Virginia’s fire, ambulance and police departments will operate under the status quo after the city council declined to seek outsourcing and restructuring options for its public safety services.
For nearly two hours in front of a standing-room crowd at city hall, councilors heard from a parade of residents and employees in support of the departments. They ultimately declined a motion to seek requests for proposals (RFP) on the ambulance service, and similar motions on police and fire were not called.
The agenda items sparked a wave of discourse throughout Virginia and caught a number of city officials by surprise.
Councilor Justin Skalko, who proposed the effort, said the city needed to explore any option to address a financial situation that features $77 million in long-term debt and could be out of money by this fall.
“If the well runs dry, nobody makes money,” he said. “The state comes in then. Does anyone want the state to take over our city? I don’t.”
Mayor Larry Cuffe Jr. acknowledged the city’s past and current financial troubles, but said there are opportunities beyond outsourcing the departments. He listed out where other efforts either fell short or were not acted upon.
Cuffe said the state Legislature didn’t provide enough funding to help rural ambulance services, and a grant program with Sprint Medic expires in 2027. He also said the city was not utilizing a state statute that would allow it to tax other cities served by Virginia’s ambulance service, calling it “taxation without representation.”
The mayor said he was committed to maintaining Virginia’s level of service, but did not elaborate on the other opportunities or solutions.
“You don’t know what kind of service could be provided, we don’t know what the RFP is going to be,” Cuffe said. “We haven’t even discussed the services that we’re asking for if we want to maintain the same level of service we have. An RFP isn’t going to provide that.”
Councilor Annie Bachschnieider, in a Facebook post, asked neighboring residents to support a “slight increase” to their tax levies to help support Virginia services they receive.
She reiterated that stance Tuesday night, describing efforts alongside the fire and ambulance leaders to dig into the data on services outside the city, and converting into a dollar amount.
“I don’t expect to have revenue out of fire and ambulance,” Bachschneider said. “Nobody wants to make money off a vital community service, but I would like to get that as close to zero as possible.”
Councilor Liz Motley said she supported an RFP at first because it would be more information for the city to have. She later withdrew her support.
Motley said the city is about 19 square miles in size but services 640 square miles, and listed out around 40 communities to which the Virginia ambulance travels. She also asked City Clerk Pam LaBine to compile a list of cities near Virginia’s size in population, noting few had full-time departments in all three public safety services.
“We are paying for everybody else,” Motley said. “We pay, the taxpayers of Virginia pay for the full-time employees 24/7. We pay for the equipment. We pay for the insurance. We pay for everything. One simple ambulance ride by an unfortunate patient doesn’t cover anything.”
Skalko was the lone vote supporting RFPs. He noted it was not aimed at eliminating the departments, but having the discussion. No motions were made on an RFP for the police department or exploring a hybrid fire department.
Other meeting notes
- Virginia approved a pay increase for councilors and the mayor on a 6-1 vote. Councilor Steve Johnson voted against. It will pay councilors $500 a month starting next year and the mayor $700. Councilors still receiving health insurance through the city will remain at $300 a month. Cuffe said the city eliminated $100 committee of the whole meeting stipends and $35 for each meeting outside regular council meetings. New councilors going forward will not receive health benefits. “Essentially the take-home pay is the same as what we’re currently taking home,” Bachschneider said.
- Jenny Bourbonnais, community development director for the city, said there are 11 commercial businesses that have not completed their steam conversion. The deadline is this October. Councilors wanted to get a legal opinion on the deadline and its authority in regard to it and Virginia Public Utilities. Johnson said this is the last section of the steam conversion and did not support any potential delay in completing it.
- Bachschneider and Councilor Julianne Paulsen questioned some items on the regular schedule of bills, noting the non-essential spending freeze. Johnson said he believed the items of concern should be public record.
Accessing the Virginia City Council
Virginia City Council agenda, minutes and packets can be found on the city’s website. Recordings of the meetings can be found on YouTube.
