Dan Hoffman: 0:11

Hello and welcome to another edition of the Rouse Review. I'm City Manager Dan Hoffman and with me is Sarah Fry, the PIO.

Sarah Frey: 0:16

Hi everybody.

Dan Hoffman: 0:17

PIO stands for Public Information Officer. So, uh, it's March now. It's been a little gray, a little windy, but, um, not as freezing as it was. No.

Sarah Frey: 0:34

Light jacket season.

Dan Hoffman: 0:35

Light jacket season. Light jacket season also means we're starting to hit, uh, kind of a peak budget time this time of year. So, for those of you interested in what's happening at council tomorrow, uh, it's going to be the most substances, substantive stuff is the budget. So for those of you keeping track of the budget. We, uh, we're now done. We hit a, a milestone last Tuesday when we had the finance committee meeting. That's the last scheduled committee meeting, uh, regarding the budget. Now, some things might get sent back to committee for discussion, but right now, really, we're shifting focus from committee discussions, getting into the, the weeds and the line items of, you know, individual departments and now we're starting to roll some things up and discuss them at full council and that happens tomorrow night or that The the first time that happened since january. We got guidance from council in january when they gave Gave us direction for what they the range they would like to see the tax rate in now We started talking last week about the revenue neutral rate and what we really think it's going to be. We won't know probably until, you know, I hope, I hope to know by tomorrow night, but, um, it's possible, you know, I don't know by tomorrow night, but very, very soon we will know exactly what the revenue neutral rate is, uh, because it gets audited, so we have to wait on some auditors. Um, so we think we know where it is. It's going to be a little higher than, Where we started at. So in January, you know, we were estimating it to be at about 73 cents. Uh, it's going to be a little bit higher. That does not mean your taxes, just because we're calculating the revenue neutral rate to be higher than we expected, that does not mean that your taxes are going to be higher than expected.

Sarah Frey: 2:20

What?

