Moonhowlings

Last week in order to prove their tea party cred, apparently, the PWC BOCS proposed slashing the county DORM  (Drug Offender Rehabilitation Module), program, a drug treatment program for incarcerated criminals.  Jeremy Borden reported the following in washingtonpost.com:

Prince William County officials are considering cutting local funding for the county jail’s substance abuse treatment program, a move that has touched off intense lobbying from defense attorneys and law enforcement officials who say the program helps inmates clean up their lives, keeps the community safer and saves money.

Although county supervisors don’t make any final budget decisions until a scheduled meeting Tuesday, a potential $607,000-per-year cut to the program took many by surprise last week. Supervisors had considered other potentially painful cuts, including doing away with two new libraries and slashing the local subsidy to the county health department.

The board already has decided to spare the libraries and health department, but the proposed cut to the substance abuse program remained as supervisors sought a compromise to whittle residents’ real estate tax bills while maintaining core services. Those negotiations have yielded a plan that would have the average county resident paying $3,392 in real estate taxes, an increase of 2.3 percent.

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From a frustrated friend of mine who prefers anonymity:

The $60,000 a year civil servants are who people turned to this past week in both Boston and in Texas.  Public safety and support was mighty important.  Yet the BOCS in Prince William County want to take a holiday away from this very group of people.  Additionally, in the Texas plant explosion, a science teacher was the lead rescue person in getting the elderly and infirmed out of the convalescent home.

Taking a holiday away from municipal employees devalues their worth.  Already Prince William County employees are overworked and treated disrespectfully.  Just read a local blog.   It has been this way since the crash.  Many have no had respectable raises.  Individuals are cannon fodder for local bloggers and those sitting around with an ax to grind.

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Even though Easter has past, I still hear the echoes of Cheap! Cheap! Cheap! resonating across Prince William County.  No, that isn’t the sound of baby chicks.  It’s the sound made by the Board of County Supervisors.

Note a few facts:

Per Classroom indicators show that Prince William County has the highest teacher:student ratio in the DC metro area:

Upon further inspection, we see that Prince William county also spends very little per student compared to many of its neighboring jurisdictions.

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No Latino voters for Core-man

I got another beg letter from Corey.  He wanted money.  I am not sure why he thinks I am his friend.  Part of his  email contained the following:

The media is at it again. Just two days ago, a columnist from the Richmond Times Dispatch labeled me “an immigrant basher”.

It is no doubt this statement arises from my leadership of the nation’s toughest crackdown on criminal illegal immigration

In Prince William County, if you are arrested for a crime and it is determined that you are here illegally, then our law enforcement officers hand you over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

I need your help in this fight to combat the never ending liberal media attacking our conservative values.  A donation of $25, $50, $100 would go a long way to help me spread my message of conservative governance.

Every person who is being arrested is checked, regardless of age, sex, race, etc. If upholding the Rule of Law makes me “an immigrant basher” than let them name call, I am willing to deal with such petty insults for the safety of Prince William County’s 425,000+ residents. Since we enacted our illegal immigration policy, there has been a 47.8% drop in violent crime and we have handed over more than 6,000 criminal illegal aliens to ICE.

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One of my husband’s favorite sayings is “Captain Obvious” when someone says something so incredibly, well, obvious.   There are parents in the PWC community that have suddenly come to the realization that our class sizes are woefully too full, so full, that quality instruction is being jepoardized.   PWC school has reached the state’s legal limit for class size.

PWCS raised class sizes to the state limits this school year in response to current budget constraints. In the executive summary of the 2014 budget, Walts notes that reductions of teacher staffing ratios (or increases in class sizes) have led to savings of $4.3 million at the middle-school level and $5.3 million at the high school level. Walts also notes that next year’s budget does not restore those cuts.

In response to concerns about class sizes, Walts’s office has said it would cost $15 million annually to reduce average class sizes by one student at all levels. The Code of Virginia sets the following maximum class-size limits: 29 for kindergarten classes; 30 for grades one through three; and 35 for grades four through six. English classes are limited to 24 in grades one through 12, otherwise there are no state maximum class-size limits for grades seven and above, according to Dena Rosenkrantz, an attorney with the Virginia Education Association.

