The Manassas Police Department stands to gain four new officers under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
According to a White House press release from the Office of the Vice President, the department could receive $766,912 to pay the officers’ salaries and benefits for three years if the city agrees to keep the officers on for a fourth year.
Police Chief John J. Skinner applied for the grant in April with the approval of the city council.
“The city manager informed the city council when I applied for this grant and we made it clear that there was a commitment to retain the officers beyond the first three years of the grant,” Skinner said.
Skinner will soon ask the city council for permission to accept the grant. Manassas Mayor Harry J. “Hal” Parrish said accepting federal money requires careful thinking.
“Anytime you receive grant funding and there’s strings attached, you obviously have to discuss and consider the strings,” Parrish said.
Kudos for Chief Skinner for knowing the money was out there and going after it. Hopefully the City of Manassas Council will approve this plan without further ado. The county has increased violent crime and this phenomena is bound to spill over into the City.
The City was pleasantly surprised. They were hoping for half. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Hopefully, those strings that are attached won’t be too objectional to the City council members. More cops on the street means less crime. Less crime in the City means less crime in the county.
This is definitely a good use of stimulus money. Better than some other uses I’ve read about. I hope the city approves this.
I think this is a very poor use of the stimulus money.
The purpose of the stimulus package was to promote economic recovery and perhaps to leave behind permanent infrastructure that will benefit the country. An example of this might be to build a nuclear power plant, which would require people, concrete, steel, brick, generators, engineers, etc. Such a project would therefore stimulate a large sector of the economy and leave behind a power plant that would provide an abundant source of clean, inexpensive energy for at least 50 years.
Hiring three police officers accomplishes none of these objectives. While it is certainly beneficial to hire more police officers, it should not be done with money intended to stimulate economic recovery. This is actually misuse of government funding, because it is not really being used for the intended purpose.
Of course, then you get accused of not caring about public safety and not supporting our police when you say such a thing, Kelly. But you are absolutely correct. The “stimulus” has been an exercise in waste, fraud and abuse, and it won’t be the last time this administration shamelessly raids the Treasury. And then the spin comes when we’re told that even though the economy still sucks, we should be happy it sucks less than it did last quarter. They have mastered the art of Newspeak.
3 jobs is 3 jobs more than they had before.
Speaking of newspeak, how about the idea that something one candidate does is horrible and its ok if their opponent does the exact same thing?
Speaking of the 50th of course. I am so disguested by dirty politics I can’t even express it. Emma, I haven’t gotten a response on that jab directed at me that I lured Jackson Miller. Nice drive by. Are you becoming an understudy for the art of letiecqing?
What are you talking about? I’m not the only one who sees this blog as a whole, and it looked like a bit of a setup–first kudos, then a demand for him to make some kind of public statement–so no need to personalize it, as it wasn’t a jab at you. Ironically, the two threads probably drew even more attention and embarrassment to the young woman than the BVBL thread.
Chief Skinner wouldn’t ask for four officers if he didn’t already need them. There’s been a hiring freeze in the city, 12 departments got reorganized into seven and everyone’s been doing above and beyond their normal duties, including the police. Ask any officer. Call the Chief. He is very open with the public at every council meeting, and he goes and speaks to groups as well.
Spent correctly, the stimulus is, in the City, encouraging better police-resident relations with their community policing and increased neighborhood watches, and I know that some of the money is also going toward increasing our the city’s green efforts with the expansion of the LED streetlight pilot and the smart meter/load management program for utilities, and more.
The police just gave our Neighborhood Watch three hours at the station Thursday night to learn more about gangs and graffiti from two members of the Northern Virginia Gang Task Force. There were people there from other neighborhoods as well, and Council Member Jonathan Way explained the new graffiti ordinance the council is working on.
The important message about graffiti was “Read, Record, Report, Remove.” I also learned that you should try not to name gangs when you write or show videos of gangs naming them. That just gives them more respect.
Go to the National Night Out Against Crime event at the Connaughton Community Plaza today from 1:30 to 5:30 pm and learn more from the county police. Ask them how they’re using social networking tools like Twitter now.