Dan Hoffman: 2:22

This just means the scale is shifting. So the, the same amount a homeowner in Winchester would have paid at 73. They would be paying at, you know, 75 or 76 or 75 and a half, wherever that lands. So it just means the scale is shifting a little bit. So, what we hope to get from council next week is some guidance on the scenarios they prefer. And we've been bringing them three different scenarios, um, that are based on three different tax rates. All within the range that council had, had instructed. So, tomorrow we're gonna talk a little bit about that. Maybe at that point they feel comfortable narrowing down to a scenario for us to refine. Maybe, uh, they pick two and say we want to focus on those two. We will see what council decides to do tomorrow night. Now, the other thing that they're going to start talking about is actually setting the not to exceed rate. So the revenue neutral rate and the not to exceed rate, two very different things. Uh, that revenue neutral rate is what we would collect from property taxes. If we had zero growth, right? No, no growth just coming from the reassessment. So your house has gone up, thus your amount that you would pay in taxes gone up. That's how every, every property tax in the country works like that. So. If the revenue neutral rate means you're going to pay the exact same thing you paid last year. The rate was also flat the year before. So, last year, we were at 83 cents. This year, we're at 83 cents. Uh, the year before, last year, we were at 83 cents. So, we've been at 83 cents now for two full years. If council is not going to stay at 83, they have indicated they would like to reduce the rate, uh, to some degree. And depending on what scenario they focus in on, that will determine where the tax rate lands and that determines how much you're going to pay in property tax. The not to exceed rate is required by the state. It's, if you ask for my personal opinion, it's kind of a pointless errand that just caused more confusion than anything else. The not to exceed rate is a rate that The city council must adopt, particularly in a year where we have a revenue neutral rate, because we've done reassessments, they adopt what's called a not to exceed rate. They do that well before they approve a budget, which creates, of course, a lot of other confusion. You can, the council can set a not to exceed rate wherever they If they set the not to exceed rate at 83 cents, which is where we're at now, it does not mean that the tax rate will be 83 cents. It just means we haven't decided yet. We know it's going to be lower than 83. That's, that's all it means. If they say, Hey, we're going to set the not to exceed rate at 81 cents or 80 cents or 79 cents, then that's the highest they can go when they ultimately adopt a tax rate. So. Why the state requires us to go through this particular step. I, I don't know the history on that one, but, uh, what you will start seeing them talk about tomorrow night is the, is the revenue neutral rate and where should they set it. So, that discussion is really a council discussion. Uh, it's not even something the city staff has a Really per preference on because it doesn't affect what we do. Now, of course, if city council Selects a selects a not to exceed rate and then find out later that they have you know Financial obligations or infrastructure they want to fund or you know, we we see that you know Some revenue calculations are lower than expected Uh, they're stuck at that not to exceed rate. So, you know, just practically, I don't know why someone would set an artificially low not to exceed rate other than they're trying to make a point. Um, because it does nothing to actually, um, set what the rate is. So, council's gonna start talking about that one. It always comes with a lot of hand wringing and a lot of kind of questions. Why do we, why do we have to do this before? Why that's, this is all in state code folks. So they're going to have that discussion. And by the end of this month, March, they will adopt a not to exceed rate. Uh, In a few more meetings, they will adopt the actual rate and then they'll adopt the actual budget. So that's where we are in this process. Tomorrow at council, we're not going into specific department budgets, but all that information will be attached to the item. And, and also that is, it's still early in this process. So counselors, when we start talking about the rollup, counselors can ask. questions about specific budgets. Uh, we encourage all counselors and residents to go back and watch some of the committee meetings. If you want to be informed and you want to have an intelligent conversation, go back and watch the committee meeting related to whatever department you're interested in. If you're interested in the police department, go watch the public health and safety committee. If you're interested in the economic development authority, go watch the planning and economic development committee because all of those budgets were discussed then. And you can see what. The three counselors who serve on those committees, you can see what their thought process was and you can see what questions they asked. You can see the staff information that we provide. So, go back, do a little homework before tomorrow if you really want to, especially if you want to weigh in at public comment. Or if you want to write a letter to the editor. Go watch those committee meetings, um, get all the information from the source, uh, before you engage. That's my recommendation. Other than that, tomorrow night, we do have a couple things we're wrapping up getting, um, not completely the NDDs for Cedar Valley and Cider Hill, but we do have an approval for, to kind of support the zoning, creating the zoning designation for those two NDDs. That's going to be on there. We've got a number of different financial things that came out of Finance Committee. Last week, those, you know, we're borrowing some money. Which we often do. This time it's for stormwater. Um, and No, this is not above and beyond what the stormwater utility does. This is part of it. So stormwater utility generates about 3. 8 million a year. That is a, that is actually a small amount. I know, you know, for most people, 3. 8 million is a huge amount, but given the fact that we have over 170 million worth of backlogged deferred maintenance on our stormwater system. Um, we, you know, every little bit helps. Uh, but what that means is that for a 10, 12 million stormwater pond, we borrow ahead based on that revenue. So all we're doing in order to be able to start tackling projects right up front is we borrow money predicated on the revenue coming in from the stormwater utility. That's what's happening here. It's not more money that the, that the citizens are gonna have to pay it is that the stormwater rate is not changing right now, as I've heard. No counselors suggest it. Uh, so, and also it's important for them to remember that we're borrowing money based on that income. If you take away that income, the ratings agencies. Do not look kindly upon that. So just as you have a credit card, uh, you get a very low interest rate and we get great interest rates on our debt. Uh, I think the one that we're talking about now is at 4%. Uh, it allows, you know, for a city with a AAA bond rating, which is one of the highest ratings you can get, uh, Humble brag. Humble brag. We can do, uh, we can do a lot of great things cheaply now before they get more expensive. So, we're borrowing a little money there. which we had planned to do. And it's just a fun, it's not for new unknown projects. See this, it's going to fund the same projects we've been discussing about for years now. One of them being, you know, finishing up the stormwater pond on Kent, North Kent. Now, other than that, a few little odds and ends, uh, Hey, dog tags, we're moving over to a lifetime dog tag. So if you don't want to have to renew every year, we are moving in the direction of a lifetime tag. That's great news. Uh, and we'll just make things convenient, but don't forget folks, you still got to get your pets vaccinated. There's still a requirement that you have that rabies vaccination. So don't slack on taking care of your pets just because you only have to do the, uh, the lifetime. With that, that is about, uh, we have, we have a full meeting tomorrow night. We've had a couple of light meetings, the last couple of meetings, but now, uh, we've got a full meeting tomorrow. Hope you show up. We had, we had, uh, a small group of folks show up at the last meeting just to sit and watch and get more engaged. We chatted with them afterwards. It was lovely. Uh, so come stop by. Constructively participate and, uh, and introduce yourself. We'd appreciate that. Okay. With that, uh, let's go ahead and take a breath and let's come back with what's coming up in the city.

