Gasp! Roanoke Suburb Beats Falls Church as Top Recycler

Falls Church City residents are a proud bunch, accustomed to seeing our little municipality ranking at the top of various indicators. Naturally, we topped Charlottesville as the city with the highest voter turnout in the November election. Our public school system regularly ranks among the top in the country. And among such civic duties as recycling, of course we rank right at the top.

Well, almost. In the latest statistics, Falls Church City ranked #2 in the state’s recycling rate. The top spot went to Vinton.

Vinton? Where’s that? A quick Wikipedia consultation reveals Vinton VA as a suburb of Roanoke with a population of about 8,000 and a total area of 3.4 square miles. Sounds a lot like Falls Church (11,000 population, 2.2. square miles).

Well, Vinton – watch out, because Falls Church City has a new weapon, and it’s called “Single Stream technology.” It means that residents no longer have to sort paper from plastic and aluminum – instead, everything goes in the bin together. And it’s working. While folks in the past were generally pretty good about recycling plastic bottles and aluminum cans, they were less likely to bother with newspaper, magazines, cardboard, and the like.

In December 2008, under Single Stream, the City recycled a record 139 tons. That’s a 28 percent improvement over the previous December (and the latest figures are not reflected in the annual rankings).

Falls Church City’s recycling “guru” is Kathy Allan, who took over from the legendary Annette Mills when she and her activist husband, Dave Eckert, moved to Oregon two years ago. Allan admitted that at first she was reluctant to apply for the City job, but Mills persuaded her. And the progress has been encouraging. “Most people want to do the right thing,” Allan notes, so recycling is really a natural.

Recycling also saves money. The City pays $58 a ton to dump garbage in a landfill (and that doesn’t include the cost of collecting it). But with recycling, the equation is reversed and trash becomes valuable. How valuable? Falls Church received an average of $50 per ton last year. This year will be less, Allan explained, because the value of commodities, like everything else, has dropped.

But still, do the math: A ton of trash recycled avoids paying $58 to dump it, plus receives, let’s say, $42 from the recycler. That’s a savings of $100 per ton by recycling.

Do residents understand just how much of their trash can be dumped in the Green bin now? Allan thinks the recycling bulletins the City puts out have been pretty effective. But just to review, here’s a quick guide. Actually, it’s easier to start with what can NOT be recycled:

• No Styrofoam (meat trays, packing material, etc.)
• No laminated paper products (juice boxes, gravy boxes, etc.)
• No plastic cups, trays, or clamshell containers
• No light bulbs and no glass except bottles and jars
• No ceramics, no pots and pans, no batteries
• No paper plates and napkins

Everything else is pretty much a go! Glass, plastic, and aluminum cans and bottles are a given, as are newspapers and magazines and cardboard. But here are a few surprises:

• Gable-top milk and juice cartons – Yes!
• Books – Yes!
• Rigid plastics (buckets, laundry baskets, coat hangers, flower pots, toys) – Yes!
• Aluminum foil and trays – Yes!
• Aerosol cans – Yes!
• Plastic film – grocery bags, bread bags, bubble wrap, plastic wrap, etc. – Yes! (but put it all inside one bag)

And what about your old, broken Green bin? You can even recycle that (but you might need to personally hand it to the recycling crew so they understand).

Where does all this go? The City pays Bates Trucking to collect it and deliver it to a company called Waste Management Recycle America in Elkridge, Maryland. When the facility opened in June 2007 it was billed as the largest, state-of-the-art single-stream recycling facility in the nation. There, everything you threw together in one bin has to be separated. According to Allan, the scene is one of conveyer belts, star screens, magnets, air blowers, and the like – perhaps something of a cross between Charlie Chaplin amid the machinery in “Modern Times” and Lucy and Ethel sorting chocolates on the speeding conveyer belt.

But back to Falls Church: With the new recycling opportunities, is the Green bin big enough? Why not convert to rolling containers with hinged lids? “I’d love to make the switch,” Allan said. Covered containers hold more, they roll, and they protect from rain and wind.

But these things cost money. Maybe the stimulus package could provide something, Allan suggested. Because even though recycling is Green, it will never make money. Save money, yes; make money, no. Labor costs of pickup far exceed whatever recycling rebate the City receives.

