The county demonstrated leadership in managing the county's financial resources, including evaluating and restructuring the county's portfolio of programs and services in an effort to better focus on priorities such as education and public safety and enhancing overall sustainability given the expected resource constraints; incorporating input into the FY2010 budget from two new, Board of Supervisors-recommended committees, the Citizens' Budget Advisory Committee and the Efficiency Committee.

Both committees provided a fresh perspective and made valuable contributions to the development of the county's budget. Also invaluable was the open engagement of the community through a series of community budget meetings early in the FY2011-FY2012 biennial budget process to communicate the challenges of the economic situation and seek citizen input on priority budget areas and possible solutions. The county also had a successful sale of general obligation bonds and reaffirmation of all three triple AAA ratings—significant accomplishments in these difficult economic times.

Please note: The county's fiscal years run from July 1-June 30. For example, fiscal 2011 begins July 1, 2010. Review county budget documents for fiscal 2009 and 2010.

The county was named to Training Magazine's Top 125 at number 38 and remains the only local government to have made the list in its 42-year history.

Chesterfield County received 10 National Association of Counties Achievement Awards and one Virginia Association of Counties Achievement Award for exemplary programs in the local government arena.

The Public Affairs Department received eight communications awards from the National Association of County Information Officers in the county's ongoing efforts to provide the most open and transparent local government in Virginia.

• Service enhancements to benefit county citizens include improving and better educating the public on the Cross Connection Control program to prevent backflow into the county's drinking water system to avoid contamination and public health concerns.

• The Utilities Department earned the award of the Department of Environmental Quality's E3 Certification for the Falling Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant

• The Utilities Department continued to earn triple AAA bond ratings on its 2009 revenue bond issue.

• Major economic and community development successes include significant progress on revising the county's Comprehensive Plan

• Other economic development accomplishments included the opening of the first phase of the Westchester Commons shopping center at Watkins Centre; opening of the first phase of the Hancock Village shopping center on Hull Street Road; commitment for funding construction of the I-295 Meadowville Interchange project; the announcement of economic development projects, including Southern Design and Mechanical, Inc., UPS Freight (Foremost Sales), Precision Recycling of Virginia, Virginia T's, Greener Solution, Maruchan, Bon Secours and Hill Phoenix; the announcement of more than $58 million in investment and 294 new jobs; providing for high quality landscaping in the Midlothian Turnpike median, financed through a privately funded service district; and completing various transportation improvements, including the Otterdale Road bridge replacement, Courthouse Road spot improvements, Branders Bridge Road at Stoney Glen, and turn lanes at Route 1 and Forest Lake Road and Harrowgate at Treely Road.

• Implementation of the Web Jury Registration System allows citizens to register for jury duty over the Web with a friendly, easy-to-use system.

• Consolidation of drug testing vendors by Community Corrections reduced costs significantly.

• Initiation of a second Build-A-House Project adjacent to Meadowbrook High School in partnership with Chesterfield County Public Schools and Chesterfield Alternatives, Inc., will build on the success of the home built in the Matoaca District.

• Parks and Recreation celebrated the dedication and opening of the John J. Radcliffe Appomattox River Conservation Area and the 35-acre Ukrop's Park Soccer Complex.

• Libraries saw an increase in library visitors and circulation by 7 to 10 percent and computer work-station usage by 22 percent, while the number of library card holders increased to a new high of 244,000.

• The county accomplished the creation and publication of an automated external defibrillator inspection and utilization program for all county and school buildings

• Chesterfield County hosted the Virginia Statewide Neighborhood Conference.

• Other successful events included coordinating the Spanish Culture Festival at Meadowdale Library in the spring and the Hispanic Family Day Event in October.

• The Henricus Publick Days event, with the sailing of the Godspeed from Jamestown to Henricus, attracted visitors from far and wide.

• The county received the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America's Got Outcomes! Award, in partnership with SAFE Inc., for successful communitywide efforts to reduce substance abuse.

• The Information Systems Technology Department received the Pinnacle Award from the National Association of Government Webmasters for the newly launched Chesterfield.gov website.

• Other significant IST accomplishments included:

  1. Chesterfield Quality System - Automated system to track CC quality initiatives

  2. IFAS Phase One - Financials

  3. The Web Solution product allows citizens to securely submit their juror questionnaire on an electronic form that mirrors the hard-copy questionnaire. Because the citizen updates his/her own information directly, data entry updates typically performed by Clerk's Office staff are unnecessary.

