $87,233,656 and expenses of $85,874,519.
City Manager Aretha Ferrell-Benavides said revenues are projected to decrease by 1.3 percent in the proposal, while expenses are expected to increase by 0.7 percent.
“That gives you a difference of a positive of $359,137. That would increase our fund balance, which would be our goal,” she said.
As of June 30, the projected unaudited fund balance is $27,130,079.
The proposed general fund revenue is $37,593,551 with its projected expenses being $37,141,933.
Unlike most cities where about 80 percent of the general fund is used for personnel, Ferrell-Benavides said Martinsville differs with 55 percent used for city employees.
“As you look at the City of Martinsville, we have in this proposed budget 337 full-time (FTEs) and 81 part-time, Now, our end of the year estimate is 333 full-time and 81 part-time,” she said.
Constitutional officers include 88 employees, which represent about 26 percent of all full-time employees, followed by public safety at 25 percent, or 84 employees.
Utilities include 20 percent of employees; operations and infrastructure at 17 percent.
“General government, which is the internal administrative office, are nine,” and represent about three percent, “IT and Telecommunication together are about 14 individuals, representing about 14 percent. Fiscal services is at 11 employees, and they represent about three percent, and development services are eight employees” and represent two percent, she said.
The proposed budget includes a projected eight percent increase in real estate tax revenue, from $7.8 million to $8.4 million, Ferrell-Benavides said.
“With personal property tax, what we did based on just wanting to be cautious and not knowing, we projected that as flat. So, we went with end of the year. We did not project a revenue increase. We projected it to remain the same for that item,” she said.
The sales and other taxes are expected to increase by 3.5 percent to $8,920,321.
Ferrell-Benavides said revenue from use and charges for services is expected to decrease, while intergovernmental revenue is expected to increase by 5.9 percent, from $7,006,569 to $7,423,437.
“That’s where you see most of the money that comes from the state, and that’s what supports our constitutionals in some of the areas,” she said.
With the proposed general fund expenditures, Interim Director of Finance Robert Floyd said the salaries and benefits category is about 55 percent of all expenses, at about $20.3 million, and $2.2 million for intergovernmental expenses is about six percent.
The supplies and materials category is four percent, at $1.3 million, and professional services is $247,135, or one percent of all anticipated expenditures.
“Contractual and services is at $3.3 million, approximately nine percent of the budget. Utilities is a little over $1 million at three percent, and other expenses is four percent at $1.3 million,” Floyd said.
Ferrell-Benavides said the council and clerk office budget is proposed to increase to $141,780 from $114,025 and includes part of the funding for the deputy clerk salary.
“The city manager’s office – the city manager as you know serves as the CEO. My budget will be going from $571,000 in the previous year to $526,000. The difference is, I will no longer have a Chief Operating Officer (COO). She will be leaving us at the end of the calendar year, working on a contract to close out some projects at the end of the fiscal year to the end of the year, and so we have unfunded that position in the budget,” she said.
The city attorney in the proposed budget will increase to $451,427 from $294,679, and the total budget is $542,135 for organizational development expenditures. Employee resignation expenditures decreased from $404,295 to $305,250.
“Community engagement is where we normally would have our communications and our PIO (Public Information Officer). One of the things we’ve done with this is we’ve consolidated that function under organizational development. So, what’s included in it is funding for our special events and other contractual services that are marketing things that we’ve talked about. That is one of the areas that we’re doing, really starting to merge our efforts together in our dual roles,” Ferrell-Benavides said.
Under Finance, administration is expected to be $331,585, and accounting is expected to be $251,595. Budget Procurement is proposed to be $584,767.
Ferrell-Benavides said the budget presented by the police department increased to $5,019,255 from the current fiscal year’s $4.8 million.
For the Fire and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) category, fire has a proposed budget of $2,903,905, and EMS is $330,058.
Ferrell-Benavides said water and waste water were merged together in the budget.
“This budget has stayed pretty stable from $9.9 to $9.5” million, “which is a small reduction. Part of you’ll see the reduction has to do with we’ve made sure we’ve pulled out true capital expenses,” she said.
Telecommunications is expected to be $2,359,788 in the proposed budget and IT will be $3,477,537.
Stormwater’s proposed budget is $420,620 for the upcoming fiscal year.
“Stormwater was our new fund, we’re still building that fund up,” Ferrell-Benavides said.
The Clerk of Circuit Court’s budget is proposed to be $582,797, with the Commissioner of Revenue’s being $639,775 and the Register and Electoral Board’s being less than $300,000.
The sheriff’s office budget will cost $1,455,710 for the courts, $4460,510 for corrections, and $182,155 for the jail annex.
Ferrell-Benavides said the outside agency funding requests amount to $2,416,313.
For mandated agencies, or “the ones that we fund because of a state or a requirement,” $1,859,456 is requested.
Ferrell-Benavides said some of the mandated agencies include the Blue Ridge Regional Library, the E-911 Department, and Piedmont Community Services.
The citizen and community engagement category of the outside agency funding request is $262,865 with $50,504 for ANCHOR, $20,000 for the Martinsville-Henry County SPCA, and $35,000 for the Martinsville-Henry County Warming Center.