So, the next step in going Green is: Reduction. That means, rather than just recycling one’s consumption, lower the consumption in the first place. How do you do that? Allan pointed to the water bottle she brings to her office. It’s aluminum, not plastic, and thus reusable.

And the City is also focusing on one item you can’t recycle – food waste. Correction: you most certainly can recycle food waste, but not in the Green bin. Instead, compost it. This requires some skill not to make a mess of it, and the City offers free composting classes (next one on Saturday, April 18, from 10-11:30 a.m.). Graduates of the class receive a free composting bin.

Affordable Housing Design Back on Table

In a surprise development regarding the city’s affordable housing efforts, the Falls Church Housing Corporation will meet with the City Council Tuesday night to discuss what is said to be a “major redesign” of the proposed City Center South Apartments (CCSA).

For weeks, observers have expected the Housing Corporation to finalize the CCSA simply by correcting a deficient parking plan that had stifled the project. Now changes beyond the parking plan appear to be in the offing, although no details have been released.

The CCSA has been a sensitive subject with city leaders in recent months, with the majority of City Council strongly supportive, but a minority of the Council and some Planning Commission and Economic Development Authority members questioning the project’s viability. In December, the Planning Commission’s rejected the project’s site plan on grounds of inadequate parking, leading CCSA supporters to criticize the Planning Commission as paramount to killing the the project. Newly-appointed members of the Planning Commission, thought to be friendly to CCSA, were expected to quickly reverse the December site plan rejection and allow a final green light for the project. However, no new parking plan was presented, causing speculation regarding whether other obstacles had arisen to hinder the project. Now the Housing Corporation is elevating the discussion back up to the city’s legislative body, indicating that matters greater than the parking plan are at issue.

Planning Commissioners have been invited to attend the session with the City Council. The meeting is also open to the public, starting at 7pm Tuesday in the Training Room, Level G of City Hall.

Following the Housing Corporation’s presentation, there will be a review of the recent Town Hall Budget meeting, followed by a closed session of Council to discussion of issues including litigation between the city and the Fairfax County Water Authority.

Shields, Tuohy Present Budget Deficit and Options

By Stan Fendley and George Bromley

Falls Church City Manager Wyatt Shields and Chief Financial Officer John Tuohy briefed citizens last night on the city’s budget outlook for FY 2010 at a Town Hall meeting held at the Community Center. After their presentation Mr. Shields responded to questions posed by city residents.

Initial projections forecast a deficit of over $3 million. The city expects significant declines in real property taxes, sales taxes, and business license revenues, as well as several other revenue categories.

Mr. Shields noted that the city is considering reductions relating to the GEORGE commuter bus and what were termed other services and positions. Potential revenue increases include cigarette and property taxes.

One noteworthy aspect of the presentation was the large growth in expenditures over the last six years. Since 2003, general government costs have increased 43 per cent, from $26.5 million to an estimated $38 million in 2009. School expenditures have increased 55 per cent, from $23.8 million in 2003 to an estimated $37 million in 2009.

When asked about budget projections beyond 2010, Mr. Shields indicated that extended-year information is available in other city documents and pledged his availability to discuss them. A number of persons with knowledge of city operations have stated privately that they expect shortfalls to worsen after 2010.

Falls Church may be hard pressed to reduce its deficit without human costs since personnel costs make up half of its general budget and 80 percent of the schools’ budget.

Perhaps with that fact in mind, city government employees placed a full page “Open Letter” in the Falls Church News Press stating that they are “holding a mirror” to themselves to find ways to reduce the budget deficit. The open letter states “We encourage all residents to participate in the Town hall meeting tonight and solicit your help in identifying the services that you value. Ask questions about the services and programs that the City offers. Engage the City’s leadership in discussions regarding long-term solutions to reduce costs.” And in a last line, presumably aimed at city leaders, the open letter states, “Public service is a privilege, accountability is a requirement.”

Representatives from the various city departments were also on hand to respond to individual citizen’s concerns before and after the presentation. Each office provided ample informational material about their operations and how they serve the public.

Approximately 90 people attended the session, including city officials and employees.

Another Town Hall meeting will be held on Saturday, February 21st at 10 am at the Community Center. The FY 2010 budget will be available on March 9. The first public hearing on the budget will be held two weeks later. There will be two subsequent public hearings before the city council approves the budget on April 27.

