2007-03-19 - Laserfiche WebLink

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8 Mr. Jorge Teran, son of Carlos Teran, said that language is a barrier for his father and others in the community and they experience frustration trying to get information from the City. He encouraged funding the request for Zona Latina. Ms. Emily Dreyfus, 1407 Rutledge Avenue, said she appreciates the proposed budget. She support funding for the three-year old program. As a member of the Special Education Advisory Committee, she thanked the City for speeding up ADA improvements. Speaking on behalf of the Legal Aid Justice Center, she urged that the affordable housing initiative be fully funded. Ms. Naomi Roberts, 1140 St. Clair Avenue, said she appreciates comments about the EMS proposal. She said she has had excellent response from CARS and does not think she would get the same care from a government sponsored program. As there were no further speakers, the public hearing was closed. Mr. Taliaferro said he would like to address the EMS issues. He said no one is trying to put CARS out of business. He said last summer response times for Police, Fire and EMS were looked at. He said CARS has never asked for City funds. He noted that Albemarle County provides staff for a similar program. He said a lot of people have opinions about the issue, but he has the facts. He said there are a lot of times that a unit is not available. He said during the period of October – December 2006 the response times for CARS exceeded acceptable limits. He said we have a problem in the City. Ms. Hamilton thanked the Johnson School contingent for their comments and said she will take them into account. She also thanked the IMPACT speakers and said she will look at their proposals very carefully. Mr. Norris said he would like to reiterate comments made by Mr. Taliaferro. He said the proposal is not meant to criticize CARS, but said it is a resource issue that needs to be addressed. Regarding Johnson Elementary School, he said his concern is that when enrollment declines the first positions to be cut are teachers, and he does not agree with the way we do that today. Mr. Lynch thanked the people who spoke. He said we need to do quite a bit of work on the budget, and he thinks we can easily cut $4 million. He said he does not support the $2 million for strategic initiatives. He said he does not think we need the big increase in the Capital Improvement Program. He said a number of things in the CIP are questionable, including signage. He said he agrees with the need for signs around the downtown mall, but thinks we can do that for $50,000 to $100,000. He said he does not support the $600,000 for laptops for police cruisers because we already have twice as many laptops as cruisers on the street at any one time.. He said there are other smaller things in the budget that he cannot support such as the $200,000 for Council reserve, the increase in Council’s travel budget and marketing; and the cost of the furniture which he said should be moved to the CIP. He said he thinks we need to work with CARS to help put more units on the street. He said it has to be a regional approach. He acknowledged that there are response time issues. He said we should build on CARS’ service, not compete with it. He said he would like to expand transit more than is in the budget. He said we have to do affordable housing in partnership with the region, and he is optimistic that the County will step up to the plate. Dr. Brown said he anticipates that Council will address funding for the African- American Festival and the Juneteenth celebration. He said that Johnson School is a great school and he urged the School Board to address the unique needs there. He said he appreciates the speakers who supported Zona Latina and said he will look carefully at the request. He said he thinks we need to put some surplus money into strategic initiatives, and said we may need to invest in parking. He said the Council reserve is large. He said it could be used for programs Council wants to fund, but could also be used to cut back the tax rate. He said he supports the computers for the police and feels they will provide a lot of advantages, including making the process more effective and efficient. He said a big issue is finding enough police, and to ensure that we are competitive we need to strive for excellence and support technology. Regarding the EMS proposal, he said the Fire