The Old Town Crier

Newsletter of the Old Town Civic Association

SPECIAL NOTICE!
DON'T MISS IT...

ALEXANDRIA CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATES FORUM

SPONSORED BY the ALEXANDRIA FEDERATION OF CIVIC ASSOCIATIONS
and the
OLD TOWN CIVIC ASSOCIATION

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 7:00 P.M.

LYLES-CROUCH TRADITIONAL ACADEMY
530 SOUTH SAINT ASAPH STREET

All Alexandrians Welcome!

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SEE AND HEAR THE CANDIDATES DISCUSS CITY ISSUES

The 2009 Council candidates are:

Democrats: Kerry Donley; Rob Krupicka; Tim Lovain;
Del Pepper; Paul Smedberg; Justin Wilson
Republicans: Phil Cefaratti; Frank Fannon
Independents: Alicia Hughes; Rich Williamson

Mayor Bill Euille (D) is running unopposed

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BRING YOUR NEIGHBORS, BRING YOUR FRIENDS

ELECTION DAY IS TUESDAY, MAY 5, 2009

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REPORT FROM THE NOMINATING COMMITTEE

To: Old Town Civic Association Members

From: Michael Hobbs Nominating Committee Chair
Date: April 7, 2009

The Nominating Committee has been constituted to make nominations for the election of
Officers and Directors of the Association for the coming year. The Committee will
report its nominees in advance of the May 13 Members Meeting. Nominations from the
floor will be in order at that meeting if the Secretary has received 5 letters of support and
a letter of acceptance by the nominee prior to the May meeting. The election will take
place at the Annual Members Meeting June 10.

The offices to be filled at this year’s election include the five officers and the following
Directors: North of King-East; North of King-West; and “Central” (the area east of
Washington Street between King and Franklin Streets). All of the current officers
(President Poul Hertel, Vice-President Douglas Thurman, Treasurer Bert Ely,
Corresponding Secretary Linda Couture, and Recording Secretary Andrew Macdonald)
are completing their first terms in those offices, and thus are eligible for renomination to
a second one-year term. Director Jon Aaronsohn (North of King-East) is completing his
first full two-year term in that office, and is thus eligible for renomination. North of
King-West Director Christa Lyons was elected in June 2008 to complete an unexpired
term, and thus is eligible for renomination to a new two-year term. Director Tim Elliott
(Central) is completing a second two-year term, and thus is not eligible for renomination
to that office. The terms of three of the present Directors continue until June 2010: John
Gosling (At Large), Alan McCurry (South of Franklin-East) and Chip Carlin (South of
King-West).

Of course, all incumbent officers and directors would be eligible for nomination and
election to any other office, as are all members of the Association.
Any OTCA member who wishes to suggest consideration of him- or herself for
nomination—or to recommend consideration of another member for any of these
offices—is invited to contact the Chairman or any other member of the Nominating
Committee. The members are:

Michael Hobbs, Chairman (North) Charles Trozzo (Central)

419 Cameron Street 209 Duke Street
(703) 548-5798 (703) 549-5176
mhobbs27@comcast.net ctrozzo@crai.com

Chip Carlin (West) Sandra Welch (South)

1302 Prince Street 204 Green Street
(703) 549-7769 (703) 299-8426
carlincollc@comcast.net shwelch@comcast.net

Larry Robinson (Past President)

624 South St. Asaph Street
(703) 683-6494
jlr@cpma.com

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CITY STARTS WATERFRONT MEETINGS

The City’s waterfront planning process is now officially under way, so it’s especially
important that all of us understand the details, and to have an opportunity to ask questions
and to seek more information. The City has announced the dates of the first two meetings
in the press release bellow:

Alexandria Waterfront Plan Meetings Scheduled April 23 and April 30

The first Waterfront Plan Community meetings have been scheduled. These meetings
are open to all City residents and everyone is encouraged to participate, as the
Waterfront is an important asset that should benefit all Alexandrians.

Public Forum #1: Thursday, April 23 – 6:30pm – 9:00pm at the Council Chambers,
City Hall, 301 King Street, Alexandria.

Civic, business or community organizations are invited to give a brief presentation of any
ideas they may have for the future of Alexandria’s Waterfront (the time allotted will
depend upon the number of participants). Please contact Andrea Barlow at (703) 838
3866 x 665 to indicate your interest in speaking at the Forum and to reserve a place on
the agenda.

Public Forum #2: Thursday, April 30 – 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm at The Lyceum, 201 South
Washington Street, Alexandria.

This forum will be an opportunity for you to hear from a panel of experts in the field of
Waterfront planning about best practices from other waterfronts throughout the USA
and around the World.
For further details and information about upcoming meetings please visit our web site
www.alexandriava.gov/waterfront or contact Andrea Barlow at (703) 838 3866 x 665.

WAY FINDING SIGNAGE PROGRAM ON KING STREET

The temporary signage program was up for review and the OTCA board sent in the
following recommendation to the City Council.

March 12, 2009

Dear Mr. Mayor and members of the City Council,

The board of the Old Town Civic Association requests that the City Council extend the
temporary signage program through the summer of 2009.

The planning director did inquire the OTCA membership at our February meeting about
the signage program. There was, however, no consensus on the matter. Might we then
suggest that the extension be used as an opportunity for the City staff to work with the
community to come up with mutually acceptable solutions that would resolve some of the
concerns.

