A retooling of program fees and a renewed emphasis on facility maintenance over new capital projects will be priorities for Reston Association’s next budget.
The 2025 budget development process kicked off on May 30 with staff presenting their proposed priorities to the nonprofit community association’s Board of Directors based on the strategic plan that the board adopted in February and the results of a community survey conducted last year.
“Those serve as guideposts or north stars in a way we did not have last year,” RA CEO Mac Cummins told the board.
After including recreational passes in the annual assessments paid by its estimated 61,000 members for the first time this year, RA is reviewing the 450 different fees it charges for events, classes, facility rentals and other services. Staff will craft a new fee schedule for the board to consider before releasing its first budget draft in September.
In addition to addressing a lack of clarity and consistency in how fees are currently set, RA intends to decrease fees for members and increase fees for non-members to bring their contributions more in line with the member assessments, which account for 80% of RA’s revenues, according to a memo from Cummins.
Under the proposed “benefits-based” model, fees would be based on how many people utilize a service. Something provided for all members, such as recreational use of the swimming pools or a popular community event like last year’s Winterfest, could be covered by assessments, but more individualized offerings, such as the use of a pool for private lessons, would carry higher fees to help RA recover its expenses.
“When we go through this process and look at a benefits-based model, it’s more about what do members get for their base assessment and not having to pay extra fees to come to these types of events,” RA Chief Operating Officer Peter Lusk said.
With a reserve study evaluating facility conditions now underway, staff plan to adjust their approach to capital improvements by focusing on maintaining existing amenities — a recommendation from last year’s community survey — and streamlining the public engagement process.
Staff will get community feedback on all projects expected to cost over $500,000 as well as others, like a playground renovation, that may not reach that threshold but are still of interest to residents.
The level of engagement depends on the project, Lusk said. RA might just put out an alert about a trail repaving, for example, rather than soliciting feedback, but a pool renovation could be “a three-to-five-meeting process to make sure the community’s been heard throughout that time.”
At-Large Director John Farrell urged staff to coordinate with the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee on that process.
“I look forward to how those two processes get meshed and the board isn’t getting asked to make a decision on a major investment without having gotten a considerable amount of feedback from the community,” he said.
Staff pay, recruitment and retention will also be priorities in the upcoming budget. Though no significant requests for new positions are expected, RA is conducting a compensation study that’s “likely to have implications on the proposed staff wages,” and the impact of inflation on insurance and benefits costs must be considered, the staff memo says.
According to Chief Financial Officer Ed Vroom, RA has made some progress in filling vacant positions this year, including his own, but there have also been some departures. There are nine or 10 positions funded in the 2024 budget that are open at the moment, Cummins told the board.
While they expressed general support for the suggested budget priorities, the directors were split on how to set expectations for the 2025 assessment rate and whether to leave open the possibility of a “buydown,” using reserve or surplus funding to lower the rate.
Last year, the board adopted a $22.1 million budget for 2024 with an assessment of $817, a 7% increase from $763 in 2023, but Director Margaret Perry, who represents apartment owners, noted that RA has been “artificially lowering” the rate in recent years through buydowns.
“We’re already underfunding the organization as is,” Perry said, arguing against setting a cap on a potential increase. “Had the budget been funded for all operating costs for [2022], the cost was $810. We raised it to $817, so had we not already been artificially lowering the rate, the assessment would’ve gone up $7. That’s it.”
Though the RA’s fiscal committee has advised against buydowns as unsustainable, some directors said the term might be misleading, likening the practice to refunding members.
“The idea of a buydown is returning to the membership money that we collected from them this year that it turns out we didn’t need,” Farrell said. “I’m not saying we’re malicious in collecting that money, because a budget is a guess. It’s not a buydown. It’s simply a decision not to accumulate money we didn’t need for expenses.”
The board will discuss 61 comments on the budget submitted by 25 members at its upcoming meeting on Thursday (June 13). With the reserve study expected in July, an initial draft of the budget will be presented in September, and a final iteration will be adopted in November.
