John Aldridge of Brown Edwards explains details of the completed annual audit to Salem City Council during the Dec. 14 work session.
Meg Hibbert Contributing writer
Auditors who did the City of Salem’s annual audit say the city is in strong shape with 5.92 months of reserve.
That is according to John Aldridge of Brown Edwards, who reviewed the report with Council in a work session Monday night at the Salem Civic Center.
He said although actual revenue was down $1 million from the budgeted $82.5 million, the city made up for that because less was spent than expected in public works and public safety.
Expenditures for education were for the most part held in check, Aldridge said.
Major employers in Salem changed somewhat since 2011, he noted, with the Veterans Affairs and LewisGale medical centers still the No. 1 and No. 2 with number of employees, but the city lost former major employers GE, that had 750 employees in 2011 and USFoods down from its former 431 employees.
The 10th largest employer is Carter Machinery, with 396 employees, Aldridge noted.
As far as the city goes, it has maintained most of its staff, down to 484 employees in 2019 from 492 in 2011.
The auditors’ report contained numerous graphs showing spending for capita by Salem, with $850 per capita for education and $750 for public safety.
In other matters before Council in the work session, Assistant City Manager Rob Light summarized city cell phones and mobile devices, with an eye toward eventually realizing some savings.
City Manager Jay Taliaferro said staff is working to gather information on what devices employees have city wide.
Verizon is the city’s provider. There are a total of 283 total devices, Light said, including wireless modems in police cars, fire trucks and ambulances, 36 iPads used by streets and maintenance, utilities and other departments. In addition, 27 flip phones are in use.
Councilman Randy Foley asked Light how Salem stands percentagewise compared to Roanoke County where Light performed a similar study when he was a county employee.
Light said Salem is close, percentagewise. “Not everybody needs a cell phone or device,” he added.
In the Dec. 14 regular meeting that followed, Council:
- Approved, on second reading, salary bonuses for employees who worked during the COVID-19 pandemic. Full-time employees will get $1,000 and part-timers, $500;
- Appropriated $426,492 in bonuses for civic center, catering employees and general employees who did not previously receive them;
- Appropriated $54,128 in local funds to match Virginia Department of Transportation money for improvements on East Main Street;
- Appropriated $50,000 in local match for improvements on Main Street from Broad Street to White Oak Alley;
- Appropriated $250,000 local match for West Main Street between Union Street and Broad Street.
The final regular Council meeting of 2020 lasted 12 minutes.