But at what cost, MH? At the rate of three jobs per $800K spent, the entire stimulus package would only produce 3 million temporary jobs. With approximately 15 million Americans out of work (~10% unemployment), three million jobs would only take the unemployment rate down to 8%. Such a puny decrease in unemployment would represent a colossal failure for the costliest legislation in U.S. history.
If this is an indication of how the stimulus dollars are to be spent, then their impact on the economy is likely to be minimal. In terms of the economy, this is not a wise use of stimulus money.
I find is so interesting how pre-existing ideology determines whether you (A) perceive the Stimulus to be working (B) hope that it is working and (C) focus on lagging indicators like unemployment rather than current figures like the front page of the Post today.
I could have predicted everyone’s view who hopes that the program is a failure. It just means you want Republicans to win.
The way I see it, having safe streets and good public schools is an investment in the future. I don’t know about Manassas City, but in PWC mismanagement by our Chairman meant cut backs in police and fire departments, as well as in our schools. There are economic consequences to NOT investing in our kids and in public safety. So two or three years of poor leadership has a compounding effect into the future.
The Stimulus plan is designed to break the cycle, not just in PWC, but local governments for Manassas and all the rest of the country where cutbacks often were no fault of their own. Making investments in schools, roads, and public safety will pay dividends in the future. You don’t buy stock and then freak out about how much money you just spent. You watch and see the dividends and if you find after a few years that you invested wisely you pat yourself on the back.
Emma, I put up the VEA thread. I see nothing in it that is a lure. I talked to Jackson Miller about the endorsement. I felt he deserved kudos as the VEA endorsements are not easy to come by. Sometimes they endorse no one. Since I did it, if there is criticism of it, then I do personalize it.
Alanna and I are 2 different people. I am not her alter ego. As you probably read, she had some concerns she felt she needed to express. Furthermore, it is her blog.
At least I didn’t give someone else credit for Jackson Miller’s accomplishments. I thought that was just tacky and also disrespectful of Miller.
I would hope that my thread drew some attention to the importance of promoting education. I do believe Jackson Miller has shown himself to be a friend of education and would not have gotten their coveted ‘atta boy’ were he not.
Kelly, I believe your concern is a national concern. I am sure improvements could be made the way the stimulus packages have been handled. However, that is another story for another day. I don’t know where you live but would you prefer that the stimulus money go to some other locality? Would you prefer that the City be down 3 law enforcement officers just so prove a national point?
You are aware that the money was for 3 years and for all benefits and salary for 3 officers? That includes training. That amount seems about right to me. You also can’t send them out there naked. The money might be for uniforms and equipment also. I am sure Chief Skinner would be more than happy to enumerate the break down on the grant.
Shellyb, you bring up some interesting points.
I would even go so far as to say the City getting three more cops is helpful to Prince William. Crooks don’t check boundaries half as much as we think they do.
I prefer to look at the stock market as an indicator of where people think America will be 6 months from now. Things look pretty positive actually.
As I stated in a previous thread, it would be silly for Manassas and PWC to turn down stimulus money if it is to be spent on some other locality. I know this is highly unlikely (pigs are more likely to fly), but I would prefer that Congress abrogate the stimulus package rather than continue to fund any stimulus projects. Here’s why:
The credit for improvements of the economy cannot be given to the stimulus bill, because only about 7% of the money has been spent. If the economy is already recovering, then the argument for a huge stimulus package goes away.
I agree that investments in schools, roads, and public safety would be a good thing. But paying for them with IOUs to China is likely to create high inflation, high credit rates, devaluation of the dollar, and the possibility that the financial community might replace the dollar as the international standard.
All of this could have such a profound negative influence on our standard of living in PWC that it might outweigh the value of three additional police officers. I am very uneasy about the long-term implications of the debt resulting from the stimulus package and perhaps from a government healthcare system.
Kelly, I think many of us have those concerns. I think generations before mine had those concerns. I don’t know what the answers are.
