The Mathews County Board of Supervisors adopted the county’s $31 million FY2023-2024 budget during its June 27 board meeting, but failed to adopt several budget amendments proposed by County Administrator Ramona Wilson. The requested amendments were instead tabled for possible future action.
Two of Wilson’s requests for amendments drew objections from some of the supervisors, who expressed disapproval of Mathews Commissioner of the Revenue Les Hall’s late request for salary increases for three of his employees, and who questioned Wilson’s request for an IT assistant for administration and the sheriff’s office.
Wilson explained to board members that, when compared to employees in the same positions in other localities, the Mathews commissioner’s office employees are “very underpaid.” She suggested a 5 percent county increase on top of the expected 5 percent state increase, plus a lump sum increase, as well. She said the concern is that the county will lose employees if they don’t have salaries comparable to those in surrounding localities.
Supervisor Mike Walls was having none of it. He said Mathews doesn’t have the operating capital that other counties do and that the board had held the schools to level funding this year, so it wouldn’t be right to give salary increases to certain county employees. On top of that, he said, the board has already been through the budget process.
Supervisor Melissa Mason agreed, saying that the teachers should have gotten a raise, and the only way to consider a raise for commissioner’s office employees would be to go back and give teachers a raise as well.
Wilson explained that the proposal wasn’t presented during the budget development process because the commissioner was waiting for information from other localities. She said Hall had requested an 8 percent increase for his employees across the board, but she didn’t put it in the budget because she didn’t agree with it, as the board was discussing a 5 percent increase for other employees.
Board chairman Dave Jones pushed back, saying research on the matter should have been completed and presented during budget time.
Wilson’s request to add an IT position to assist administration’s newly-hired IT manager in handling issues at the sheriff’s office was met with resistance, as well. Wilson said 911 communications manager Christian Collier had been doing some of the IT tasks. The county’s IT contractor, whose contract expired June 30, had been getting $60,000 annually for services to county administration and $90,000 for services to the sheriff’s office, she said. The county’s new IT manager is being paid $89,250 annually, she said, and in consultation with him, she proposed that the board hire an assistant for him at a cost of $42,000 annually, for a total of just over $131,250 annually rather than $150,000.
Supervisor Paul Hudgins suggested that the contractor should be able to handle the sheriff’s office load now that the county has its own IT manager, but Wilson explained that the two employees combined will cost less than the previous contract. She said that the contractor will provide services as-needed on an hourly basis, but the rate is $187.50 an hour, with charges assessed for time spent on phone calls, text messages and emails.
Jones was skeptical about the county’s ability to find an IT employee to work for $42,000 a year, and was concerned about the time it would take to train a new entry-level employee. He suggested offering a higher initial salary to make sure the new employee could handle the job.
Walls argued that residents “just got bombarded” by increases in personal property and real estate taxes, and he objected to what he described as “starting to grow county government,” saying that an employee was hired in administration just last year to help with IT.
“We have plenty of staff that’s paid handsomely to cover this,” he said. “Mathews County has plenty of employees.”
Mason said she believed the additional employee was a necessity and that, while administration did hire a deputy clerk with IT capabilities, that person “can’t spread out to the sheriff’s office. It’s not logical.”
In a third budget amendment, Wilson proposed an additional $2,100 in overtime pay for the 911 center because one dispatcher is on pregnancy leave and another was in an accident, so that the remaining dispatchers are having to work overtime.
While supervisors raised no objections to the third proposed amendment, and Walls eventually conceded that an additional IT person might be needed, Hudgins objected that Wilson’s proposal included three different budget amendments, and the board decided to take a break to allow the three amendments to be separated. However, once the break was over, the board instead decided to just adopt and appropriate the $31 million FY23-24 budget as-is and to hold off all the amendments until next month.
The board did approve an amendment to the FY23-24 Capital Improvement Budget, increasing the CIP from the original $1.36 million to $1.82 million. Among additions to the budget were the following: $267,887 in funding for school bus replacement, which was inadvertently left out of the initial CIP budget, $150,000 for the cost of boiler replacement at Mathews High School, $172,108 for replacement of windows at Thomas Hunter Middle School, $20,000 for Tompkins Cottage, and $30,000 for pier replacement.
There were also a couple of reductions in the CIP budget: $195,000 for Davis Creek Dredging deducted and moved to next year, and a $20,000 decrease in the cost of work on the parking lot at Social Services.
Finally, savings of $25,000 on reassessment costs were added to the CIP budget.
In other matters, the board:
—Unanimously approved the allocation of a total of $259,949 to pay for upgrades to the boiler system at Mathews High School;
—Delayed for 30 days a decision on a request by the Middle Peninsula Public Access Authority to transfer ownership of the 9.1-acre Mathews Heritage Park in Moon back to the county;
—After a brief public hearing during which no one spoke, unanimously voted to approve Mathews County’s participation in the Middle Peninsula/Northern Neck Regional Radio System, along with King and Queen, Essex, Richmond, Northumberland, and Lancaster counties;
—After a brief public hearing at which no one spoke, unanimously voted to re-adopt the emergency ordinance that extended the real estate tax deadline from June 5 to June 15 because the of inadequate initial public hearing notice on the matter;
—Heard a report from Mathews Broadband Advisory Board Consultant Jeff Beekhoo that the company Open Broadband has 13 active customers off the North tower, that most of the line-of-sight Nokia equipment will have to be replaced, and that he expected completion by the end of July;
—Unanimously adopted a resolution proposed by Conrad Bareford supporting efforts by the Mathews Economic Development Authority to cooperate with the Middlesex Economic Development Authority on joint ventures, including economic development in Middlesex that would benefit both counties and could be supported by each county’s annual $10 million municipal bond availability;
—Unanimously approved a text amendment to the zoning ordinance allowing the size of the parent parcel remaining after subdivision of a parcel for a family member to be as small as one acre;
—Unanimously approved a request for designation of a private road named Horn Harbor Way;
—Appointed the following additional members to the VA250 Committee, the job of which is to oversee the county’s commemoration of the American Revolution: Kat Larkin, Hunter Owens, Tom Karow, John Priest and Becky Barnhardt;
—Heard a presentation from Dominion Energy on the new Smart Meters being deployed throughout the county;
—Recognized Acting Major April Edwards for 15 years of service in the sheriff’s office and Deputy Revenue Commissioner Teri Hill White for five years of service in the commissioner’s office;
—Recognized administration employee Judi Green for being named a 2023 honoree to the Municipal Clerks Honor Roll;
—Confirmed that there will be three members of the Mathews Board of Equalization: Doug Wilton, Tom Karow and Yvette Gaither;
—Heard a report from Walls that the Hole in the Wall Waterfront Grill is “100 percent current and up to date in its debt to the county”;
—Unanimously voted to allow Backwoods BBQ to sell its products at the Park and Ride lot on Rt. 14;
—Appointed Alexandra Warhol and Joe Syslo and reappointed Brenda Moore to the Mathews Economic Development Authority; and
—Heard a request from Mathews School Board member Mari Gibbs that board members encourage residents to volunteer in the schools.
Also, the board took no action after a lengthy closed session.