  4. File Tracking - The main goal of this project is to replace the existing tracking system used by the Circuit Court Clerk for managing its physical case files and associated evidence. An automated evidence inventory system allows the integrity of the chain of evidence to be more precisely ensured. Evidence eligible for destruction is identified in a timely manner, freeing valuable physical storage space as well as personnel resources.

  5. Hopewell.gov Hosting - A Web hosting and design agreement with City of Hopewell

  6. Chesterfield.gov - Implementation of the Pinnacle award-winning chesterfield.gov site redesign

  7. WARR Point of Sale System – A new system at the north and south recovery stations

  8. Jail Management System – Replaced the mainframe-based system with a new Windows based system.

  9. Sheriff / Police Booking Front End – Automation of the police/sheriff booking front end

  10. Consolidation of GIS from the Environmental Engineering department to the IST department set in motion Citizen GIS and other upgrades to the GIS enterprise environment.

  11. The Logging service: Intended to be consumed by applications, either directly or indirectly through Enterprise Class Library, for logging application and/or service activities, errors, exceptions

  12. Increased customer-service capabilities with the new countywide Voice Mail System

• The Purchasing Department set new records in doing business with women-owned and minority Chesterfield businesses.

The Assessor's Office had the following successes:

• The Assessor's Office increased efficiency through the use of Pictometry and the realignment of staff as positions became vacant.
• The Assessor's Office solicited input from the Board of Equalization in an effort to create a more "user friendly" form for the citizens to appeal their real estate property assessments.
• The Assessor's Office used GIS to accurately identify the various uses and classifications in determining land use values. The automation that has occurred at this point has eliminated some of the redundant tasks involved in administering the land use program.

Accounting Department:

• On December 26, 2009, Accounting successfully implemented Phase II of a new integrated financial and human resource system and produced the first check on January 14, 2010 . Phase II included various components for Human Resources and Payroll including position control, benefits administration, employee master records, payroll and time and attendance. Some efficiencies realized include electronic approval of automated timecards and HR forms, automated calculation of overtime, ability to systematically enforce policies and procedures, enhanced reporting and the elimination of employee social security numbers as employee ID.

• 2009 saw recognition of the county by the Attorney General's Community Recognition Program for Promising Practices in Domestic Violence, and recognition of the Police Department by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and Science Applications International Corporation for its exceptional volunteer program.

• The year also saw improvement of the Fire and EMS Department's Public Property Classification, which resulted in better fire insurance rates for home and business owners in the county and which put Chesterfield in the top 13 percent of departments across the nation that participate in the ISO system;

Fire and Emergency Medical Services

• The Chesterfield County Emergency Communications Center received reaccreditation by the Commission of Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies Inc., or CALEA. Chesterfield County is one of only 53 fully accredited emergency communications centers worldwide and one of six in Virginia.

• Dr. Allen Yee, Operational Medical Director, was appointed to the Governor's EMS Advisory Council and was also named as the Chairman of the State Medevac Committee.

• Chesterfield County, Virginia, did not experience any fire deaths in the county during 2009.

• The Department of Fire and EMS successfully passed their Agency Licensing Inspection through the Commonwealth of Virginia, Department of Health; Office of Emergency Medical Services.

• Chief Edward L. Senter. Jr. represented the department in accepting the first "Recognition of Outstanding Regional Cooperation Award," presented at the 2009 Metro Richmond Valor Awards Ceremony.

• The Department of Fire and EMS, in cooperation with the Fire and EMS Agencies in the counties of Hanover and Henrico, as well as the City of Richmond, worked together to standardize and regionalize two significant operational procedures used by all four departments, including: Firefighting Operations in High Rise Structures and Firefighting Operations in Big Box Structures. The four departments also completed significant regional training exercises on both of these procedures.

• Chesterfield County residents continued to enjoy the lowest crime rate and the highest criminal-case clearance rates in the region

• The Police Department partnered with LifeNet, a non-profit organ procurement organization, to assist with providing donation of organs and tissue to save lives and restore health.

• The Sheriff's Office increased efficiency with the new Jail Management System, and:
  1. In cooperation with the Police Department, obtained grant to streamline the prisoner booking process to include automated transfer of data to various criminal justice databases
  2. Began program of Special Operations Response Team working with Civil Process Unit to successfully serve and clear warrants
  3. In cooperation with the Police and Fire/EMS Departments, expanded Seniors In Touch program to include assessments of participant's homes for security and fire safety
  4. Obtained grant to upgrade the deputy security station of the JVDR Courthouse with enhancements including a bullet-resistant barrier and glass