Pete Candland needs to not try to peddle the notion that he doesn’t have anything to do with the Sheriff of Nottingham blog. His guest editorial certainly tips his hand.
He never asked me for guest editorial space. I would have probably said yes. I would think if he wanted to get his message out he would have asked Al, Greg, Derecho and me for guest privileges.
While I don’t agree with him on many things and I would put the usual disclaimer, I think it’s important as an elected official not to align one’s self with a blog that is critical of so many local officials and public servants in such an unkind and cruel way.
Pete, ask the next time. You might be surprised at what we actually do agree on. (hint: when are we getting supervisors’ votes recorded online???)
It’s important that we work together as a community.
I think it’s fascinating to observe Mr. Candland’s choice of blogs — especially considering that SoN continues to insist over and over again that he does not know and has never met Mr. Candland. And especially considering how Mr. Candland has often said that he does not approve of the malicious rhetoric such as the kind so often exhibited on SoN. Guess that doesn’t matter if that malicious audience is the one most likely to support your political maneuvers!
Maybe they have met up. wink wink. I think now he has been a guest, he needs to insist that content and tone improve, especially as it relates to colleagues and county employees.
There is a new blog in town.
http://montecristopwc.blogspot.com
Thanks, El Guano. I have added the link to the blogroll.
He just confirmed what everyone thought they knew. Today’s post matches his rant currently in progress at McCoart. Guess he has a ghost writer.
It sure looks like it. I got a bunch of emails saying just what you are saying, Lyssa.
They are hell bent on a flat tax rate. I just looked up my new assessment. That is not going to break the bank. I might also say that my community got labeled as one of the poor neighborhoods on TV. We were compared to Catharpin, the rich neighborhood. He said our assessment went up 10%. Mine sure didnt. It went up 2.7%.
I don’t know why I am sitting here watching these people when I could be watching house of cards.
Don’t these people realize that we are setting a ceiling….not the tax rate?
People need to listen to Jenkins on the budget. No one knows the budget better than he does.
It appears to be a bad assumption that Candland submitted the guest opinion to the Sheriff of Nottingham. I received it in an email, and I sent it to my list to get responses. If I read it correctly, the Sheriff got it from another source and did not ask permission to publish it.
I think the facts trump (pardon the pun) the unsupported assumptions.
I assumed that he submitted those words to SoN because it says “guest opinion.’
As a blogmistress, if I just lift something, i give credit. If someone submits a piece to me for print, I label it, “guest opinion.” (along with a disclaimer, regardless if I agree or not) I don’t believe I was off-base assuming that the piece was submitted.
Now, if Pete did not submit his opinion piece to the SoN, then I will retract my words, but it sure looks like he was complicit with it being published.
He may let me know.
My biggest issue with Candland and Lawson is they keep saying the County government is too big and just spends more and more money. Well…lets look at that. The only three areas County government have actually grown is Public Safety (both supported a robust staffing plan for police and fire), Education and Transportation. So…where would they cut down the big spending? They support all three of those. It is disgusting to hear them say that County spending is out of control when it has been flat except for those three categories.
Direct correlation between population increase and the amount of money needed for education and public safety and transportation.
I really haven’t seen out of control spending, except perhaps 2 libraries in the Gainesville District. I am all in favor of libraries. It’s just I don’t want to hear people who want the libraries complain about other people’s spending.
The animal shelter is a must. I suppose that is run away spending?
What we really need is animal control. What does a resident do if they get snakes, possums, raccoons, skunks, or other pests on their property? You can’t shoot them and animal control won’t help you get rid of them. That is just a service that is no longer provided. The mosquito truck came down my street twice last summer. You couldn’t even go outside last summer without getting eaten alive. Runaway spending? Ha!
I went back and read the blog post, and it says the following:
The preceding message from Supervisor Pete Candland was copied from an email from the Supervisor received from a Birdie and then sent to The Sheriff and then published without any permission, and The Sheriff does not necessarily endorse the message. But The Sheriff certainly agrees with every single point Supervisor Candland makes in this call to action.
Seems very clear in the disclaimer.
Going back to look again. The words “guest editorial” need to be removed.
I see what you are talking about. Frankly, if the Sheriff didn’t want people to assume that Pete had authorized, even requested “air time,” the disclaimer would have been at the beginning.
Seriously, who reads the fine print at the end?
Not one of the people who emailed me (total of 5) thought that the piece was anything other than a guest editorial….(especially since it said that was what it was). No one thought it was a pilfered document. You don’t label something a guest editorial unless the owner of the piece has requested that it be published.
What is to keep me from copying something that Kathleen Parker wrote as an opinion piece in the post, labeling it “guest editorial” and slapping it on my blog. If I did that, you could safely assume that Ms. Parker sent it to me to share and it was with her permission that it published. There is always agreement with guest opinion.
Disclosure: Kathleen Parker and I are not on those kinds of terms.
@Renegade – parse all you like. Fact is no negative comments about Candland are posted on that blog. Fact is, today’s story matches almost verbatim what Candland said tonight.
So, is Candland feeding the Sheriff or is the Sheriff directing Candland.