3
CITY BUDGET *

The budget process is under way and during the last membership meeting, you
asked to have a discussion of the City Budget, but we promised to provide an analysis in
the Crier instead. Having done Country and Government analysis of this sort for almost
30 years, this should have been easy. However, whereas budgets usually provide yearly
numbers and growth rates for easy comparison, the City of Alexandria chooses only to
provide numbers for the proposed and previous budget. So it was done for them, and we
calculated the annualized growth rates on the spending side.

Furthermore, the current budget is being constrained “artificially” by the economic

downturn. A more useful exercise is to look at the previous year’s budget and to compare
it back to 1997 to get a realistic understanding of the policies pursued by the City. Also,
since the current City Manager came on board in 2005, a comparison of his budgets with
previous ones is also undertaken to see if there are any differences.

The core data is provided in table on page 6, which shows the spending for the July 1997,
July 2005 and July 2008 budgets respectively. To this is also included the annualized
growth rates between 1997-2008 and the break up of the same between the years 1997-
2005 and 2005 -2008. “Diff” is simply the difference in the annualized growth rates
before and after 2005. A positive number should be viewed as a policy to increase the
growth in spending, and a negative number as a policy to diminish the spending growth
rate for that particular item. Finally, the budget comes in two versions; one with Federal
and State funding, and one without. The figures used here are from the latter, General
Fund Expenditure and represent what the City is actually spending.

This table shows by how

much the spending on various
items increased during the
respective periods. The items
are listed in descending order
based on the spending level
in the July 2008 budget. The
items of School and safety
figure prominently along
with debt service, part of
which goes to pay for new
school buildings. More
importantly, the largest
spending items are the ones
with the largest increases.

However, you will notice that some of the City Departments are starting to show
significant expenditure growth rates as well. Even if the big ticket items dominate, the
others are growing very fast as can be seen below.

4
 Therefore, to see where the fastest
. growth has occurred, we turn to the
calculated annualized growth rates.
The adjacent table arranges the items
according to the growth rates for the
period 1997-2008 in descending
order. Spending out of the affordable
housing trust fund increased the most
followed by the debt service, the
Planning Department and spending
on economic development. It is also
interesting to compare the rates with
the annualized growth in the
Consumer Price Index.

To the left, the table is now arranged

from the growth perspective of 2005-
2008.

The policy to increase spending on

affordable housing out of the housing
trust fund aside, the interesting
finding is how spending on the
Planning Department increased by
almost 16% each year as did the
spending growth in numerous other
departments far in excess of the CPI.

The growth in school and safety

expenditure continued at the same or
greater pace. The only significant
decrease was the reduction in cash
capital for pay as you go capital
projects

To its credit, the report

points out that the City is in
a significant wage trap
caused by wages and
compensation increasing in
excess of the CPI for many
years.

When we became involved

with the civic world in
1995, the directors were on
par with GS 14. Today,
Source: Proposed Budget they are paid above most
202010 Federal SES’s.
5
6
 In 1997, the City embarked on a “Pay Parity Policy” that was only attainable because the
real estate (property value) boom raised revenues. Coincidently, I did a study dated April
26 1997 that was handed to the City. It presented the cumulative growth rates that would
be required to pay for City wages, and concluded that tax rates would need to rise
significantly to cover the costs. Eventually, the property value boom increased collections
sufficiently to mask the required tax rate increases, not the new development that took
place (In 2005 I conducted another study, which showed that the costs associated with
new developments were a cause of the increased spending). To this figure, add budget
items that have significant annualized growth rates in excess of the CPI caused by
expansion other than from wages.

Without the property boom in the future, how will the City constrain the budgetary
growth patterns already set in motion? There will be significant talk about new
development, maybe even a new economic summit like 1996, but the problem is, that it
will not suffice, just as it did not in 1996.

From a personal perspective, it appears that the City took on exponential expenditure
growth masked by unprecedented appreciation in property values. Unfortunately, there
are no precedents to suggest that this growth is sustainable over the long run, or that
future development can accommodate it.

*The editor is fully responsible for the report, conclusion and any mistakes therein.

Special Thank you

OTCA owes a special debt of gratitude to the City Council Debate Committee. They
really had an extraordinary challenging job setting up a debate this year and worked very
hard to ensure it takes place. Thank you

Carolyn Merck, Linda Couture, Mike Hobbs, Tim Elliot, Charlie Huettner, Bert Ely and
Doug Thurman.

Next Meeting will be held on May 13 and the topic will be small businesses in Old Town
Poul Hertel

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 OLD TOWN CIVIC ASSOCIATION, INC.
2008/2009 MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION AND RENEWAL FORM
To Join or Renew: Please complete the information below. For membership, the dues period begins each
September 1 and ends each August 31. Dues paid after July 1 are applied to the dues for the next period.

Contact Information:
Name: ___________________________________________________________________________
(For a Household Membership, please list up to two persons)

Address: _________________________________________________________________________

City: _______________________State: __________Zip+4: _____________________________

Telephone: __________________Email address:_______________________________________

In an effort to keep dues low, we are trying to produce as few paper copies of our monthly newsletter as possible.
Can we send you our monthly newsletter by email? [ ] Yes [ ] No

Dues: Single ($12.00) $____________________

Household ($20.00) $____________________
Additional Contribution $____________________
Total Dues Enclosed $____________________

Remittance: Please make checks payable to “OTCA.” Mail the Completed Form and your check to:

The Old Town Civic Association

P. O. Box 1213
Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1213