Police officers converged at the state Capitol last Thursday to urge lawmakers not to cut any more money from law enforcement funding. Many of those who went to Richmond, according to the DC Examiner were area Chiefs of Police like Chief Charlie Deane of Prince William Country, Chief Tom Longo of Charlottesville, Chief Doug Davis of Waynesboro, and Chief Rick Clark of Galax.
I was so tempted to type wedgie….
It sounds like things are moving right along with the Fernandez Wedge, according to the Washington Post. The injunction will be heard tomorrow by a circuit court judge. All the City can do is go through the process, regardless of what all the dark screen quarterbacks want to happen. It appears that the motive this time is to send a message to VRE riders.
[More updates: I hope Sr. Fernandez is not superstitious. Poor Richard has let us know that the hearing will probably be Friday the 13th.]
From today’s Washington Post:
A Circuit Court judge will weigh in as soon as tomorrow on the structure, after Manassas officials filed an injunction against Fernandez on Monday when he refused to stop construction. That came after Brian Smith, the city’s chief building official, issued two violations to Fernandez on Sunday, including a stop work order and a building code violation. Both notices threaten to bring criminal charges against Fernandez, 48, who immigrated to the United States from Mexico in 1979.
“Let them put me in jail. I’m not going to remove my message,” Fernandez said this week, after spending $1,600 on lumber, plywood and white, waterproof vinyl panels that are typically used on bathroom walls but have provided Fernandez with a durable canvas for his thoughts.
If Fernandez receives a court order to remove the structure and fails to comply, he might end up in jail, but it’s not clear whether the city would be able to remove the installation after that. Then again, Fernandez said that his current message is temporary and that he might dismantle it in two months — unless, he said, Manassas officials “make it difficult for me.”
[UPDATE: Current wedge and sheet signs at 9500 Liberty Street 2/9/09.]
Close-up
School System Budget less (from last year) # Students
2008-2009
————————————————————————————————————-
Fairfax Co. $2.2 billion [$10 million ] 169,000
Alexandria $197 million $2 million 11,225
PWC $ 745 million $57 million 73,000
Loudoun $747 million $0 56, 170
Does anyone else see anything out of proportion here?
Let me know if there are updates on these proposed budgets. I had to do some serious digging to fill in the blanks here. Loudoun Co data is sketchy. All systems have had serious cutbacks in one form or another. Most have frozen teacher pay. Many have increased class size.
Main source (but not only): Washington Post
[UPDATE: Fairfax budget reduction fund is probably not accurate. I am trying to verify exactly what it is. Anon suggests $157 million from another article.
Also see:
FCPS FY!) BUDGET: A BRIEF OVERVIEW
I also want more verification on Loudoun County]
Friday’s News and Messenger reports that about 1400 people took part in the Miller Tele-town Meeting that we reported last week. The meeting got over all excellent approval ratings, especially from the delegate himself:
He [Miller] was pleased at the results.
“I enjoyed doing it. I got a great response form (sic) the community. I’ve been getting e-mails and calls since from people saying, ‘ This is a great idea. I had no idea what you do in Richmond,'” Miller said.
People also like being involved, he said.
“It allows people to actually participate like they were at a town hall meeting,” Miller said.
To get the giant telephone conference call going, Miller sent out automated calls to a list of registered voters telling them that he was about to hold the tele-town-hall meeting.
People who were interested stayed on the line.Miller said the telephonic forum gives him a rare chance to get in touch with large numbers of his constituents, and those numbers far surpass what a regular, in-person, town hall style meeting would draw.
“The best I’ve had is probably 15 or 20,” Miller said of the regular meetings he’s held.
Miller said it’s hard to get his message out in the Washington area, where national news dominates.
“We’re right under the shadow of the federal government,” Miller said. “When you come from our area, it’s so hard to communicate what’s going on at the state level.”The telephone meetings get around that and go directly to the voters, Miller said.
“It’s a good way for me to reach out to my constituents to let them know what’s going on in Richmond,” he said.Miller said illegal immigration, tobacco, smoking in restaurants, education, insurance, health care and gun control were among the topics people raised during his recent tele-town-hall meeting, which lasted slightly more than an hour.
Still, Miller doesn’t think that telephone calls, no matter how many he does at one time, can ever take the place of face-to-face contact with constituents.
