Council to address goals and budget

Published 10:42 pm Friday, November 16, 2012

Washington’s City Council will crunch some numbers during its meeting Monday.
The council’s tentative agenda includes reviewing progress and receiving updates on city goals and objectives, going over budget goals and discussing a long-rage capital and facilities plan.
The city’s No. 1 economic goal, according to documents included in the tentative agenda packet is job creation. The No. 2 economic goal is to lower utility rates. Commercial development is No. 3 on the list of economic goals. The No. 1 item on the list of financial goals is fiscal discipline — develop and maintain financial constraints to operate within approved budgets. The evaluation of all city services, capital projects and facilities is the city’s second financial goal to ensure the city ‘s services and facilities operate in the most cost-effective manner possible while providing the highest level of service possible. The city’s No. 3 financial goal is to improve and increase revenues in all operations and projects.
The council is expected to review a draft 20-year capital-improvements and facilities master plan.
“The plan was developed to assist you, our governing body, in developing and refining goals and strategies for the City of Washington,” wrote City Manager Josh Kay in a memorandum to the mayor and council.
He asked the council review the document for two distinct purposes:
• To recognize the budgetary needs and constraints in providing the current level of services offered to our citizens and customers;
• To begin to develop a long-range perspective and discussion on the type and quality of services offered to our citizens and customers.
The draft shows spending a proposed $2.5 million on general-fund capital projects in fiscal year 2013, $2.65 million in fiscal year 2014 and $7.1 million in fiscal year 2015.
The council meets at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the Council Chambers in the Municipal Building, 102 E. Second St. To view the council’s agenda for a specific meeting, visit the city’s web¬site at www.washingtonnc.gov, click “Government” then “City Council” heading, then click “Meeting Agendas” on the menu to the right. Then click on the date for the appropriate agenda.

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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