Bottom line, Candland looked like an idiot tonight – screeching, bitching about Principi, rude to Mr Jenkins and then didn’t get his way so he started to blame staff for bad information – is the population 438,768 or 438,767? Fortunately staff are used to being his whipping boy, he does that every year at some point. What doesn’t get printed from birdies is how much that man is despised – not because he wants to cut $ but because he’s so horrible to county staff. He had NOTHING solid to offer. It’s getting old. And Corey looked like a weenie? He just picked on Mrs Caddigan tonight. Those meetings are freakshows.
Walter, I can’t disagree that it was a real freak show tonight. Corey had better not do that to Mrs. Caddigan again. He was flat out rude to her. She was making a very valid, important point. She knows the game. So does he. She is enough of a public servant to do what is right. He is too much of a politician to let good governance stand in the way. That will not serve him well. Plus he looks like Pete is leading him around by the schnozzle. Too much Trump I guess.
As for Pete mistreating staff…That’s the best way to be universally hated. As Mrs. Lawson was praising the staff tonight, I thought about it…what was Pete going to do to undermine that small gesture.
The BOCS meeting reminded me of a little GOP debate with Trump misbehaving. Pete’s gruff, mock outrage because he didn’t get his own way was amusing. My favorite part was when he blew up at everyone for not compromise…read: give him his own way.
Stewart, Lawson, Candland, and Anderson all need to listen to their elders about the budget. Maureen and John have forgotten more about that budget than those other 4 have ever learned.
@Walter
I wasn’t parsing anything. All I did was point out what I thought the post said. Apparently MoonHowler missed it. Simple explanation. But then I am somehow defending Candland. That had nothing to do with what I pointed out.
I never see anything positive about Candland on this blog just like you don’t see anything negative about him on the Sheriff. So that is just a point of view. Nothing too strange here in my humble opinion.
On the population issue, I think you completely misstated what happened. The point Supervisor Jenkins was making is that the population growth numbers were much higher than what Candland was stating. Then Candland asked the staff to clarify and it turns out the population growth number is in the budget book and it is what Candland said it was. It was about the percentage growth, and I did not hear Candland try to argue it was about some small deviation. it was the difference between explosive population growth and whether it is just around 1.4%. Turns out Candland was right.
I think Candland got too ticked off at the back and forth banter, but so did Principi when he seemed to wish he had a baseball bat to take to Candland; and Stewart rudely cut off Caddigan; and Nohe trying to dismiss the meeting before any votes were taken was out there in the ether.
When I agree with people, I agree. When I don’t, well, then I write about it. Every once in a while. Mr. Candland does something to suit me. I don’t think my original post was all that tough on him. I was milding upbraiding him for not asking me for space.
I hear that he has been working on something I could support. I would like to have all legislation recorded online so that any person can go to that spot and see how the supervisors voted on the various resolutions and ordinances. I have tried to find things in the past and it is truly a wild goose chance.
Pete seems to be the champion of transparency. Having votes taken arranged by topic and by date would be a good way to achieve more transparency. I would also like the legislation to be read before a vote is taken. So much banter and discussion takes place that many people don’t actually know what they are voting on. (and I sometimes wonder if they do) Why not read a synopsis of the question before the vote is taken? That costs no money and very little time.
@Renegade – no one I know disagrees with Candlands main principles, efficient and effective government. Heck, when he first popped on the scene and publicly looked into supervisory discretionary funds, I cheered, when he announced he was going to review at he entire budget from the bottom up, I cheered.
I stopped when he aligned himself with the nastiness of the other blog, when he began his anti-staff campaign insinuating lack of competence, when he blasted Casciato last year (similar to last night), when he behaves like a six year old and whines….
Yes, you won’t see much said here about Candlands that’s nice, because he isn’t nice. I still think I understand what his goal is but after a few years, can’t get past his personality.
He really didn’t have a stated plan last night on what wouldn’t happen in the schools and county government if they voted a flat tax bill or 0% tax increase, which I think is less than a flat tax bill.
If he wanted less, what was the plan? I never met anyone who wanted to pay more taxes – and as A Sudley residing pal of mine told me her bill (the one in her hand) didn’t increase as much as Candland said so to paraphrase “which is it 10% or 4.7% Mr Chairman, which is the number Candland wants us to use to make our decisions”.
You have to admit, there is a much better way for him to communicate.
Walter +1
This is the second year he has made Sudley sound like Georgetown South, publically–from the dais. That really isn’t very nice either.
I did the math on my increase. He simply wasn’t telling the truth. Perhaps there is another explanation, like he was targeting the wrong community.
…and unfortunately Candland has decided to be the loudest, so his behavior is far more noticeable.
Give us a plan, stop telling us how much you know about “budgets” WORK WITH County staff and figure out how to change the perception of your association with that awful blog. Perception is, unfortunately, reality.
@MoonHowler
I agree that it would be great to have a place where votes can be tracked. I will bet there are more than a few on the Board who will want none of that. But it should be done.
My comments were to process, not to defending Candland one way or the other. That is true with the points Walter makes about Candland not showing up with a plan. I went on and watched the meeting this morning and two things struck me.