If something isn’t done on the health care front, it too is going to bankrupt us.
Damned if we do and damned if we don’t. Just remember, it didn’t all start with Obama, and I will share your concerns.
Manassas and PWC aren’t going to change the basics of the
Federal Stimulous Package – it is what it is, like it or not.
Unaccepted money will go to another jurisdiction -not directly to
you or your kids. (The Manassas Airport just received a
nice grant when another airport dropped the ball).
Four new officers will help Manassas become even more proactive
in the vital area of neighborhood policing.
You know, when I was first becoming aware of politics, there was a lot of talk about the national debt. It was still the Cold War world and the soaring debt was the big blot on Reagan’s legacy as Bush the First was trying to shake off the political blame for a recession.
Then, the Clintons cleaned up the mess in only 8 years. We ended up with surpluses by the end of two terms. And surpluses were projected into the foreseeable future. We all know what happened next. Bush the Second. But my point is that this country is vast, powerful, and resilient. Strong leadership and a strong economy can create a major comeback in so many ways. Bill Clinton proved it.
After the compounding crises that resulted from the poor decisions of Bush the Second, we could have just allowed our country to suffer the another Great Depression and allow our economic engine to grind to a screeching halt. I suppose some of the conservative ideals of non-government interference would have been met. But all of the quality of life measures that we care about would have suffered. Great Depressions suck, in other words. So I can’t blame President Bush and President Obama who both pushed for and got emergency spending to avoid that.
So we have to borrow money to pay back in the future. But I would rather have a robust economy that gives us a chance to pay back the money while still maintaining the quality of life that we are used to. Rather than letting the economy collapse and being in less debt but also causing widespread suffering the likes of which we have not seen in 80 years.
The engine is going to be strong because of the choices both Bush and Obama administrations made when faced with this economic crisis. We have to keep the engine running strong in order to control where we are headed.
Get it?
@kelly3406
Kelly3406,
Discussions about the Stimulus Package, what it was intended for, and how it might unfold are really “weeds” discussions of little relevance to the larger problem. Our Government as a system failed a long time ago. Bush sealed our fate. Obama is throwing the dice; however, no one really knows if it will work (I’m hoping it does). Perhaps the best thing that can happen for future generations is for the Country to go “broke” so we may start over as a nation. The collapse of the Federal Government might be the best thing that could happen at this point in history. State, County, and Local Government would have to step in to maintain public safety and deliver the services required by society (including health care) and the Federal Government would shrink to the modest role intended by the framers of the Constitution (love that 10th amendment).
As for the topic of this blog, I can’t think of a better way to spend “our” money than on public safety in our community. It’s “our money”. Personally, I’m quite pleased to get some of “our money” back in the community any way we may.
“I could have predicted everyone’s view who hopes that the program is a failure. It just means you want Republicans to win.”
Do you really believe these words, Shelley, or do you just enjoy making things up to prove your point? I don’t know anyone who wants the country to “fail.” I have yet to meet a single individual who would cheer on economic disaster just to bring the President down a peg or two. To the contrary, many of us simply want this President to slow down a bit and allow the market to right itself, and to stop this mad spending spree he is having on borrowed money. He’s moving so quickly he’s not even taking time to choose his words carefully, as we saw with the recent Cambridge incident. The only (modest) success he has had recently is the “cash for clunkers” initiative, which has received more funding on borrowed money, and will be only a very temporary fix. Not liking the President’s reckless spending does not translate into wishing disaster for the country or hating the President.
Emma, could “Cash for Clunkers” be the only modest success in your head right now because it happened to be in the news recently?
It doesn’t mean you hope the country will fail if you refuse to acknowledge the good indicators about our economy and only focus on the bad. Only a few people have said they want the country to fail. I’m not saying you are one of them. The economy is going to do what it’s going to do. I think all you negative spinners are just playing politics and trying to influence perception. Seems like you are just taking talking points from the top down. Like this whole thing about Health Care being a secret plan to kill America’s old people. C’mon.
