Hometown: Williamsburg City Manager Jack Tuttle

By Meredith Hornsby Wednesday, March 10, 2010

After a busy winter of clearing the snow and dispensing salt over the roads, City Manager Jack Tuttle discusses the Williamsburg budget and future plans for our great city.

 

 

Jack Tuttle grew up in Baltimore, Maryland before attending the University of North Carolina. After graduating, Jack moved around with the Navy, landing in Pensacola, Florida for seventeen years.  In 1991 he settled in Williamsburg to become the city's sixth City Manager.

"Williamsburg, even on a bad day, is a great place. The city government is sound, stable, doing its job. It's a great place to live. It's a great place to work," says Jack on the state of our city.

Budget Talk:

"Two years ago we went from a $3,000,000 surplus to the following year with a $200,000 surplus."

As a result, City Council seriously evaluated what elements of our budget could be altered. This may answer your question of why last July the trash pickup got changed from twice a week to once a week. Though many residents were up in arms over the issue, the change in the refuse schedule is having a positive impact. Jack emphasizes that it not only saves money, but also saves wear and tear on the streets and is better for the health of our environment without the trucks running as often.

Jack is optimistic for the future of our city, but says we should expect another decrease in the coming year's budget.

City Council will review many strategies for staff downsizing, city services, benefit costs, outside agency contributions, fees on parks, and other pertinent issues. Jack assures us that tax increase options are last on the list! Jack is confident the council will evaluate each matter to the best of their ability.

"You get a City Council that is very much a team. It's not about what I did or what you didn't do. It's about what we do together and that's been the city's tradition. I think that's the reason for the city's success."

We also depend on the hospitality of our residents toward tourists to support our budget.

"It's what fuels the city's government and defines what's unique about our community. We provide a university unlike any other in the country in William and Mary and with Colonial Williamsburg, the world's premier outdoor living history museum. This is a place that really matters," says Jack.

Jack encourages our community to go to the city's online open forum and comment on the budget.

"We are trying to get the citizen's input and also give the citizens a chance to react to what each other is saying."

When Jack isn't keeping our city in tip-top shape, he is fine-tuning his Civil War knowledge.

"I am engaged in the local effort to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Williamsburg has a very distinctive Civil War history."

Williamsburg has two of the fourteen Civil War redoubts, forts meant to protect soldiers outside the main line of defense. You can visit them at Redoubt Park.

To hear Jack's Hometown interview click here.

Also, check out Desiree Parker's EcoFreak about the sixty percent eco-friendly expansion of the Municipal Building.