Lynchburg to review financial standing

By: From staff reports | New Era Progress
Published: June 22, 2009

Lynchburg City Council will review its financial standing during a work session Tuesday.

Council is scheduled to hear a budget update from staff in hopes of finding a way to restore a 3 percent across-the-board pay cut included in the budget it approved last month.

A copy of the final report was not available for review last week; city officials said they were still working on the document.

Officials do appear to believe that at least part of the cut can be restored by accepting the school division’s offer to return $500,000 to city coffers.

The Lynchburg School Board voted last month to extend the refund, of sorts, after learning that a new early retirement program was drawing heavy participation, resulting in unexpectedly high savings.

In a memo to council, the city’s budget handlers recommend that they accept the money and say it can be applied to the pay cut with council’s approval. The money would be enough to restore one-third of the pending cut.

The city implemented its own retirement incentive program earlier this year. Only city employees already eligible for retirement qualify for that program, unlike the school division’s program.

The deadline to sign up for the city program was last week. A report on the results is expected during Tuesday’s meeting.

Preliminary reports reflected less than robust participation in the program, but officials said those numbers picked up in the final weeks.

The budget review will take place during council’s work session, which will begin at 1 p.m. Tuesday. A vote on the school division’s refund is set for the regular business meeting that will follow that same day at 5 p.m.

Both meetings will take place at City Hall, 900 Church St.