Slides of last night’s presentation are available at:

http://www.fallschurchva.gov/Content/Docs/TownHallPresentation09.pdf

Questions from citizens and Mr. Shields’ replies:

Q. How successful is the GEORGE bus program?

A. The program has established a core group of riders and generates about 70.000 trips per year. The city is looking at possible route or fare changes, changing operating hours or going to a different operator.

Q. The General District Court meets every Wednesday at City Hall. What is being done to improve security there, which is clearly inadequate?

A. This is a pressing need. The city has allocated $12 million in the Capital Improvements Program to remodel City Hall.

Q. How accurate is the city’s fiscal impact model for mixed used development and what is the budget impact of the affordable housing initiative?

A. The city’s models for revenue generation from mixed use are conservative. For example, The Byron residences are sold out and 70% of its retail space has been leased. This outcome is in line with our projections. The affordable housing initiative will not impact the FY 2010 operating budget. Costs will not be incurred until FY 2012 when the building is completed.

Q. Will there be a potential impact on the city due to Metro shortfalls?

A. The city will meet its obligations to the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority through fuels tax. However, the state must match the city’s contribution.

Q. Can any savings be achieved by identifying redundancies or duplications of services (e.g., admin. functions performed for both the government offices and the schools)?

A. We already maintain lean operations but we try to eliminate redundant operations and look for achieving more efficient services whenever we can. For example, all of the city’s IT work now is contracted through the same vendor.

Q. What is “neighborhood preservation?”

A. This refers to matters such as maintaining our tree canopy (a funcition of the city’s arborist) and making our streets through traffic calming measures such as speed humps. Neighborhood preservation is an integral part of the city council’s vision statement.

City Projects $3 Million Deficit for 2010

Falls Church City has released 2010 budget projections showing a projected budget deficit of over $3 million.  Significant declines are expected in real property taxes and businees license revenues, as well as a number of other revenue categories. 

The budget presentation will be presented to city residents at a Town Hall meeting at 7:30pm tonight at the Falls Church Community Center gymnasium.  It was prepared by City Manager Wyatt Shields and Chief Financial Officer John Tuohy and is available in read-only format at http://www.fallschurchva.gov/Content//Budgettownhall.aspx?cnlid=2803. 

The Shields-Tuohy presentation notes that the city is considering cost reductions including relating to the George commuter bus and other “Services and Positions.”  Potential revenue increases include cigarette and property taxes.

The presentation does not provide projections beyond 2010.  A previous memo “Gap” memo prepared by Tuohy in November 2008 projected increasing deficits through 2013, with an anticipated 2013 shortfall of $7.5 million.  That memo is available at http://fallschurchtimes.com/?p=985.  

Tonight’s town hall meeting will be preceded by an open house at 6:30pm at which city departments staff tables to provide information and answer questions in their areas.  

Your observations concerning the city budget projections are welcome via comment to this story.

The Heart of the Matter: Thoughts on Branding Falls Church

Read more

Assessments Coming, Most Values Dropping

Last night City Manager Wyatt Shields advised the City Council that the coming assessments of real estate values will reflect an overall decline of 2.5%.  He stated that the drop was in line with earlier estimates and that it was not nearly as severe as those experienced by several other jurisdictions in Northern Virginia.  Mr. Shields reported the following average changes in assessed values:

Single Family Homes:  -3% 

Townhouses:  -1.5%

Residential Condominiums:  -7.4% 

Residential Multi-family Properties:  +2.1%

Existing Commercial Properties:  +1%

The city manager announced that assessment notices will be mailed on Friday, February 13th.  The contact number for questions is 703-248-5022.  More information on the assessment process is available here: 

http://www.fallschurchva.gov/Content/Government/Departments/AdminServ/REFAQs.aspx?cnlid=2240

Falls Church Woman Named to White House Advisory Council

Falls Church resident Melissa Rogers has been named to President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, composed of religious and secular leaders and scholars from different backgrounds.  Rogers is Director of the Wake Forest School of Divinity Center for Religion and Public Affairs and an expert on issues of church and state.  She is one of 25 members of the Council, all appointed to 1-year terms.