Sarah Frey: 12:06

Spring is almost in the air. I know it's chilly but it's coming. So if you're the opposite of me and you actually like yard work and prepping your flower beds in your garden, get ready because yard waste collection starts again this Wednesday, March 12th. Collections offered curbside on Wednesdays for all city residents who can put their grass clippings, brush, planter beans, stuff like that in either a small trash can or in a biodegradable paper lawn bag. Northern Shenandoah Valley Regional Commission And the City of Winchester are hosting a transportation study for the Apple Blossom Mall area. So if you want to share your opinions and recommendations for the future street planning around the mall, join us on Wednesday, March 19th at Shenandoah University's Hazel Pruitt Armory from 4 6pm and tell us what you think. And finally, last but certainly not least, we are constantly and consistently funding our public safety, specifically our fire service. So, join us on Monday, March 24th at 11am for the groundbreaking ceremony for the very first ever city owned fire station at South End. This is, like I said, The first time the city is going to build a fire station all by itself. It's happening at South End. We are so excited. So stop by and join us for the special occasion.

Dan Hoffman: 13:38

Welcome

13:39

new Winchester Police Chief, Ronnie Lewis. Ronnie, welcome. Thank you. Thank you. I'm excited to be here and I'm enjoying myself. Good. So it's been, so I hired you. We on week three now? Or has it been a full month? It's been a full month. Cause it was the third when I got sworn in. That's right. That's right. It's been a whole four months. It's been four months.

Dan Hoffman: 14:00

So one month in, you've got, you've got a nice article in the paper. Uh, met a bunch of folks, probably. Drinking through a fire hose right now in terms of names.

14:10

Yes

Dan Hoffman: 14:12

What are what's your

14:13

first impressions? Well, my first impression is

Chief Ronnie Lewis: 14:15

that I'm horrible with names still Yeah, I'm still Getting through those but I really love the the city. I love the environment I love the walking mall and like I've said before I love the train that comes through four times a day. Let's me know that. Hey,

14:32

there's other things out there besides my office. That is, uh, that's interesting. I've never heard someone say that about the train.

Dan Hoffman: 14:41

In fact, uh, brew works, the brewery up there on Cameron, they occasionally have a beer called, um, train too loud.

Sarah Frey: 14:49

Somebody left that as a review once with one star. The beer was great. Train too loud. That's right. One star.

Dan Hoffman: 14:55

That was a comment. It was like a Google review, and that was a comment, and then they named a beer after that comment. Nice. Um, so it's nice to hear that someone likes the train. Yes. Um, so, do you like the town? Uh, tell, well. First impressions of the department.

Chief Ronnie Lewis: 15:10

Love the department. The people are absolutely amazing. We've got some extremely dedicated people and the department itself has some great resources for our men and women there. So, um, as a department, I think we started off in a good place. I think we're as a department. The foundation is great. We're in a good place of the department. So

Dan Hoffman: 15:29

So, now that you've been able to kind of get a little settled in, granted one month and you're still, you know, you're still sparkly and new right now. So, you're one month in, you've started to get a flavor, I think you've probably talked to most of the officers in the department at this point, I know you've been having a lot of meetings with, uh, with the frontline folks, getting to know the department, getting to know the community. So, but after, let's say the first month, what do you see as some of the. The first external and the first internal challenge you want to tackle.

