Lynchburg officials examine economic fixes at joint meeting

Lean economic times are forcing businesses and municipalities to identify areas where operations could be streamlined or consolidated to save money, and the City of Lynchburg is no different.

During their annual joint session Thursday, City Council and School Board officials said they plan to take a hard look at where school and city resources could be combined.

“There’s some duplication that needs to be seriously looked at … not just collaborating when it’s convenient,” Councilman Scott Garrett said. “The school system is a $100 million-a-year business. Other businesses are making these same decisions.”

Areas suggested for collaboration or consolidation included human resources, information technology, finance, buildings and grounds, and marketing and communications.

City Manager Kimball Payne said there are some areas the city wouldn’t be equipped to handle, but overall there are many possibilities for working together.

“I don’t want to hire teachers. I don’t want to deal with teachers,” Payne said. “When you remove teachers from the situation we are running very similar facilities.”

The city and school division have already experimented with collaboration in their information technology departments. Both city and school IT staff work from the same building, although they maintain separate software.

Discussion about consolidation was sparked by a recent financial audit of city finances, which showed the weaknesses of the school division’s outdated financial software.

The audit also revealed a $440,000 deficit, of which the school division had been unaware.

Division officials estimate leasing or purchasing new software would cost between $300,00 and $700,000. City leadership is exploring whether the schools could use its software. Education officials asked if new software could be purchased if the city software isn’t compatible for both departments.

“I’m afraid replacing the city’s financial package is going to be a multi-million-dollar expense,” Payne said, adding it would also require at least a year to switch to a new product.

While most officials approved of collaboration in one way or another, pulling together resources won’t be without its challenges.

For example, Councilman Jeff Helgeson asked if the city could take over the schools’ finance department. Payne said he would have to do some research on that. The schools and the city must each maintain some level of autonomy, per state code.

There’s also the question of how employees doing the merging would react to the change.

“There’s an enormous amount of institutional resistance,” Payne said.

Still, in dire economic times officials agreed efficiency is paramount.

“The duplication of services is not responsible to our taxpayers. We need to watch that,” Councilman Turner Perrow said, and asking if a timeline for consolidation could be set.

Payne said his March 1 budget recommendations should reflect some changes.

Superintendent Paul McKendrick cautioned against moving too fast.

“I hope we don’t rush into this,” he said. “We’re in a crisis, but there needs to be forethought and vision of where we need to go.”

McKendrick said he doesn’t want to forgo quality for efficiency.

Julie Doyle, school board chairwoman, asked that consensus be reached on what kind of changes make the most sense.

“I would certainly ask and hope we go down this path collaboratively,” she said.

School Board and City Council are expected to meet again Jan. 27 to discuss the division’s deficit in the last fiscal year, this year’s budget and next year’s budget.