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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1997-12-19 adjDecember 19, 1997 (Adjourned Meeting) (Page 1) 000224 An adjourned meeting of the Board of Supervisors of Albemarle County, Virginia, was held on December 19, 1997, at 2:30 p.m., Room 235, County Office Building, McIntire Road, Charlottesville, Virginia. This meeting was ad- journed from December 10, 1997. PRESENT: Mr. David P. Bowerman, Ms. Charlotte Y. Humphris, Mr. Forrest R. Marshall, Jr., Mr. Walter F. Perkins and Ms. Sally H. Thomas. ABSENT: Mr. Charles S. Martin. OFFICERS PRESENT: County Executive, Robert W. Tucker, Jr., Deputy County Executive, Richard E. Huff, II, Assistant County Executive, Roxanne W. White, and County Attorney, Larry W. Davis. Agenda Item No. 1. The meeting was called to order at 2:30 p.m., by the Chairman, Ms. Humphris. Agenda Item No. 2. Welcoming Remarks/Introduction for Meeting with Congressman Thomas J. Bliley. Ms. Humphris welcomed Congressman Bliley and introduced him to all members present. She then thanked him for cosponsoring the bill called "The American Farm and Ranch Protection Act." She said that legislation will help a lot of property owners with tax incentives to do preservation easements; it is important legislation. She then invited Mr. Bliley to speak. Agenda Item No. 3. Discussion of Items of Interest. Expectations for ISTEA Legislation and the Role of MPO's. Mr. Bliley said there was funding approved for the National Ground Intelligence Center. He was also able to get some additional funding which will help Sperry with the Navy Gyroscopes. He said he was happy to be present today. From the information sent to him before the meeting he understands the Board is concerned about ISTEA funds. He-does not know what is going to happen with that funding; a lot will depend on what happens to Bud Schuster, Chairman, because there is an ongoing investigation of his relationship to a couple of contractors involved in the building of the "Big Ditch," the Boston Harbor Tunnel. If he is indicted, he will have to step aside as chairman while that is going on. Next in line in seniority is Don Young from Alaska who is now chairman of the Resources Committee, and he would have to give up that position in order to move to the ISTEA Committee. Then there has been a big chance in the working schedule of Congress; with all of the breaks in the schedule there will be little time to work on anything until after the Fourth of July. Ms. Humphris said the ISTEA legislation has been very important for this community, and for the rest of the State. It has given the localities more say about how transportation funds are spent, and allowed some flexibility. It made funds available for such things as the Thomas Jefferson Parkway from Route 20 to Monticello, and it gave the University funds for work on Rugby Road. These are projects Albemarle would never have gotten funded if there had not been the various pots of money that allowed that flexibility. The Board knows the formula is a major issue, but she understand the formula is on its way to being fixed so Virginia would get more return of the money it puts in. Ms. Thomas said the MPO feels it is more important to have the flexible features and the land use and the alternative intermodal type of things, than it is to fix the formula. Mr. Bliley said you the Board can count on getting that easier because it is very hard to reallocate funds. It becomes a zero- sum game. Telecommunication Towers and Regulation: Mr. Bliley said he understands there are concerns about the FCC and the siting of telecommunication towers. He helped to write the new section of the Telecommunications Act. It was not his intent for the FCC to tell people where to put towers, only that the locality had to find someplace to put them. The FCC got into this because some counties throughout the country adopted a December 19, 1997 (Adjourned Meeting) (Page 2) 000225 moratorium saying there could be no towers in their locality for an indefinite period of time. He has notified the FCC that 45 days is an unacceptable period in which to require approval since the Board works on a fixed meeting schedule. He has said that six months would be a minimum amount of time needed to resolve any question. As for locations, he would suggest that the provid- ers put their towers on land owned by the county, and the county charge them for that use. Mr. Tucker said the County already does that in some locations. Mr. Bliley said the Highway Department is doing that on their land in the rights-of-way of the interstate highways. Mr. Bliley then mentioned the "Universal Service Fund" that Vice- President A1 Gore wants to use to wire all the schools. He said it is going to result in every citizen paying $4.00 to $5.00 more a month on their telephone bill. He said the FCC should not do that without any public hearings. He told them it is a tax, and the FCC should not be in the taxing business. The other thing is that they have taken the ceiling off of what can be charge for pay phone calls. That charge will go up also, and the majority of people impacted by that are low-income people. Ms. Humphris said each time there is an application to the County for a cellular tower site, the Board's major problem is trying to determine what is I'adequate service." There is no definition for that phrase. The Board has to allow adequate service, but it is in conflict