Chief Ronnie Lewis: 16:01

Well, the internal challenges, um, I want to make sure that we continue to move forward with our training and coming up with better ideas and really teach our people, um, as far as to educate, let them learn, and you're going to make mistakes in there. So trying to put that style of leadership in there where it's, it's, you're allowed to make a mistake. and the department has to put resources in you to educate you walking you step by step for certain things. So that's going to be one of my first priorities and also just making it a trying to make the environment is less stressful inside of the police department as it is outside. Because if our stress level is real high in that building, then we're gonna be sending high stress officers out. So the goal is just to let everyone know that, hey, You know, I love you and I'm going to be there for you and we're going to give you tools to go out and do your job and we're going to trust that when you're out there, you're going to do your job. And, um, and a lot of people react very well to that.

Dan Hoffman: 16:57

We do have a lot of young officers. Yeah. We, we are not immune to a lot of the turnover that has come from, you know, just becoming a more and more difficult job. Uh, a lot of, you know, there's more scrutiny. Uh, these days over police activities. Uh, so we, you know, I know we've had a bit of a kind of between a lot of folks that may be retired a little bit sooner than they would have liked or, uh, or they've just gotten out of the profession entirely. And, you know, that is, you know, that that's a struggle, a struggle when we're trying to keep up with staffing. So, uh, we've not been immune to that. Of course, the result is we got a lot of new guys and gals. Got a lot of new officers over there. Uh, so that is an important aspect.

Chief Ronnie Lewis: 17:44

Yeah. And the goal is to To like, I want to talk about teaching to teach them what they're used to a lot of people and I'm the same way if we, you know, you, we, you read something, then let's walk you through it, especially when you're in field training and just bring the temperature down a little bit because it is a stressful job.

18:03

Yeah,

Chief Ronnie Lewis: 18:04

there's not an officer out there that hadn't got complained on for various, whatever those reasons are.

18:08

Oh yeah.

Chief Ronnie Lewis: 18:09

And we, as an organization must make sure that, you know, we're. Making sure that the officers learning and the community also learns what we're doing and that will help bring down some of the complaints because a lot of them are just misunderstandings about what we should be doing and what we can and can't do so. Yeah.

Dan Hoffman: 18:23

So externally, what do you see?

Chief Ronnie Lewis: 18:26

Um, right now what we have to focus on is just trying to be a jewel that draws other people to us. We're losing a lot of people that are wanting to go from us to someone else and hopefully in the next two or three years, this is a marathon is not a sprint that we can make our department somewhere where people in the region, um, experienced officers to like would want to come to us and give us their services. And also that we're drawing the top recruits into our department. So we've got some, I think some work to do. And once we get to the point where our employees are recruiting Uh, and they're really our main recruiters with our employees and that they, and once people start saying, Hey, this is the place to be right here, then I think we're going to get, start drawing more people to us. And there's some challenges that, you know, we're all to be working together to get there. But that's my, that's my goal is to start drawing in more talent than sort of right now. We're sort of losing a

19:18

lot of it. Yeah. We want to be

Dan Hoffman: 19:19

an

19:20

employer of choice.

Dan Hoffman: 19:21

Yep.

19:21

And,

Dan Hoffman: 19:22

and we've been at that. At that point, uh, in recent memory, so it's not that we were that far off from it, you know, it's, uh, you know, I, I remember as recently as, I think it was a couple of years ago, we were fully staffed over at PD and, you know, right now we got a little catching up to, we got, we got some vacancies, uh, had some retirements, uh, have some, had some folks leave, but, um, it, I've always seen those things as kind of a, there's an ebb and flow to all of it right now. Yeah. You know, if you'd gone back three years, three or four years, four years, turnover in a fire department was more than 20%. Last year fired. We are now in the fire department. We're actually overstaffed by two. So we're fully staffed plus two. And, um, I, last year's turnover was less, it was, I think it was like 9%. So we, the city, I think as a whole, uh, has a pretty solid reputation. However, you know, the times have changed in the, in the police, in the Winchester Police Department. And, uh, you know, I think I'm sure there are a lot of folks that are going to wait and see, wait and see how things play out. So what, what would you tell a potential officer that maybe you're trying to poach from another jurisdiction?

