The Arlington County Fire Department’s overtime crisis is having a ripple effect on other programs, leaving training and logistics to take a hit.
Between the 2016 and 2018 fiscal years, the department exceeded its overtime budget every year.
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A new report found the Arlington County Fire Department has been regularly exceeding its overtime budget while putting firefighters at risk of fatigue and injury.
County Auditor Chris Horton blamed staffing shortages and a lack of payroll controls for the department exceeding both its overtime budget and personnel budget over the last three years. He noted that the overtime costs ranged from $5.2 million to $6.2 million per year, despite being budgeted at $3.2-3.4 million.
If you are having trouble scrubbing the family budget enough to help pay for the rising tax rates here in Arlington, try this solution: just raise your salary.
That is apparently what the Arlington County Board plans to do this month.
Arlington County Board members announced they were considering giving themselves a raise in the coming year, pending input from residents.
Vice Board Chair Libby Garvey broached the topic during the Tuesday night meeting, saying she’s “concerned increasingly about the level of salary” that the county currently offers to Board members, and she intends to ask the public what they think.
The Arlington School Board unanimously passed a $669.5 million budget Thursday night.
The budget includes funding for Arlington’s continually expanding school enrollment, with 1,000 more students expected to attend class in the county next year alone. Members also approved a $10.7 million pay increase for Arlington Public Schools staff and funded a study to evaluate salary structure ideas for the future, such as using cost-of-living adjustments instead of discretionary “step” increases.
Arlington County has a new budget and a higher real estate tax rate.
The County Board unanimously approved a $1.4 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2020, avoiding the most controversial of its proposed cuts while hiking the taxes paid by the average homeowner to $9,023, an increase of $281.
A new makerspace has arrived in Arlington — in a library.
Arlington Public Library announced today (Tuesday) that their new makerspace is now open in the Ballston Central Library on 1015 N. Quincy Street.
The Arlington School Board has advanced a $669,314,705 million proposed budget — a budget that features a gap of over $6 million.
The Board voted 4-0 to approve its proposal for the school system’s next fiscal year budget. One member, Barbara Kanninen, abstained. Final budget approval is set for May.
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Arlington’s cybersecurity division is staffing up and training county employees in preparation for a growing wave of cyber attacks.
The Security, Privacy, Records and Regulatory Affairs division of the county’s Department of Technology Services reportedly blocked 90,000 virus and malware attacks last year, according to next year’s budget proposal.
Members of Congress are seeking $25 million to help defray costs at the county’s 9/11 memorials, including the Pentagon Memorial.
Arlington’s Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), along with Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), are leading a request for $25 million they say is needed to fund the “9/11 Memorial Competitive Grants Program.”
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School Board Budget Quarrel — “Despite being blasted by colleagues for circumventing established procedures and potentially poisoning a well of goodwill, a majority of School Board members on March 28 voted to direct their chairman to tell County Board members the school system couldn’t take any further budget cuts.” [InsideNova]
Arlington Tech Succeeding in Engaging Girls — The Arlington Tech high school program “applicant pool for the 2019-20 school year has an almost equal breakdown when it comes to gender. As far as reflecting the county’s racial diversity, this public school program, which accepts students based on a blind lottery, is within a few percentage points.” [Technically DC]
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(Updated at 5:05 p.m.) Parents and Arlington Public Schools are at odds over funding high school crew, and whether the sport should be left to sink among system-wide budget cuts.
Superintendent Patrick Murphy’s $662.7 million budget proposal for the school’s next fiscal year budget proposes $8.9 million in cuts, though those cuts could be scaled back should the county increase its funding transfer to the school system.