Charles City citizens question proposed budget, criticize leadership’s handling of past finances

Charles City citizens are questioning the county leadership’s ability to have a constructive and realistic budget.

Six citizens took to the podium as part of the Apr. 16 public hearing on Charles City’s proposed 2026-27 budget.

Residents did not hesitate to question the proposed $48,456,117 budget for the next cycle, which is nearly $8 million more than the county’s current operations. While Charles City County Administrator Keith Rogers Jr. said in previous meetings that $8 million would be allocated to address the county’s wastewater problems, citizens raised concerns about financial projects and abilities for the county to properly budget due to previous years.

“This budget disturbs me,” commented Lloyd Carter Sr. “We still have an issue within our county government.

“I don’t know how this can be accurate,” he continued. “I don’t know how you can plan a budget like this if you’ve had problems with it during the last five years.”

For Brandi Morano, she believes that county leadership and staff continue to overlook input from the citizens.

“This county has suffered from poor financial decisions,” she said. “When you make this budget, these aren’t numbers; these are choices.

“Your choices impact schools, services, and the community,” Morano added. “This budget is being presented without enough clarity. Decisions were made without enough public engagement or caring of public engagement. Decisions were made with questions going unanswered.

“That has to change,” she said as she wrapped up her comments. “If we are asking departments to make cuts in their budget, it has to start at the top.”

Jared Kline approached the lectern, saying while the tax rate remains at 69 cents per $100 of assessed value in the proposal, the current assessment of resident’s properties will still result in an increase.

“The average assessment has gone up by 30-40 percent, and your plan is to keep the current rate?” he questioned. “That is essentially a 30-40 percent increase in our taxes, while our housing prices according to the marker only went up by one to two percent.

Kline said that the firm hired to do the assessment of county property has a license that expired a year-and-a-half ago. He also pointed out budgets of counties of similar size and population.

“Surry has a budget of $32.58 million for operating and King & Queen’s is $28.9 million,” Kline commented. “Our budget is $48 million and when I look at a county that plans to operate with that figure, it’s Madison County and they have twice as many people than Charles City.”

Steve Fuhrmann approached the podium and made remarks addressing fees, school spending, and possible inflation due to the conflict in the Middle East.

“I can’t see in this budget if wastewater and sewer fees have increased,” he said. “We are below the average or even the norm in what we charge.

“I am also concerned about the school’s spending approximately $28,000 per student,” Fuhrmann continued. “There are areas in the school budget where non-teaching licensed positions do not support the classroom and those expenditures are far, far above those of other schools.

“It also appears that there isn’t any consideration to contingency in this budget,” he continued. “If the war continues in the Middle East, it will have a dramatic impact and increase in our liquid fuel, fertilizer, and more. We’re going to face a serious worldwide economic slowdown if this war continues, even over a few months.”

Charles Harwood concluded the public hearing, saying that county leaders did not heed any advice from their financial consultants, Davenport and Company.

“There is no reflection in this budget of the county cutting their spending,” he said, pointing to conversations and dialogue that Davenport presented during previous months financial meetings. “It looks like a lot of places where [county] departments can save money in-house.

“For example, the IT (Information Technology) department can be cut in half,” Harwood said as he wrapped up his comments. “I asked a few of my IT workers how many people they have per 300 people in IT and they said one.”

County supervisors did not make any comments after the budget public hearing. Consideration to approve, deny, or table the budget is scheduled for the county’s Apr. 28 regular board meeting.