Chief Ronnie Lewis: 20:40

Um, well, I love all my police chiefs that are, are not that you would ever

Dan Hoffman: 20:44

do that, that I would ever do that. So all the chief of police association guys, your turn to put it on mute for a minute.

Chief Ronnie Lewis: 20:51

There you go. But if I was looking in the mirror at myself saying, hey, how would I approach the person from you, you, what I would tell them is that we are the department and I always will go back to this, that we take care of our employees and we're going to make sure that you're going to be the best trained officer out there and that you're going to have an opportunity for professional development in this police department. We've got a lot of great opportunities for people that a lot of cities don't have. We have a great canine squad. We have our own SWAT team. That's amazing. We have a civil disturbance unit. We have so many things that people can do a great criminal investigation division. They I mean, our division rocks and I think we have some of the top talent and I would love to have people come in.

Dan Hoffman: 21:33

We do have some amazing folks over there. I mean, from, uh, Bilecki's running CID now. Is that right? Yes. We got Bilecki over there, O'Connor, Niang. I mean, there's a whole crew of folks. And then don't get me started on Jason Poe, of course, fantastic. And now. It's not a mish, well it's not a secret, you know Josh, Deputy Chief Barry is going, he's going home, he wants to go back to, to Rockbridge to kind of reconnect and, um, get back to where his family was from, so, uh, we, we wish him the best, but, you know, we're, we can, we do have that ability, and I think we're all excited about what you can do in that regard, now, Crime out in the community and shook yours a tiny bit. Uh, our numbers, contrary to popular belief, are, are actually pretty good, first off, when you compare us to other places. We are not Baltimore folks. Um, Don't be dramatic. Uh, you know, a lot of our violent crime is actually down, but you know, these shots fired incidents get a lot of attention because they're dramatic. They're scary. Um, but you know, a lot of times when we dig into them a little bit, like the, the incident that happened last, uh, last week with the supposed home invasion, you know, by the time we get there, we realize, no, it's not a home invasion. No, no one has been, uh, shot. And no, it was somebody that was. High on drugs and hallucinating and decided to squeeze off a few rounds. Now, when we respond to it, we then find that that person has a whole bunch of other charges pending, but not, you know, these aren't drive by shootings, right? I think sometimes people jump to that way too quick, but communication, uh, to the community and, and this topic is complicated, but necessary. How, how do you. When you think about how to communicate those kind of more nuanced issues to the community, what's your approach?

Chief Ronnie Lewis: 23:32

Well, one of the things we try to do is get the information out as fast, but as accurate as possible, um, because what we don't want is to throw something out there and then have to change it later. So, um, You know, that's sort of the initial part, but I think the work for us is downstream where we're actually meeting with groups, inviting groups over to the police department and meeting them where they are and explaining, Hey, this is the process and making it a team approach. I've said before that I think, you know, Um, that I know that we're the public. Um, as far as we're the community as a police department in the community are the police and we've got to work together. So I still think we have a lot of room of improvement to having people who can come and ask us questions and me being there with them and speaking. So and explaining, Hey, this is the perception of crime. I get it's real high in the community, but let's talk about some of the realities. But then how can we work to yeah. Fix that reality. Absolutely. So I think we, um, and you know, this is my job is to make sure that as I move on this year that we are doing more town halls and group meetings talking about, um, how great the city is, but we do have some issues here and how we can work

Dan Hoffman: 24:42

together. Like any city, we've got some of those, um, some of those issues, you know, we've got a lot of, you know, when I think about blighted and slum properties, you know, we've got a handful of slum Lords in this community that environments through the substandard housing, um, where crime can flourish and it's unfortunately concentrated in a few pockets of the city. So like any city, we're going to try to be tackling some of those, some of those problem areas and focusing our resources. Um, one couple more questions for you. So when you're thinking about, What policing will look like in five to 10 years, particularly here in the city of Winchester. I mean, let's just say five years out, 10 years. I mean, who knows? I'll be, I mean, well, that's when the flying cars and whatever. Exactly. Um, so let's say five years. What does it look like to be a police officer in this city in five years?

