Supervisors weigh funding for community organizations

Henrico supervisors are weighing how to allocate about $1.71 million in funds that they intend to distribute to a number of community organizations as part of the county’s Fiscal Year 2021-22 budget.

At the first day of their week-long budget review session Monday, supervisors discussed the initial proposed allocations included by Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas in his $1.43-billion operating budget proposal.

Each year, the budget includes some money for a group of organizations that provide services deemed critical to Henrico citizens or worthy of local funding for specific reasons. In his FY22 proposal, Vithoulkas removed some groups that typically receive money in an attempt to maximize funding for those that might need it the most, he said.

A total of 59 organizations requested a total of about $3.15 million from the county, and Vithoulkas proposed allocating about $1.54 million to 30 of them, though he added that another $175,000 in available money remains and could be allocated as supervisors see fit.

The largest single proposed allocation – $600,000 – would go to The Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen (it requested $660,000). Other organizations tentatively slated to receive funds are:

• Hilliard House, a short-term emergency shelter operated by Housing Families First – $70,000 (its full requested amount);

• McShin Foundation, a recovery group – $60,000 (less than its $140,200 request, though it would receive some additional funds through another portion of the budget);

• Safe Harbor, a domestic violence shelter – $51,290 (its full requested amount);

• CARITAS, a group that works to address homelessness – $50,000 (its full requested amount);

• Crossover Healthcare, a community health center – $50,000 (its full requested amount).

In Fiscal Year 2019-20, the county allocated nearly $1.9 million to various organizations, but it trimmed that amount last year to $1.27 million after reducing its budget by more than $99 million because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Monday, Vithoulkas said that he eliminated funding for several larger organizations (including Maymont and Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden) that already have fundraising efforts as part of their structures, in an effort to provide some to smaller organizations that don’t.

Still, several supervisors expressed support for adding back some money for some organizations that Vithoulkas omitted.

Chairman Dan Schmitt of the Brookland District suggested $30,000 for Maymont, $20,000 for the Virginia Capital Trail Foundation and $20,000 for Sportable, a group that offers a variety of sports for disabled citizens.

Varina Supervisor Tyrone Nelson suggested some funding for Liberation Veterans Services and $25,000 for the Virginia Capital Trail, among others.

Tuckahoe Supervisor Pat O’Bannon suggested that the board weigh funding requests by determining which organizations provided the most benefit to county residents.

“Are they doing something better than what the county would do if the county were doing it?” she suggested as a question supervisors should ask when considering the options.

The board agreed to weigh the matter this week and finalize a plan when it meets for Thursday’s budget review.

Other notes from Monday’s budget session:

• Vithoulkas has proposed the addition of a three full-time executive assistants for the Board of Supervisors – one for the chairperson and two others for the other four supervisors;

• Clerk of the Court Heidi Barshinger told supervisors that her office had won a $20,300 grant from the Library of Virginia to restore four land-record books from Henrico dating to the 1800s, which the office then will post online. Additionally, Barshinger said, her office is digitizing wills from the county dating to 1781 and marriage licenses dating to 1897 and will post those online as well by this summer;

• the Human Resources department has hired a diversity, equity and inclusion specialist who has created various resources for employees and begun tracking DEI metrics for the county overall, HR Director Yvette George said;

• the Finance department is testing a new online system through which businesses can file and pay their business taxes, according to Director Meghan Coates. It’s also implementing a new mobile assessor platform so that real estate assessors can file reports directly from the field into the county’s system, eliminating paperwork and allowing them to remain in the field and work more efficiently.