Too much doom and gloom going around. yet, many of the indicators of economic recovery seem to show improvement. Total recovery, no, but definitely improvement.
It didn’t start with Obama. If 2 administrations felt pouring money into the economy was a good move, why should I not believe them? I certainly am not an economist.
How many people would prefer that nothing was done? What would have happened then. People with far more economic experience than I have painted a grim outlook–people who weren’t up for a Bush bash or an Obama bash.
It’s funny hearing Democrats say Republicans want Obama to fail. The Democrats sure wanted the war in Iraq to fail, and some Democrats at times seemed to cheer the news of huge American casualties to help prove their point that the war wasn’t succeeding. One of the most shameful things was the piece CNN did that said all American soldiers fighting in Iraq were no better than the terrorists they were fighting.
I really don’t think many Republicans want Obama to fail. Even if there are, there were an equal number at least who wanted Bush to fail in Iraq – not thinking about how many deaths of American soldiers that would translate to. So I’m a little tired of hearing the Democrats say how bad it is for some (not all by any means) Republicans that allegedly want Obama to fail. I find the whole thing rather hypocritical.
Anyway, the economy is definitely showing signs of improvement, the stock market is reflecting that, and I think there will continue to be more signs of improvement the rest of this year. One can debate if anything done to date by the government has helped or not.
Gainesville, I dont know of a single democrat who wanted the war to fail in Iraq, even though they might have been opposed to the war. That would be so self defeating.
Most of the people I know who leaned Dem felt that we should have concetrated our efforts in Afghanistan rather than iraq and that the intelligence was bad. That sure isn’t wishing harm on the troops.
I guess we just know different democrats.
That’s a shame if any Congressional leaders, Senators, or radio talk show hosts/de facto party leaders said they hoped the Iraq War would fail. I realized it was a failure as soon as I found out every last reason for starting the war was a lie. But I certainly didn’t want any more blood shed or money wasted than was absolutely necessary. I can understand where Gainesville was coming from. Because the Iraq disaster eventually became a political issue for the Democrats. But only AFTER it was irretrievable and irrefutably a disaster. You didn’t hear any Democratic leaders saying “if this war fails it will be Bush’s Waterloo” or “it will break him.”. You didn’t see any Democrats running political ads or political campaigns or making political speeches BANKING on a HOPE that the Iraq War would be a failure. They didn’t call the war a failure until it absolutely was.
Same thing is true with Bush’s other failures. With the Katrina response death and humiliation, the torture scandal, the district attorney scandal, the Valerie Plame scandal, and the global economic disaster, no one made a political issue out of it UNTIL it was a disaster. The only thing I can think of the some progressives running with before the verdict was in was sex scandals like what’s his name who tried to have sex with all the underage boys and the wide stance in the bathroom looking for sex guy.
Short memory Shelley. Wasn’t there a comment made by Obama during the campaigning about ‘bombing villages and killing innocent civilians’ or some such thing, as well as ‘terrorizing civilians in the middle of the night’?
I know he made those statements as they were on the news video. So the Dems did indeed pour out many loser comments. So what happens when or if the war has accomplished its goal? Who will get the credit, the Dems? No, they’ll profess to have always been behind the war effort. Politics as usual.
Actually, soldiers on the ground in Iraq portray the war quite differently than the liberal press would have you believe. They don’t see it as a failure at all. Again, the liberal press and certain Democrats practically fell over themselves to trumpet the news each time there were large numbers of casualties. Every soldier I’ve spoken to (and I get to speak to many in my job), has said the reality on the ground in Iraq is far different than the press would have you believe.