Chief Ronnie Lewis: 25:46

You know, I think as in five years, um, a police officer. Is going to be more ingrained in the community, and, um, I know I've talked to people in the community. They want to see us out there more. And, um, so you're going to see us sort of going back to it. I hate to say the way it was, but when we were able to, um, Um, to be walking and speaking with people and officers getting out of their vehicles playing, you know, kickball or something with someone. So I think the goal for our department is, is to, to, to really embrace the community even more than we are and to develop a department that's structured, uh, that people know that, hey, you know, I know that officer and so and so it's probably gonna be in my neighborhood walking through, you know, this week. And so I really want us to be Not as much. And someone in one of the community groups said this, and I would agree, um, that I want us to be a face in a badge, not just a badge. So in the future, the goal is to be a face and a badge where we're out there and we're engaging and not just me engaging, but the newest officers out there engaging. So some of the ideas that You know, we're going to be doing is, um, when you're a brand new officer here, one of your first things you're going to be doing is going into the community, working with the community because we are all community helpers. So we're, it's going to really be a, uh, uh, you know, that community focus, not that we're going to be putting on more events, but I think there's so much meat on the bone for us to get out there, engage with citizens and, and, and get back in your car and do patrol. And you don't have to have a huge event to make a big impact on people. And that's what I'm looking at. Um, us doing is just be even more engaged with the community. Gotcha.

Dan Hoffman: 27:26

All right. Wrapping up. If, uh, someone wants to get to know the Winchester police department more, whether you're a community organization or just a curious resident, who should they contact? They probably shouldn't call you directly. You're a busy man, but if they wanted to reach out, how do they go about engaging with the police department?

Chief Ronnie Lewis: 27:44

Um, one of the, uh, The people that it's our recruiters is Justin Meredith. He's a corporal and, um, you can contact our dispatch and, um, with Justin Meredith, Captain Carl Lindsey. She's over our professional standards and training. And also we're going to have a believe in October. Um, I called, I still call it a citizen's police academy, but it's not called that here. I think it's a community academy. Academy. Yeah. And we're gonna be doing that. And you're gonna be able to meet everyone in the department as far as including myself. But if you want to get to know the police department, um, you know, call Corporal Meredith or Captain Carlin Z or go to our website. The city has a great website and you can get to know us there. Thank you, Sarah.

Sarah Frey: 28:23

You're touching my heart right now.

Dan Hoffman: 28:26

Yeah. So winchesterva. gov. Uh, if you want to track down any of those folks, uh, and then I believe there's a forum on there too, that they, uh, could fill out if they want to reach out directly to somebody at the police department.

Sarah Frey: 28:37

Hold on. I'm going to plug one more thing. You've also got a junior Academy coming up and registration will open soon for kids and cops.

Chief Ronnie Lewis: 28:43

That is correct. So exciting one week we get to spend with the kids. So excited about that.

Dan Hoffman: 28:49

Go check it out. winchesterva. gov. Thank you very much. Chief Lewis. Thank you.

Chief Ronnie Lewis: 28:53

Appreciate it.

Dan Hoffman: 29:03

That's it for us in the Rouse Review. Thanks for spending a little time with us today. Uh, hope to see you at the council meeting tomorrow night. But, uh, if you can't make it, don't forget you can always submit comments and feedback online. Uh, so, if I don't see you tomorrow night, please feel free, give us some feedback, whether it's about the budget or any other topic on your mind. Uh, and until then, we'll see you around City Hall.