COMMENTARY: Wake Up and Trim the Fat, Cape Charles!
By DEBORAH BENDER
May 18, 2013
It has come to my attention that the Town of Cape Charles is having budget problems. There is not enough money and too many expenses.
In order to help, I did a little homework. And after speaking with the Town of Onancock’s administrative assistant, I have some advice: Trim the fat, Cape Charles.
According to the 2010 census, Cape Charles has 1,009 full-time residents. The town of Onancock has 1,263 full-time residents.
The Town of Cape Charles has 10 employees in the administrative offices at a salary cost of $509,875.
The town of Onancock has 3 employees in the town office for a total of $195,000 in salaries. That is $314,875 less spent on employees in Onancock than in Cape Charles.
How does Onancock manage with such a small staff? For starters, their town manager is also their town attorney, thus avoiding the price tag for a town lawyer.
The two people who work in the office do all the billing, accounting, customer service, and take turns taking minutes at the town meetings.
They run the entire town office with just three employees! Onancock does not have a town planner, a treasurer, an accountant, a building code enforcer, a community recreation activities director, or an assistant clerk.
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Onancock does just fine without all the excess baggage. All the employees in Onancock wear many hats.
I called the town offices for Onancock, Parksley, Exmore, and Chincoteague, and all were answered by a real person, not some machine. All the people who answered the phone were courteous, friendly, and forthcoming with answers.
The town of Cape Charles has 13 employees that I know of doing all the public works jobs. The total cost in salaries and benefits is $595,526.
The town of Onancock has 7 public works employees at a total cost in salaries and benefits of $350,000. That is a difference of $295,526.
Onancock’s public works employees pick up the trash, cut all the grass for town property, run the sewage treatment plant and the water plant, repair their own equipment, do all the painting of the town buildings, pick up twigs and debris once a month, and perform other duties as assigned.
Totaling the administrative offices and the public works departments, the difference in salaries and benefits between Onancock and Cape Charles is $610,410.
If the federal government is cutting back, laying off, and making people take unpaid leave to keep their jobs, why can’t Cape Charles reign in our spending?
I’m not saying to go on a firing spree. But something needs to be done to get expenses under control. For example, why should we spend $30,000 on a redo of the town comprehensive plan when our Town Council does not even follow the one we have?
Our new town planner does not have any baggage. Let him take care of the logistics and writing of the revised plan this time.
This town needs to get a grip on spending. Wake up Cape Charles! We are just a tiny town with less population than Onancock. Why can’t we cut back so that we can avoid borrowing more money, raising taxes, and water/sewer bills?
Then we could afford to do repairs and upkeep on our public buildings, lighting, equipment, and providing public services.
If the mayor, Town Council, and both town managers can’t figure it out, maybe what we need is all new people running this town.
There is one more thing that Onancock has that Cape Charles does not have: Onancock has a historic old school on College Street that had fallen into disrepair due to government neglect.
The people of Onancock rallied around when a developer tried to take their historic old school. They kept it. It still needs some repairs, but they are working to get grants and to find a way to bring their town asset back to use.
In Cape Charles our Town Council gave away our historic old school and $41,000 with it. That could have built a basketball court. They did not have to give that money away.
Wake up, Cape Charles!
Submissions to COMMENTARY are welcome on any subject relevant to Cape Charles. Shorter articles will be published as a Letter to the Editor.
I do want to clarify one thing. The town of Onancock does not pick up their own trash anymore. The town has a contract with Davis Disposal and guess what? Each house pays $2 per month. Why are the citizens of Cape Charles paying $14?
Just sayin….
DEBORAH BENDER should be running Cape Charles. If her figures are accurate, and I have no reason to doubt them, the people running Cape Charles have a lot of explaining to do to the taxpayers. This is an outrage, and someone needs to be held accountable. This is worse than the federal government, which I thought was impossible. DEBORAH BENDER for citizen of the year.
Re: The basketball court. If there were a vacant lot next to my house, I would love to have a basketball court next to me!