It doesn’t matter now – Obama is already seeing to it that major DOD projects are getting cut or delayed. Money was just shifted out of the project I’m working on, and as usual I’m told the money will be there “in the next fiscal year” which begins on October 1. The same thing happened to me when Clinton came in, and October 1 came around, and guess what, no money. It’s deja vu all over again, and now I have to see if there’s going to be coverage for me between now and October 1. This upgrade was supposed to start tomorrow, and now of course there’s the infamous “it’s delayed until October 1”, but people having already seen what happened when Clinton came in, know how much value there are in promises like that. My customer told me money was just taken away practically in the middle of the night with no notice (he found out about this last Thursday for work that was suppose to start tomorrow), and no one can tell him where it went to. That is a sign of what great planning is going on at DOD under Obama’s administration. Then again, it’s the same last minute type stuff as all this legislation Obama’s trying to ram through Congress at the last minute. Everything is done in a hurry with no planning. I’m sure though this last minute yanking of funding for something that was supposed to start on Monday – and we’re told don’t worry – it will get funded on October 1 – is just a prelude to it not getting funded on October 1 either. It’s really great to win a contract, and then be told after you win and are imminently supposed to start work on it – the money has been pulled from that contract. That’s reverse stimulus, as it definitely can lead to loss of jobs.
Wow. I thought it was a given the Iraq war was a failure. Based on the fact that the stated objectives and justifications for the war both turned out to be lies (WMD’s and link to 9/11). So with no actual objectives to succeed in reaching, I don’t know how you can call it a success.
Add to that the trillions of dollars of debt we have unnecessarily passed on to our children. And then there is the damage and threat to our national security by wasting so many resources in the wrong country and creating a terrorist network where there was not before. It’s really hard to see the Iraq invasion as anything other than failed policy. Not too many politicians ran their campaigns on how proud they were to have supported the invasion of Iraq.
“Speaking of newspeak, how about the idea that something one candidate does is horrible and its ok if their opponent does the exact same thing?”
Kind of like this guy… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOnYnIDX0Eg
ShellyB – where did I say the war in Iraq was a success? Nice spin on what I wrote.
Just to clarify in case anyone reads ShellyB’s post and thinks I “called the war in Iraq a success” – here’s what I said:
Every soldier I’ve spoken to (and I get to speak to many in my job), has said the reality on the ground in Iraq is far different than the press would have you believe.
I would have thought most readers would take that to mean the press very much exaggerated its portrayal of the war, and continues to do so to this day.
It is interesting how one’s words get twisted around here, isn’t it?
“The “stimulus” has been an exercise in waste, fraud and abuse, and it won’t be the last time this administration shamelessly raids the Treasury. ”
The previous Administration got us into this hole, with their amoral and insane pursuance of reducing the tax burden on the wealthy. I don’t support what is happening now, borrowing from future generations so as to prop up the stock market. But when you use the phrase “this administration” you seem to imply that there is some alternative political party that gives a damn about America or engages in responsible government – I have to object to that.
It’s fun and cathartic to take shots at Obama but it’s a distraction to the fact that America gets sold out daily by both parties. Bush and McCain both supported this stimulus in the strongest terms.
Rick, you’re nitpicking. My disgust and disillusionment with the Republican Party is well-documented here. “This administration” happens to be the one in power right now, and its party controls both houses. The Bush administration can no longer spend our money.
Actually, I was waiting how long Obama would take to announce that he’d have to raise taxes. I see good old Tim Geitner (of the “I don’t pay my taxes club”) just today said that most likely there will have to be a tax increase. What a shock! I think Obama was really stupid for saying he was never going to raise taxes on the middle class – it only took him half a year to break that promise, it looks like. Anyone could see that adding all this in to the deficit, taxes were going to have to be raised. I find it funny that the anouncement was made by someone who probably still would be cheating on his taxes, other than for the fact that he had to pay up the taxes he cheated on, to become Secretary of the Treasury!
Emma, in what ways has the Republican party disappointed you?
I am more of a Rick type. I think both parties are basically…well…whores. There is no nice way to put it.
Where do I start? Iraq war, squishy stance on immigration that allows businesses to exploit cheap labor at the expense of Americans, offering up John McCain as the best possible candidate, beholden to Big Oil when nuclear power–and energy independence–is staring us right in the face, allowing the far religious right to hijack the party and destroy its credibility–I should have gone to bed hours ago and I’m too tired to elucidate it all, but “whores” pretty much encapsulates it for me for both sides, too.