“I look forward to working toward the reconciliation of two core American values: serving those in need and safeguarding religious freedom for all,” said Rogers.  ”The government should not subsidize or promote religious activities, but it can and should, for example, subsidize and promote programs that feed the hungry and help people move from welfare to work.”  Both religious and secular groups have an important role to play in delivering these kinds of services, Rogers added.

Rogers is a member of Columbia Baptist Church.  She is married to Falls Church Times contributor Stan Fendley.

Tax Increase? Service Cuts? “Gap” Debate Continues

The Town Hall meeting this Thursday, Feb. 12, at the Falls Church Community Center will be one of the most important city government meetings in months, as Falls Church residents hear details of an expected budget gap and the city’s plans to address it. The discussion will be the most visible acknowledgment yet of budget problems foreshadowed last November in a memo from city Chief Financial Officer John Tuohy — problems that could conceivably result in a tax increase of up to 50 percent by the year 2012.

Tuohy’s sobering November “Revenue/Expenditure Gap” memo to the Mayor and the City Council projected flat revenues amid increasing costs over a five-year period. “An unrestrained budget is not sustainable,” he concluded.

The scenario Tuohy envisioned indicated a shortfall of $3.9 million for the fiscal year beginning this July, which, if made up through revenue increases, would likely require an increase in the real estate tax rate from the current $1.03 to about $1.14. That would rise to $1.24 in July 2010, to $1.34 in July 2011, and to $1.51 in July 2012. Tuohy’s projection assumed that the total value of real estate in the city would neither increase nor decrease.

Many observers predict, however, that given the ongoing global deflation in property values, a more likely outcome is that property values will continue to decrease for a time. If, for example, property values decrease by 10 percent this year, in the absence of any new property added to the rolls, an additional $3.65 million deficit would arise, requiring a tax rate closer to $1.26 instead of $1.14.

On the other side of the ledger, the Tuohy memo assumed that city spending would continue to increase as usual, with a 5 percent per year increase in personnel costs, 8 percent increase in benefits, 3 percent increase in other operating expenses, and a 5 percent increase in the school budget. In a dire economic climate, at least some of these hypothetical increases likely would not occur.

Following the release of Tuohy’s memo, Assistant City Manager Cindy Mester told the City Council that the memo did not include some revenues the city can expect to receive. Some note, however, that likely expenditures also were not reflected in the memo. “The City’s shortfall numbers are not conservative” said Falls Church Economic Development Authority member and former Inter-American Development Bank Chief Risk Officer Ira Kaylin. He pointed out that school budget requirements needed to maintain the quality of City schools are not fully addressed in the City’s numbers and that the tax rate will have to increase just to maintain real estate revenues at constant levels, given that assessments will certainly decline. “When I look at the numbers I see a big hole,” said Kaylin. “I am concerned about our fiscal situation.”

Indeed, speculation is that the budget gap has widened since Tuohy prepared his November memo. On Thursday night, Tuohy is expected to provide more current projections, and City Manager Wyatt Shields will suggest budget cutbacks to at least partially reduce the budget gap. City insiders say his list will include non-essential items such as skate parks and streetscape improvements, but may also include more important areas such as storm water management. It is not known whether Shields will suggest cutbacks of sufficient size to completely address the budget gap.

School costs are a major aspect of the debate. One former school board official suggested as early as 2007 that future facility updates could run as high as $60 million, and a city resident who has studied school construction costs, speaking on the condition of anonymity, suggested that school construction costs could approach $70 million in the next few years — significantly more than the City government has anticipated. A big factor in school costs will be student enrollment growth, which became an issue in the May 2008 City Council elections when opponents of mixed-use real estate developments circulated school data indicating most city schools would soon reach enrollment capacity.

Another issue in the debate has been the proposed affordable housing project, City Center South Apartments (CCSA). A number of City officials, including members of the City Council, Planning Commission, and Economic Development Authority, have raised concerns over CCSA costs to the city during a period of projected budget shortfall.

The only certainty regarding the “Gap debate” seems to be that the debate will continue. “I’m afraid we’re going to be talking about this for some time,” said Kaylin.

To read the Tuohy memo from November, click HERE. Neither Tuohy’s updated financial projections nor Shields’ suggested budget cuts have been released at this time. They will be posted on Falls Church Times if released prior to the meeting.

(George Southern also contributed to this article.)

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