FY 14-15 Adopted Budget

City Manager’s Budget Message

Guilford County Fire, and the conversion of the remaining 14 channels to P25 functionality is scheduled to begin in FY 14-15. Renovations at the Guilford Metro 911 Justice Center to administrative, training, and public entrance facilities will be completed during FY 14-15. The Recommended FY 14-15 Budget also includes a total of $345,000 for several enhancements for the Police Department. The FY 14-15 and FY 15- 16 budgets each include $210,000 ($420,000 total) to replace the Police Department’s entire complement of aging body armor. Additional funding of $55,000 for the Priority Offender program will bring total annual funding to $175,000, and expand the program from 100 to 150 monitored offenders. The recommended budget also includes $80,000 for the Fair and Impartial Policing training effort. Police, Libraries and Parks and Recreation continue their collaboration to provide programming options in an effort to positively impact the juvenile crime rate. For example, Summer Night Lights (SNL), a series of free teen events, will be held during the summer at times that are traditionally high risk for juvenile crime. These departments, along with City Council and community partners, are further collaborating to start the summer with a Teen Summit to inform youth of the variety of activities available through the summer season. “Maintain infrastructure and provide sustainable growth opportunities.” Bond referenda passed by the residents of Greensboro in 2006, 2008 and 2009 authorized borrowing of over $228 million for streets, fire stations, parks and other improvements. The City continues its strategy of managing the borrowing for these needed capital improvements without requiring tax increases for debt service. The City issued $50 million in Bond Anticipation Notes in FY 13-14 (to be converted to General Obligation Bonds in 2016) to advance a variety of projects. These projects include continued improvements to Horsepen Creek Road, High Point Road Streetscape, Cone Boulevard/Nealtown Road and the downtown greenway, along with other sidewalk improvements and street resurfacing. This bond sale provided funding for the McConnell Road Fire Station (to replace the existing fire station on Franklin Boulevard) and the Burlington Road Fire Station. Other supported projects include Griffin Park improvements, Keeley Park improvements and support for the Greensboro Science Center— Phase II.

In March 2013, City Council approved sale of land to a lead developer for the South Elm Brownfield project. In January 2014, the City Council voted to support the development of the Union Square Campus as part of this site. Union Square is a partnership among Greensboro’s colleges and universities to create a state-of-the-art facility to address the continuing education needs of the medical community and to develop a new high tech medical simulation lab. In addition, South Elm Street Redevelopment is being used as a demonstration project for job creation and capacity building for Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUB) under a contract with Sustainable Community Resources. The FY 14-15 Recommended Budget includes continued support for various economic development and cultural partners such as the Greensboro Partnership, East Market Street Development Corporation, the Piedmont Triad Film Commission, the Children’s Museum and the Wyndham Championship. As part of the City’s overall strategy to reduce the budget and maintain a level tax rate, it is necessary to recommend a 10% reduction in City support for these organizations and other similar organizations serving the community in cultural and economic support roles. Closely aligned with our economic development strategic goal is the organization’s desire to promote public safety. A safe community is a critical component of an economically vibrant community. The Reedy Fork Fire Station will open in early in FY 14-15. Fifteen positions previously allocated for the station were filled during FY 13-14. The station will serve the already developed Reedy Fork area and provide fire and rescue coverage for future residential and commercial development in the area. Fifteen new firefighter positions are included in the FY 14-15 budget to add a new Fire engine company in east Greensboro for improved service delivery. The company will be placed initially at Mt. Hope Church Fire Station (Station #57) and eventually assigned to the Burlington Road Station to be constructed sometime in FY 15-16. The City of Greensboro and Guilford County have signed a contract with Motorola to take Technical Services through the next 5 years of P25 (radio system platform) migration and expansion. The replacement of this vital infrastructure is underway and will continue through FY 14-15 and beyond. The Migration Assurance Plan project, including core system upgrades, annual maintenance, four new tower sites, a new UHF Paging System for “Promote public safety and reduce crime.”

Subsequent to the 2014 bond sale, approximately

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Adopted FY 2014-15 Budget