Valdese Council navigates budget challenges, employee raises, and public transparency

Closing in on adopting the fiscal year budget 2024-25, the Valdese Town Council revisited the proposed budget, with new opinions and changes.

During the June agenda review on Tuesday afternoon, May 28, Assistant Manager/CFO Bo Weichel and Interim Town Manager Bryan Steen presented a recap of where the general and utility funds stand since their budget retreat in April.

The general fund is the principal financial support for basic services like police and fire departments, parks and recreation, and government operations. The utility funds are primarily infrastructure-related, based on water and sewer revenue.

Weichel reported that the remaining balance for the general fund reserves is $69,367. He told the council that he was comfortable with this number. The utility fund budget breaks even with no leftover balance.

Town Attorney fees

One of the items up for discussion was reducing Town Attorney Tim Swanson’s budget ($40,000). The fees from the first four months (December 2023 to March 2024) of the current council surpassed the previous year’s total ($35,537). The attorney tab for those four months equaled $41,931.

The increased expenses come from phone calls, emails, meetings, and media/citizen public records requests.

For the public request of emails, the town sources a third-party IT company to retrieve those from the server. Their billable rate is $110 per hour. Once the IT retrieves the data, it is sent to Swanson to oversee. By N.C. statute, Swanson said that the town could pass along the fee to requestors, but cannot do the same for his own billable hours.

Councilwoman Heather Ward noted that the new members did not receive a proper orientation since there was not an established town manager, leaving a majority of questions directed to Swanson.

Regarding the fees, Councilwoman Rexanna Lowman told the council that she was against charging residents those fees since their emails are public records. Alongside Lowman, Councilman Paul Mears agreed they should not charge to show residents their transparency efforts.

It was decided after further discussion that the town would not charge a fee for public records.

5% raise for employees

The debated 5% raise was revisited when Harvey suggested again that town employees receive a 4% cost-of-living raise rather than the 5% hike proposed by town staff.

Harvey also suggested that the town conduct professional development training with customer service, process improvement, and teamwork. He also recommended a salary compensation study be completed.

Weichel reminded the council those suggestions are mentioned in the capital improvement plan. Once a town manager is hired, he or she will offer direction regarding training.

Joining in the conversation, Mayor Charlie Watts said his piece on the raise by reading from The Paper’s Marty Queen’s article, “Burke retirement wave: City and county brace for labor shortage.” The workforce — private and public sectors — is shrinking as mass retirements are paired with declining birth rates.

Government jobs are not attracting young people because “it tends to have lagging wages” and “more rigid working requirements,” said County Manager Brian Epley in the article. Attracting qualified personnel means “better pay and more flexible schedules.”

“That to me outlines what we’re facing and it’s not just us, it’s everybody. My point to that is unless our pay ranges are where they need to be — they’re certainly not there now — then we will have a difficult time finding police officers, firefighters, utilities personnel, and administrative staff. That’s my speech for the day.”

Mears agreed that, as a business owner, it is difficult to find qualified applicants. He agreed with Harvey that the town should look into training opportunities and a comprehensive pay study.

The raise had weighed heavily on Ward’s mind as she voiced how difficult the decision was since hearing from employees and residents from both sides of the debate.

“It’s hard because I get calls from employees, but at the same time, I get calls from citizens, too with concerns. This puts me in a constant state of who do you listen to? What do you cut?” said Ward.

With voices of approval from Councilman Gary Ogle, Lowman, and Mears, the 5% raise remains in the proposed budget. Ward did not voice her side in this meeting.

Utility fund

Across the council, all members received feedback from inside and outside residential water/sewer customers about the proposed rates.

During the budget retreat, the council had given the direction to senior staff to charge their water/sewer residential outside customers two times what the inside customer pays. However, many customers have voiced their concern with the increased rate.

The council moved in favor of lowering the rate to a multiplier of 1.5. Weichel reported that this could impact their ability to afford three aerators ($900,000) for the Water & Sewer Treatment Plant, leaving room in the budget for one aerator ($300,000).

Sidewalk improvement project

In April, Planning & Zoning Director Larry Johnson and Harvey attended a meeting in Hickory about the Local Administered Project Program (LAPP) that funds local transportation projects.

Equipped with their new knowledge, Johnson came before the council for consideration of applying for funds for a two-phase sidewalk project that would stretch from Laurel/Lovelady Street to the Valdese Lakeside Park. The town’s financial commitment is 20% of the scope. The project would take multiple years to complete.

Phase One (total of $1.4 million) would cover from Laurel to Saft Street with a $286,000 share and Phase Two (total of $2.2 million) from Saft/Crescent Street to the Park with a $448,000 share.

Each phase is a separate application, but Johnson said the town can apply for both.

The presented project was moved to the June 3 consent agenda, which will be approved with other consent agenda items in one motion and requires no discussion at the regular meeting.

The council will meet again on Monday, June 3, for its regular monthly meeting at 6 p.m. at Town Hall.