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NOTICE OF SPECIAL MEETING A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CHARLOTTESVILLE CITY COUNCIL WILL BE HELD ON Tuesday, April 12, 2005 AT 6:30 p.m. IN THE Second Floor Conference Room. THE PROPOSED AGENDA IS AS FOLLOWS: ORDINANCE: Annual Tax Levy (2nd reading) APPROPRIATION: Annual Budget Appropriation (2nd reading) BY ORDER OF THE MAYOR BY: Jeanne Cox SECOND FLOOR CONFERENCE ROOM - April 12, 2005 Council met in special session on this date with the following members present: Dr. Brown, Mr. Caravati, Ms. Hamilton, Mr. Lynch, Mr. Schilling. ORDINANCE: ANNUAL TAX LEVY (2nd reading) Mr. O'Connell said that the ordinance will reduce the real estate tax rate from $1.09 to $1.05. Mr. Lynch said Council made good progress this year with the largest rate reduction in recent history. He said we still have a ways to go to reduce the long-term costs for social services. He said we need to have more kids graduate and need to keep them out of the juvenile justice and jail systems. He said another issue is long-term health care for employees and retirees, but noted that we have taken steps to get a handle on these costs. Mr. Caravati said another part of the picture is the changing relationship between the federal, state and local governments. He said we need to act with other Virginia First Cities localities to address the issue of cuts in state aid and implementation of mandates. The ordinance entitled "AN ORDINANCE TO ESTABLISH THE ANNUAL TAX LEVY ON VARIOUS CLASSES OF PROPERTY FOR THE PAYMENT OF INTEREST AND RETIREMENT OF THE CITY DEBT, FOR THE SUPPORT OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT AND CITY SCHOOLS, AND FOR OTHER PUBLIC PURPOSES," which was offered on April 4th, was approved by the following vote. Ayes: Dr. Brown, Mr. Caravati, Ms. Hamilton, Mr. Lynch, Mr. Schilling. Noes: None. APPROPRIATION: ANNUAL BUDGET APPROPRIATION (2nd reading) Ms. Hamilton said this has been a learning year for her, and she found strategic conversations about where we are headed in the future to be encouraging and important. She said setting five year and longer goals will be an important process. Mr. Schilling said we did make some progress this year, but he cannot vote yes for budget. He said he is uncomfortable with the process and feels it was not transparent, especially with regard to the budget guidelines. He said there was not much work toward prioritization and he would like to see work on that. He said his impression about agencies is that they came at Council with an end run of the process. He said two full work sessions were spent on Council reserve funds, which was a pittance and no substantive time was spent on City departments. He said he thinks work sessions should be held with every department head. He said we should look to find efficiencies in future years. He said elimination of commercial dumpster services is an example of ways to find efficiencies. He said we should look at a top down independent audit if these things do not work. Dr. Brown noted that Councilors asked staff to respond to very detailed questions during the budget process. He suggested that in the future Councilors do a better job of asking questions about big picture items outside of the budget process. He said it is hard to put this information to good use when it is presented in the middle of the budget process. He said questions were raised about whether the agency review process does what we want it to which will be further discussed. He suggested that Councilors identify areas where they would like more involvement. He said he thinks Council did a good job lowering the tax rate. He said he