This letter makes good points about streamlining local government infrastructure. That is a good practice regardless of the current fiscal condition. Perhaps the town infrastructure expanded in anticipation of a larger population from the Bay Creek developments, which, as we know, has not been realized. I think the heady days of the real estate boom and the subsequent bust impacted Cape Charles much more than they impacted Onancock. I would not want Cape Charles to compromise essential services but if there are ways to streamline, then by all means, they should be implemented.
My one suggestion to the Cape Charles “watchdogs” who comprise much of the Wave activity: Stop tying all of your observations and good suggestions back to the Old School incident and that basketball court. If you truly want to improve Cape Charles, make suggestions absent of your frustrations with that effort. They would carry a lot more weight with the readership in general, and perhaps with the town leaders.
As a mere Cape Charles “property owner for 10 years,” I really have no recourse to deal with my frustrations about the issues surrounding “Old School Cape Charles,” the bathrooms planned for the park, and now this comparison of the costs of governing of Cape Charles vs. the cost of governing Onancock. My only choices are to live with the state of affairs in Cape Charles or sell my beloved “get-away” home, where I spend about half my time.
So, I will to be polite, pay my taxes and fees, keep up my property, be a good neighbor, support causes I believe in, and hope that in the future, the town government will be more open to and accepting of citizen hopes, expectations, and input. For in the end, I just don’t want to believe that anything deceitful or selfish or illegal is going on here.
Or, I could consider my father’s advice of many years ago. “Instead of complaining about them, on election day, just vote the scoundrels out!” Hummmmm. That is something to consider, even though it would require me to change my official residency.
HMMMMM! Does give one some pause for thought!
Debbie Bender for Mayor!
Any successful businessperson applauds Debbie for continuing the fight over the obvious waste and ignorance.
I gave up on those “sitting in their own dirty diaper” several years ago.
I’m back to work wearing 6 hats –7 days a week.
SUCCESS DOES NOT HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT.
Comparing Apples To Pork
I am a resident of Onancock and a friend to Cape Charles.
While Ms. Bender has the correct idea,- wear multiple hats and trim fat. It seems to me there is room for further study.
The data used within the confines of any financial comparison need to be commensurable. We need to compare apples to apples.
Numbers can be a tricky game. At a glance it appears the loser of the fat category based on avg salary alone is Onancock at 65,000. while the leaner Cape Charles comes in at a laudable avg salary of $50,000. But this doesn’t tell the whole story does it. We need to break it out further- what pay with commensurate experience and certification.
Ms. Bender is on the right track, let’s just do a bit more homework before any one town is held up for emulation or any jobs are slashed.
I love my town of Onancock but it’s has had it’s share of pork and of suet. It’s most recently been lambasted for hiring the Attorney Deborah refers to in her article. Onancock’s “expert out of towner” (play on words – he took the job and refuses to live here in the town he manages) has been given a salary nearly double that of the previous town manger. He also receives benefits the previous manager did not. Defending this town manager has turned out to be an expensive proposition for our small town. Certainly more costly in legal fees than any realized savings in salary.
Further consideration should be given to the influx of part time residents and tourism which is significantly higher in Cape Charles and puts further burden on town administration and public works.
And finally ethics. We may desire to trim the fat – but first let’s find out exactly what that fat is. Some towns decided basic health care and a decent salary for most of their public works employees were fat. These hard working folks deserve better – both down and up the road.
Thanks for the soap box.
Totally agree with Ms. Bender, except for the building code enforcer. Cape Charles does have a building code, while Onancock probably doesn’t.
Roger: I lived in Onancock at one time. I added a garage on my property. The town came out to see if I was putting it in the right location and then the Accomack County building inspector took over. Here is my point: we are all paying taxes for a building inspector in Northampton but still we pay to have our own inspector. As I said before, when there was a lot of building going on I can see why the town hired their own inspector, but that day is gone. Our building code enforcer doesn’t pull in enough to come anywhere near what we are paying him.
Ms. Bender is on the right track — Cape Charles is way too heavy at the top. When i renovated back in 1998 there was only one code enforcement person. There was a lot happening then but he got the job done. Too many cooks can spoil the stew and cause confusion in the kitchen!