The outside agency economic development category has $252,733 in requests and tourism has $41,259 from Fayette Area Historical Initiative (FAHI), Piedmont Arts Association, and the Virginia Museum of Natural History.
In other matters, the council:
*Heard an update from Commissioner of Revenue Ruth Easley and discussed the elderly and disabled tax relief efforts.
Low-income for seniors is considered to be 80% of the Average Median Income (AMI), she said. “It is a little tone deaf since the city has 94 employees that make less than this annually.”
Easley suggested that those making $35,000 get the exemption annually. She recommended only four levels instead of 10, and the draft ordinance suggests an adjustment every January 1, to mirror the Social Security Administration’s cost of living adjustment.
“We can make it happen with the June 15th payment. If you don’t make it happen tonight the treasurer and I can’t make it happen,” Easley said. If the tax rate is increased to the proposed .82 cents per $100 of assessed value, then the cost of the December tax payment would be $41,051.97, but if the lower tax rate on the reassessment notice is adopted — 71.5 cent per $100 of assessed value, then the relief in December would $35,795.31.
Veterans who are a 100 percent service connected disabled receive 100 percent tax relief running the city $57,672.95 in June at the .82 cents rate, with the .71.5 cent rate being $62,817.76.
There are around 53 qualifying veterans with around 130 applicants that have yet to qualify due to waiting for documentation.
“You have the ability to work with those folks that have applied that would otherwise be denied,” Lawson asked. Easley indicated that would be the case. She also stressed to the council to make the June deadline, she “has to know right now.”
Easley also noted that some tax payers don’t fit into the disabled or elderly category, and discussed the possibility of a future grant program. “You could create something like $15,000, $20,000,” but that would require more of an investigation and the only locality that’s doing something similar is Charlottesville.
The council followed Easley’s recommendation and sent the resolution to the city attorney for review. This new proposal will be added to the budget as it’s reviewed.
For now, Easley will host a Community Discussion about the reassessment. It will be held April 10, from 6-8 p.m., at the New College Institute (NCI), Baldwin Building, 191 Fayette St.
*Heard from Caleb Robertson who said he had shown the video he took of Rawls being removed from the March 25 meeting to Commonwealth Attorney Andy Hall and City Sheriff Steve Draper, who both said they don’t believe the law was broken.
“But even if it goes forward, a note about the money, I believe the city’s liability insurance deductible would be about $50,000 if I’m not mistaken. So, as we look at all this discussion tonight about budget, for individuals that might be upset at the idea of if it were to happen a council member took legal action, $50,000 wouldn’t be the most money that this current city council has lost for the city,” he said.
As the budget process continues, Robertson said he hopes the council can band together to help taxpayers out. “We would like to see deductions, we’d like for the community to have an easier go at this one,” he said.
*Heard from Charles Roark, of Star News, who asked who has the right to have a member removed from a council meeting, and referenced Rawls March 25 removal.
“I think we’re all trying to figure out who has the right to eject someone. Is it the clerk, is the city manager, is it the mayor? We’re trying to figure out how the law works on that, and with the legal representative here, I hope we could maybe get some answers to figure out how that process works. We can’t find anybody that knows how this works, so we keep trying,” he said.
Noting there were multiple representatives of local media outlets covering the meeting, Roark said he believes the public deserves to know what happened and how the process works.
“I think the media will stay on it,” he added.
*Heard from Morgan Lee and Conner Worthington about their experience volunteering at the Martinsville-Henry County Warming Center and using it when homeless.
*Heard from John Mann who told the council and Ferrell-Benavides that he appreciated the work that they put in for the citizens.
“It’s so much better when we can come together and work as a team, and not work against each other,” he said.
Mann also said he wants to find a way to funnel the entire revenue from race weekend at the Martinsville Speedway into the city “so we would not have to struggle to raise taxes and raise electric bills no more than we have to. There’s things out there that we can do,” he said.
*Heard from Virginia Hairston, who told council that a Brightspeed employee allegedly got permission from the city council to dig holes on her property and put down lines.
“Nobody asked anybody in the family. Nobody asked anybody in the house They came down, they had a work crew, they had big bulldozers, they had people digging holes in my yard close to a pipe that my sister just paid over $27,000 for,” she said.
Hairston asked if she had any legal recourse, and after learning her property is off the road and an easement wouldn’t apply, council member Aaron Rawls said, suggesting consulting with the authorities.
Vice Mayor Kathy Lawson said her husband also reported an experience with Brightspeed.
In that case, a representative claimed the city had given the company authorization to sign everyone up for service, “which was just a blatant lie,” Lawson said.
*Scheduled a budget public hearing for the first reading of the FY 2025-2026 budget for May 8 and for the second reading on May 20.
*Scheduled a public hearing for the real estate tax decrease for May 8.
*Heard from Community Development Director Eric Payne about a proposed resolution to apply for Opioid Abatement Authority (OAA) Individual Distribution and Gold Standard funds. It was also discussed during the council’s work session prior to the meeting.
*Approved a resolution of participation for the pre-65 retirees in the health insurance plan.
*Tabled approval of the March 17 meeting minutes.
*Approved the March 25 meeting minutes.
*Heard city reports and announcements.
*Heard comments from council.
*Heard comments from the city manager.
