Business View City & Municipal | August 2022

93 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 7 LYNCHBURG, V I RGINI A and economic development. “Council visioned these early in February and said these are the areas that we want to invest in, and so there are different ways in which they took revenues to help meet those initiatives,” Benda explains. For public safety, they started by raising the salaries in both police and fire departments to become the highest wages in central Virginia. “That was purposeful because we wanted to not only simply retain, but also recruit as well,” Benda says. “That’s worked well for us. And we’ve added more people in the emergency services unit to help with 911 dispatch.” The City of Lynchburg is also on the cusp of closing on community needs – and effect positive change. “I’ve taken the time to understand not only the city council and our workforce of 1200, but also to the city’s residents,” Benda reports. “I’m not from Lynchburg, so I’ve brought some of my experiences, which they look at as a way in which to configure things like public-private partnerships – something that I had experienced and worked through in Norfolk.” Together with city council, Benda and the city came up with a new budget for Lynchburg that focuses on five key initiatives: public safety, infrastructure, quality of life, lifelong learning,