with the County's Comprehensive Plan. Albemarle County is mountainous and covers 744 square miles. It has been written in the Comprehensive Plan for some time that the citizens who chose to live in the most rural areas have to understand that they will not receive the same level of services as people who live in the more urban areas. Mr. Bliley said the lawyers who wrote the legislation love vague terms like that because it allows them to run up billable hours. If the Board has a problem with the FCC on a particular site, the Board should contact him and he will try to help get it satisfactorily resolved. Ms. Humphris said the Board is trying to be fair, but with the competi- tiveness of the industry, and the number of suppliers in the county, the Board is being inundated with requests. Mr. Bliley said he understands that people hear what the County says about the provision of service, but when they want to use their cellular phone, they suddenly have a lapse of memory. Ms. Thomas said the Board gets a lot of people speaking at public hearings who say they can carry on a perfectly good telephone conversation from wherever they are located. Better than that, she has had citizens call her from their cellular phone and say '~can you hear me?" Mr. Marshall said there is different service from different companies. One company has excellent reception in one area, while another company has none in that same area. Mr. Bliley said he believes that within three to five years there will be satellite service available. Ms. Humphris said the applicants always tell the Board that there will be no satellite service in the foreseeable future. Mr. Bowerman said Motorola is one of the major players in an interna- tional satellite system. Theirs is designed for use in remote areas, not necessarily urban areas, and they don't expect to handle a high volume of calls, but the calls they do handle will be fairly expensive. It will give anybody, anywhere, access to the telephone system. He did not know if the major players-were going to provide a capacity such that they could handle a lot of calls. Mr. Bliley said Motorola is working in conjunction with Hughes Aircraft to develop this technology. He said the technology is moving so fast that what is state-of-the-art today, will generally be obsolete within five years. Ms. Thomas said on these tower applications, the Board has been requir- ing that when the towers cease to be used for cellular communications, they be taken down. She is glad that clause is being put in. Mr. Bliley said that is wise, and he will recommend it to other localities he represents. Electric Utility Deregulation - Consumer Tax on Enerqs,, If Produced Outside of the State. Mr. Bliley said this legislation is being pushed forward. It is coming, but he does not know when. Mr. Jack Reaser, State Delegate, said he is putting in a bill, but it probably will not be acted on for a year. Virginia Power would have you believe that Virginia is a low cost power state, but December 19, 1997 (Adjourned Meeting) (Page 3) O00Z2G residential customers are paying 8.4¢ a kilowatt hour while they are selling to the Navy in Norfolk for 3.7¢ a kilowatt hour. Twenty-six states have lower electric utility rates than Virginia. He knows the local government has a concern about taxes because it probably taxes the electric utility company, and the consumer's electric utility bill. He said that is not an insoluble problem because the State Legislature can adapt that tax to whatever Congress does. It would not go into effect for several years after the law went into effect. There will be time for the Legislature to recognize that. Also, he knows there is concern about out-of-state companies, and how to get them to pay their share. One way is to require them to have a physical presence within the locality, and that would give the locality an opportunity to levy a tax on them. Ms. Thomas asked if the tax would be on the facility, or the actual bill. Mr. Bliley said it could be on both. Ms. Humphris said Mr. Flip Hicks, attorney for VACO, has a proposal for the State to allow what is now the gross receipts tax on those providers to be translated into a consumer tax that will show on the bill. In other words, just to show what the providers are now paying to the State or the locality as a consumer tax instead of what is paid by the provider. It would very simply take care of that part of the tax without worrying about what the source of the power is. It sounds too simple to work, but she sees nothing wrong with the idea. Ms. Humphris said utility taxes are a significant revenue source for all localities. Also, the money collected by the State is important because so much of that money goes to pay for education. Ms. Thomas said the Virginia State Corporation Commission is urging that this be entered into slowly. She asked what is going to happen from this point. Mr. Bliley said he is hoping to move quickly with the legislation. In the electricity grid of the United States, nationwide, there is twenty percent excess capacity, although it is not evenly distributed. That is part of the problem. By having this competition, there will be lower costs and the excess capacity can be used without it increasing generation and transmission lines. Ms. Humphris said she had never heard about electric utility deregula- tion until the early Fall of 1996 when a group called the ~'Senior Statesmen of Virginia" had an all day forum