Arlington’s Pedestrian Advisory Committee (PAC) is seeking to ensure that safety programs for people on foot are considered a must-have during this budget cycle.
Major cuts in personnel and programs could “set things backwards,” PAC acting chair Eric Goodman warned at the body’s Feb. 11 meeting.
County Manager Mark Schwartz will unveil his budget proposal at the County Board meeting on Saturday. Board members in April are slated to adopt a final spending package, which will go into effect July 1.
The current government budget stands at $1.69 billion.
David Patton, a transportation planner who serves as staff liaison to the committee, offered no hints on budget specifics, but said the steep decline in office-building valuations will pose fiscal challenges.
“We’re being advised to be very careful on budget matters,” he said.
Committee members tapped David Earley to “champion our feedback on the budget” before the county government, Goodman said.
“Hopefully we won’t be seeing things [left out of] the budget we’re really concerned about,” Goodman said, while acknowledging the spending package “might be a little more austere” than in past years.
Budget issues will likely be discussed at a joint meeting between the PAC and the Bicycle Advisory Committee on March 2. So will the county’s response to the snow and ice storm in late January.
PAC members are hoping to get statistics on the storm’s impact on vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians.
“These two weeks that we’ve just come through are kind of a natural experiment — the quantity of snow is unusual,” Patton said. “What do the numbers say? Have there been more crashes, fewer crashes? More delays, fewer delays?”
PAC members also hope to get information on whether the storm led to a spike in emergency-vehicle responses and hospitalizations.
Committee leadership to rotate through the year: Having been unable to convince any members to serve as chair for a full year, PAC members have opted for a rotation system.
Committee member Ambar Pankaj agreed to serve as chair for four months. Others will follow in similar increments.
“We’ll see how it works,” said Goodman, who has been acting chair since the last permanent chair left the committee.
The rotating-chair system is designed as a stopgap until a committee member can be enticed to serve on an annual basis.
Patton, the staff liaison, said having someone serve four months would be a reasonable compromise in terms of timing.
“This committee has a lot of stability, and it deserves to have someone who wants to be the point person and marshal the discussion and help craft the agenda,” he said.
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