THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 8, 1997 TAG: 9702080349
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BATTINTO BATTS JR., STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: 128 lines
Neighborhood quality. Fiscal strength. Economic development. They are three concepts that city officials in Portsmouth hope to bring together in a plan to build a city that is an attractive place to live and do business.
And they were the central topics of the City Council's retreat Thursday and Friday at Christopher's Tavern in Williamsburg.
The retreat was held, City Manager Ronald Massie said, to help the council and city staff to focus on important issues and shape the upcoming city budget.
The City Council and the staff drafted goal statements to define the city's approach toward each of the three concepts.
Neighborhood quality:
City officials want to give residents more power to control their own destiny and decide what issues are most important to them - be it new sidewalks, better drainage systems, street lights or code enforcement.
So they drafted a goal for improving the quality of neighborhoods.
``We will have neighborhoods where citizens are proud participants providing significant inputtoward their own continuing success and improvement. Each neighborhood will meet or exceed the expectations of its citizenry through a cooperative, ongoing strategic focus by citizens and government.''
Vice Mayor Johnny M. Clemons suggested that the city work with residents to develop a plan for improving neighborhoods, similar to the city's 2005 plan, which focuses on revitalizing blighted economic areas.
``We can't force neighborhood quality on people who don't want to receive it,'' Councilman P. Ward Robinette Jr. said. ``Participants have to have an ownership role, and we have to give it to them. People should be proud of where they live. Our job should be to be the coach and allow them to achieve goals and objectives.''
In addition to giving residents more power, Massie said the city will ``declare war on ugliness.''
That means the city will increase its effort to raze abandoned and decaying houses, which often become havens for crime, and will get tougher on residents whose property run afoul of city code guidelines, said Jim Gildea, the city's director of planning and environmental services.
By developing clean and safe neighborhoods, Portsmouth will become more a destination for families looking for a good quality of life, city officials said. And attracting more people to the city will strengthen the economic base and thus improve Portsmouth's fiscal strength, Deputy City Manager Johnna Whitaker said.
Fiscal strength:
Although Portsmouth had a $6 million budget surplus at the end of the 1996 fiscal year, that doesn't mean the city will go on a spending spree, Massie said. The financial woes Portsmouth experienced three years ago, when its fund balance hovered near zero, are still fresh in the minds of city officials. Gradual economic growth and prudent spending has helped the city partially recover.
So the council and staff developed the following goals:
``We will operate our community in a fiscally responsible manner, balancing services delivered against taxes paid to achieve substantial value for our citizens. We will constantly encourage our family to maximize our effectiveness in service delivery and seek attractive revenue sources to meet our financial objectives.''
Massie said the city will make responsible expenditures, such as updated technology at City Hall to improve service, sidewalk and drainage improvements and the hiring of some additional staff.
In addition, the city will look to increase its revenue flow with such projects as a new hotel and convention center. The hotel would be owned and operated by a private company. But the convention center, expected to be about 20,000 square feet and cost between $5 and $10 million to build, would be owned by the city.
Whitaker said the city probably would have to issue bonds to pay for the convention center. But she said that while Portsmouth's economic outlook seems better, the city still can't afford to go further in debt to repay the bonds.
That means studies must show that the convention center would pay for itself before Portsmouth decides to build it, she said.
A city that is strong financially is easier to market to prospective businesses, said Matthew James, the city's director of economic development.
``They are asking for fiscally well-managed cities to do their business,'' James said.
Economic development:
By the year 2005, Robinette said, Portsmouth should be a city of choice for students who graduate from college.
``The only way we are going to survive for the next 200 years is to get people to come back here,'' he said. ``That is the biggest challenge we have as a region. We create a lot of kids and we send them out, but we don't get them back.''
To do that, that city needs to focus on business retention, business attraction and asset management, Massie said.
The council and staff settled on the following goal statement:
``We will create and maintain an atmosphere where businesses can grow and prosper. Business prosperity will be further enhanced through the attraction and retention of well-educated, highly-skilled employees who are fulfilled in their work, contribute to the betterment of their community and add value by their presence.''
The economic development department, Massie promised, would improve its relationship with existing businesses, helping them solve problems with building permits, securing financing for projects and looking for locations to expand.
In addition, he said, the city will continue to aggressively recruit businesses to move to Portsmouth.
And the city will develop an inventory of all the property it owns to determine which of those are not needed for city use. Any land not needed likely will be sold so that it can be used by private business, Massie said.
The council will be shaping next year's budget within the next month or so and it should be adopted in April.
Massey said that the goals outlined by the council will help guide the city staff in setting spending priorities.
``If we do not see them played out in the budget,'' Massey said, `` I'll be very disappointed.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
CENTRAL TOPICS FROM THE PORTSMOUTH RETREAT
Neighborhood quality: City officials want to empower residents to
decide what issues are most important.
Fiscal strength: Despite a $6 million budget surplus, the council
will be restrained in its spending to avoid financial woes of the
past.
Economic development: Portsmouth needs to attract and retain
businesses to make the city of choice for college graduates.
KEYWORDS: PORTSMOUTH CITY COUNCIL RETREAT