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One Bad Dude!

Every once in a while, I hear something so absurd that I have to savor it…just for the humor.  Corey continues to entertain.

There has been  talk for some time  in the Stewart budget proposal, about doing away with 2 federal holiday observances for county employees.  The two holidays were Columbus Day and Presidents Day.  From what I was able to gather, this was just the final shot to already bad morale in the county.  The employees didn’t like it.

Corey announced today in the BOCS meeting that he would not be present during Supervisors Time but that he had a proposal.  Naturally he butt in line and outlined his wants, although not at the appropriate time.  He suggested that the supervisors agree to not observe Columbus Day or Presidents’ Day as county holidays.  He then said  that it was great to observe Washington and Lincoln but it also meant that one would have to observe all the presidents like Andrew Johnson and Richard Nixon.  He then proposed  giving back the holidays to the employees on Lincoln and Washington’s actual birthdays.

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Parsing the state of the county might take a month. What stands out could be Corey welcoming each and every county newcomer. Is this Mr.Corey “Anti-immigration” Stewart? Has Corey had a frontal lobotomy? Is he now welcoming the dreaded illegal alien? My how things have changed.

Our Tax bills are 7% less than they were in 2007? My house is worth 30% less. Shouldn’t those two percents be a little closer?

Corey makes it too easy. I won’t hog all the fun. I will give you guys a turn. Have at it! Find the lies. Make Corey’s nose grow.

The PWC Rogues Gallery

Yesterday’s board meeting definitely ended up being a “Sh**-Storm.”  There really is no other way to put it.  To date, the open thread is  the location where it has already been discussed.

I noticed my usual crew was not here.  I know why.  We don’t allow county employees to be beaten up here.  That rule will continue.  They cannot fight back.  However, that does not mean we cannot discuss events that involve them.  There is  a difference in beating someone up and discussing an event.  Politicians are fair game, up to a point.  Politicians  can fight back as we have seen.   I more or less use fact as a standard.

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CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP!!!!

Tuesday brings another board of county supervisors meeting and more red meat for the blogosphere.   The red meat lately has come from the supervisors budget time.

Remember last spring when Corey Stewart pretty much told us that if we were going to attract business we were going to have to have services that people wanted?  He actually mouthed the words that taxes might go up.  All that has been forsaken it appears and he is now back to Tea Party Mentality.

The problem with Tea Party Mentality is that Prince William County isn’t a poor county.  We are the 9th richest county in the nation and have the second largest school system in the state.  Our school system is suffering.  Teachers aren’t getting raises and the per pupil classroom ratio is the highest in the state.  There are rumblings now to “adjust” the amount of money given to the schools.  Currently the school system receives 56.75% of the revenue.  I certainly don’t think anyone intends to give the schools any more money.  That would be a first.  There are also rumblings about the BOCS having more input into the School Board budget.  I do not believe this is legal. If it is, it shouldn’t be.  Why have a school board then?

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Its time to do a post-mortum of the fuster cluck that was the BOCS meeting of August 7, 2012.

I have never seen such a display of bad taste in my entire life.  Things just went from bad to worse.  Parents were encouraged to bring their disabled children out to perform to play on emotions.   A supervisor’s wife addressed the supervisors but she was really talking to the blogosphere.  Her martyred words were biting, direct and angry.  Her husband will have to own that one.  It should not have happened. [posts morphed--remarks removed]

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 **UPDATE**  The Sheriff indicates there will probably not be a vote on conflict of interest.  I guess its ok to ignore the people.  More indelible horse manure will stick to more boots. 

**UPDATE 2**  Sheriff thinks there will be a second but it will get voted down. 

Click to here to get to the agenda

Today is the much awaited BOCS meeting where carry over funds are decided and where Pete Candland’s Conflict of Interest Resolution is supposed to be codified.  County attorney Horan, many think at the direction of Chairman Corey Stewart, has advised that his Resolution would violate the law.  Many citizens are crying FOUL over this suggestion.