First, Candland and Anderson offered compromise solutions to break the stalemate to allow a tax rate to be published that would give about $35 million more in general revenues. The old guard said no, and remained locked on the 3.88% tax increase.
Second, I thought this was supposed to be a meeting about setting a tax rate for citizens from which a final budget could be formulated, but the criticism is that there was no plan offered on what to cut. Lawson brought up one thing and the answer was the information in the public budget document was wrong. Candland used his driver for increasing the budget as population growth and inflation (that I personally understand and support), but then the budget director said the 1.1% population growth was wrong, it was 1.4%. I checked that page 26 reference and the budget director is wrong – when you do the percentage increase it is 1.1% increase. But then Jenkins argued we should not use the population growth number in the budget prepared by staff, we should use some other estimate. That tells me the old guard is not willing to compromise one bit.
They should get a round of criticism for that position because that is completely unreasonable. Candland and Principi acting out like the GOP debates was absurd as well.
I thought Caddigan was inconsistent and not willing to even discuss a compromise. Nohe was bizarre in calling for an adjournment before any vote was taken, so he is not willing to compromise in any way.
So there is blame all around in my opinion.
The compromising is to take place once a ceiling is set. The whining and howling was all for naught. Set the ceiling, then hunker down and work out the details.
Mrs. Caddigan was exactly right on what was said.
Pete flung a fit because he didn’t get his way. It reminded me of the debates.
Over the past couple of years, Corey has flip flopped more than a freaking flounder on the budget issue. I guess it depends on who he was trying to impress. Last year, knowing he had a local election coming up in the fall, lectured everyone about the real bad times being over and that we had to continue to recover from severe austerity. Now he wants to get his conservative on and be Pete’s buddy, he is agreeing to setting the budget at some ridiculously low budget with no wiggle room whatsoever.
Its just depressing. I am on a fixed income. I am not going to curl up and die if my property taxes go up 20 bucks a year. No one wants to pay more in taxes. However, I would like to be able to call animal services, have pot holes repaired, and have Silver Lake look like something other than an arm pit.
Contrast our parks to say Northern regional park in Fauquier County near Marshall. Our parks just look ghetto. Do we have road crews that pick up trash? Not that I have seen.
Services, services services.
Smart communities near major metropolitan hubs don’t fight about supporting cultural organizations. (unless you live in Prince Billy Bob County)
From what I am hearing, things will move ahead anyway and all this ranting and posturing over setting the ceiling on the tax rate was for political show.
It let everyone get their Conservative Cred out in public, so to speak.
I find it strange that I live in the district with probably the most new houses and the most taxable property, with the cheapest people.
Maybe that isn’t so strange.
@renegade – we know what 3.88% will get county governmentand the schools.
What will 2.0% or a 1.88% reduction mean? What does 1.11% or a 2.77% reduction mean? Candland said he had $10million in cuts? To what? What are the long term impacts? Last year at the last minute supervisors took $3M in one time saving and set it aside for Police Camera’s. Two weeks ago they were scratching their heads to over ongoing costs?? Last years support for cameras was unanimous. Now it’s wavering? Work with county staff – many are willing to spend as many hours with supervisors to go over things – Janine Lawson indicated she had some positive time with Michelle ? go over financial principles…
Each of them should sit down with county staff and learn what the needs are in the county and the impact when things change.
How many have done that? Perhaps I should start doing a FOIA on each supervisor.
Yes, where are Candland’s cuts. I would be interested in hearing where these cuts are to be made.
Police cameras…wavering? After what just happened? After what has been going on in the nation? I would think police cameras would be mandatory for every officer. Usually things worth doing should be on-going.
Have the supervisors also taken into account that an election year in a bellweather county will also bring about expenses not counted on? How about tragedies like what just took place last weekend? Do they realize the huge price tag that comes along with officers down?
I say this every year….PWC always wants to go on the cheap. Everything about them says cheap. The most glaring example is Silver Lake. Citizen groups just cant go in and fix things up. There is no baseline. The original investment must be made. I realize that repairs are being made, extensive ones, but afterwards it will be business as usual.
Beautification goes a little further than planting some pansies and geraniums. There needs to be an initial ivestment, then a plan to maintain.
Even those ancient neighborhoods in Falls Church don’t look as cheap as PWC. They have charm. PWC just looks cheap.
News Flash! All those years – including this one – of these big showdowns and death by powerpoint arguments over what tax rate to advertise have been completely unnecessary! The staff can advertise the rate as an administrative item, just like they do in neighboring counties. So they will advertise the 3.88%. That’s what goes in the paper. Now everyone can actually look at the budget and figure out what should stay, what should go, and what the actual rate will end up at. But not before we had to go through two incredibly painful and embarrassing meetings. The county needs to add money to the budget to pay for all the PTSD counseling we need after that.
A pretty good summary of Friday evening. I like this new blog.
http://montecristopwc.blogspot.com/2016/03/bocs-debrief-good-bad-and-ugly.html
Thanks, Wombat! All that posturing was all for nothing. They didnt even need to meet.
I wonder when Corey made this discovery or why they even met.
Too funny about the PTSD counseling!
A. Member of Candlands county paid staff is the sheriff