in Charlottesville. With all of the talk about tax dollars, she wondered how the companies can do this and still ensure reliable service. When the power is off, most people now call Virginia Power. Mr. Bliley said you would still call Virginia Power and they are pushing for "stranded costs", sometimes it is called a "wire charge." That is why the SCC has to come in. If you let Virginia Power determine what the stranded costs would be for out-of-state utility "x", by the time the stranded costs were paid, there would be no competition. Congress can't determine what the stranded costs would be because they are replicated in states all over the country. He hopes the legislation will be passed this year. Mr. Bowerman asked if the Federal legislation being contemplated will take precedence over deregulations which has already occurred in states like California. Mr. Bliley said he believes that the states which have already done it will be grandfathered. It is his goal that by some date in the future, every consumer in the United States will have a choice as to who supplies their electric power. In this day and age, when there is technology to do it, no monopoly should be defended. He said there will be some initial problems, but they will be corrected. Other Items from Congressman Blile¥ or Board Members. Ms. Humphris asked if the individual Board members had anything to discuss. Mr. Marshall said he would like to thank Mr. Bliley for the great job he is doing. Mr. Bliley thanked Mr. Marshall for his comment. He said he hopes the General Assembly will take his suggestion on the redistricting and make as few changes as possible because in three years it will have to be done over again. Under the plan "we" sent them, he would lose Spotsylvania and get all of Hanover, he would lose some more of Richmond and Chesterfield and eastern Henrico, but he would gain Powhatan, Goochland and Louisa. There would be no changes in Albemarle, Orange, Madison, Greene or Culpeper. With the General Assembly in session, there are always a few senators and delegates who would like to draw a district they could run in, so he does not know what will happen. Approved by the B, County Supervisor.~ December 19, 1997 (Adjourned Meeting) (Page 4) 000227 Mr. Bliley asked if there had not been a question about tobacco. Ms. Humphris said there was, but it was a NACO suggestion and when she and Mr. Tucker were reading it, they were not sure whether Albemarle County's local health department would expect an impact from tobacco caused illnesses. Mr. Bliley said he does not believe there is better than 50/50 chance that there will be comprehensive legislation concerning tobacco. At a minimum, he would hope they could get something passed to prevent teenage access to tobacco. He does not think all of the responsibility should be put on the merchant. If an underage teenager buys tobacco, fine that teenager. Maybe on the second offense, take his driver's license. These kids have very sophisticated I.D. cards. Mr. Bliley said he would like to ask one question. How is the relation- ship between this Board and the elected School Board members? He had argued in the General Assembly that if they were going to allow elected school boards, the school board should have to raise its own money. Ms. Thomas said this County has gone a little farther than other counties in trying to make the School Board responsible. Mr. Marshall said they should be fiscally responsible, or not be elected, one or the other. Mr. Bliley said, as elected members they can always say they have a mandate, and the supervisors have to give them the amount of money they request. Ms. Humphris said that, quite naturally, the relationship between the two bodies is quite different. As of the first of 1998, there will be the first totally elected school board in Albemarle County. It is very different from when the Board members appointed their representative and worked closed with that person and shared thinking. Now, the person representing the Board member's district is elected and has an agenda of his/her own, but without the wherewithal to fulfill that agenda. Mr. Marshall said a lot of people think it is not a good idea for the school board to have taxing power because they spend 70 percent of the budget, and it would dilute the supervisors authority. He said he has no fear of it at all. He would rather that they be responsible for that 70 percent. When he was still appointing a member to the school board, the school board presented a balanced budget to the supervisors with an unfunded priority list attached. Now, the school board is handing in an unbalanced budget. Mr. Bliley said in Richmond it has been a real bad scene. They have a new superintendent almost every year. Ms. Humphris said she always felt the appointed school boards worked very well. It did not bother her that Virginia was the only state in the Union that did it that way. She thought Virginia was just smarter than everybody else. She did not vote for elected school boards thinking it to be a bad idea. Mr. Bliley said he did not either, but they were in the minority. Ms. Thomas said it is hard to find anybody who will confess that they did vote for elected school boards. With nothing further to discuss, Mr. Bliley wished all present a Happy Holiday. Agenda Item No. 4. Adjourn. With no further business to come before the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 3:10 p.m. Rrd of Chairman/