Conflict of interest discussions have dominated the county landscape ever since Supervisor Wally Covington  attempted to slide $100k to Rainbow riding where his wife served in a leadership capacity until very recently.  Even though Covington pulled back his request after the blogosphere went wild over his audacity, it was like he had stepped in indelible horse manure and he simply has not been able to get it off his boots.  The horsey stuff has also wafted over to the other supervisors and it has been behind most of the discussion about conflict of interest.

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Guest Post:  The Derecho

de·re·cho/dāˈrāCHō/

Disclaimer: All guest posts are the opinion of the poster and do not necessarily represent the views of moonhowlings.net administration.

M-H

Two articles published in the morning papers demonstrate the stark differences between the pragmatic and the tone-deaf, the realistic and the desperate.

The Prince William Extra of the WAPO carries an article by Jeremy Borden that details the reason nobody can find funding for the Americans in Wartime Museum.  Allan Cors, unlike county staff and the BOCS, demonstrates that he and the museum’s leaders recognize the current political climate and increased scrutiny of the County budget.  They have decided not to ask for an additional $1 million from Prince William because of the ongoing controversy surrounding allocations to nonprofit groups.  Regardless one’s position regarding the museum and non-profit allocations, one must give credit to Mr. Cors and the museum’s directors for recognizing current circumstances and withdrawing their funding request.

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UPDATE:

(Paraphrased from the Sheriff)  The you-know-what is hitting the fan.  A confidential memo has been leaked from Angela Horan.  Athough the Resolution is on the Agenda, the County Attorney will advise that the current Resolution cannot be approved.  Apparently, having a conflict of interest makes it too difficult for Supervisors to perform their duties? Well, DUH!  That’s why we call it a conflict of interest.  Head on over to Nottingham (with an N not an F, Corey) and get the gory details.

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Apparently, Rainbow Riding is “set” to receive 211,000 dollars of carryover money, ie. taxpayer dollars this coming Tuesday.

The county board has already committed to spending $2.3 million on specific projects which were dropped from the budget in April. Peacor specifically mentioned the Rainbow Riding Center, a therapeutic horse-riding program on county-owned land in Silver Lake. It is set to receive $178,000 to pave its parking lot and other improvements, on top of $33,000 it received in April.

Rainbow Riding attracted attention because its former leader is married to Supervisor Wally Covington [who tried to give it $100,000 from his office account in November] and some felt it hadn’t gone through the same budget review as others. Peacor disagreed with that, saying it was fully examined by the board, and provided a service more cheaply than the government could.

Allow me to recap, to date, the tax payer investment of a very small non profit that serves a hundred  people or so.

First, Rainbow Riding,  at no cost, leases 45 acres, valued at approx 976, 000 thousand dollars annually.  Due to this lease,  Rainbow Riding was able to sell their own land, subsequently putting several hundred thousand dollars in the “bank”.

We also know, from their most recent 990, Rainbow Riding has over $800 THOUSAND in cash.

For the past two years, they have recieved approximately 33,000 dollars through the annual budget.

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The Hammer of Stewart

The natives seem to be restless down at McCoart Building if one holds one’s ear to the ground and reads the blogs.

Although it does not seem like much is going on in Prince William County, actually, a great deal is happening, mostly behind the scenes.  Maybe what isn’t happening is even more telling.

The Sheriff apparently has a bounty on his head (and other parts) and has had what is more politely described as a change of venue in the eyes of the county chair….at least according to the Sheriff of …Not-tingham.   He has accused the chairman of having one outrageous temper tantrum over his mere existence.

Meanwhile, a little birdie has dropped a little roll of paper on my front porch telling of another temper tantrum directed at a rather high ranking employee.  Does anyone have confirmation of such a thing happening?  It was done in the public arena or semi-public.  How many tantrums can one person have?  I want a front row seat for this Tuesday’s BOCS meeting.

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