Budget discussions continued for the Gloucester Board of Supervisors during its Tuesday meeting in the colonial courthouse. At present, the budget for fiscal year 2023 calls for a proposed real estate tax increase of 3 cents per $100 of assessed value.

During the meeting, members of the board expressed they were comfortable with the 3 cent tax raise but not to raise it any further. During last week’s public hearing the board held, several Gloucester residents suggested raising the tax to 6 cents/$100 to fund more county projects (see related story below).

The conflict the board discussed during Tuesday’s meeting with was between funding of Woodville Park renovations and paying raises for county and school employees. The Woodville Park renovation is one of two CIP projects set to be funded in the proposed budget, costing about $855,000.

Currently, the pay raises proposed in the budget do not cover equal increase to school employees as it does for county employees. The schools requested $1.7 million for a 5.9 percent pay increase. The budget sees only $1 million being contributed for a 5.6 percent raise, leaving $772,302 out from the request.

Supervisor Phillip Bazzani suggested holding the Woodville project back one year to fully fund the schools’ $1.7 million request.

Other board members, including Ken Gibson, also gave priority to the pay raises over the fields. He said the county’s loss of 57 employees since July is sign of an employment crisis.

Board vice chair Christopher Hutson suggested the Woodville project stay in this coming year’s budget. At present, four of the fields at Woodville are not fit for play due to graded slopes as steep as four feet and five fields needing proper irrigation. He said if the project goes out to bid and the bids come in over budget, then the project doesn’t get done and the county would have the project cost to use elsewhere.

In addition to the county’s employment struggles is the lack of requested positions. Some county departments, like Gloucester Animal Control have had requests for additional positions denied due a lack of budgetary funding.

Currently, Animal Control has three officers who have seen a lot of overtime the last several years. The estimated cost for the fourth position would be $63,038 with fringe benefits, said Acting County Administrator Carol Steele.

Chief Animal Control Officer Stephen T. Baranek said Animal Control used to have a fourth officer several years ago but when the position was vacated, it was frozen. With four officers, scheduling allowed for officers to rotate schedules and work less overtime.

“To put it bluntly, we would rather get time off than overtime,” said Baranek.

He said the last seven years have been tough for the officers, especially during the summer months when they have an increase of calls come in. He said there have been weekends where he and the other officers had to put in 12 or more hours.

Board member Kevin Smith said the animal control position was something he wanted to see added. He said had a concern with employee satisfaction and having unhappy employees really bothers him. He referred to a survey that was given to county employees which showed a lack of satisfaction.

Nothing was decided during the meeting. The board agreed to use the time before its next budget session on April 11 to decide on what direction to take the budget.