Williamsburg approves $116.5 million budget, appoints city manager
It's May 28. Williamsburg approves budget, appoints interim city manager to the job... but her predecessor remains on the payroll. James City looks to regulate electric bikes and scooters.
City Council meeting highlights:
$116.5 million budget
Real estate tax remains at 62 cents per $100
7% water rate hike
Interim city manager appointed to manager job
Williamsburg City Council approved a trimmed-down $116.5 million budget Wednesday, then capped its special meeting by appointing interim City Manager Michele Mixner DeWitt to the fulltime city manager’s role.
Several council members took swipes at speakers who had criticized the city’s management of the budget, saying the majority of city residents had not complained.
Vice Mayor Pat Dent and Mayor Douglas G. Pons separately brought up comments saying the city “cooked the books” in describing budget issues, and said neither they nor staff had ever misrepresented the budgets.
“I take exception to that,” Dent said. Later in the meeting Pons reiterated “we’re not up here trying to cook the books.”
Council Member Barbara L. Ramsey suggested the budget critics were not representative of all residents, saying the majority of city residents outside the downtown neighborhoods were satisfied with the way things are run.
Many of the budget critics have been retirees living in downtown neighborhoods, and Ramsey noted “we are not a city of all old people.... there are a lot of families.”
Resident pushback led the city to delay its timetable for adopting a new budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 by several weeks. Residents were given several more opportunities to speak on the budget at council meetings and several council members held group meetings with residents to discuss spending and hiring increases.
The final version approved unanimously by the city council was trimmed by $4.6 million from the original proposal, to a $116.5 million budget. That figure still represents an increase of nearly 12.8% from the current $103.256 million budget.
Much of the increase was driven by capital spending for a proposed new library and several other projects.
The real estate tax rate remains unchanged, at 62 cents per $100 in assessed value. Water rates increase by 7%, from $6.98 for every 1,000 gallons of water consumed to $7.37.
James City looks to control electric bikes and scooters
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