I might need to have my hearing checked. While watching the BOCS meeting today I thought I heard Mrs. Caddigan say that she was given $89,000 for her office account out of general funds for the year. I then thought I heard her say she didn’t need it so she donated it to the Montclair library.
Then I thought I heard the CXO say that this was the first of 5 such payments? My ears are ringing. This is a hell of a lot of money multiplied by 8. In fact, I expect it would have provided senior day care or perhaps even a resource officer or 2 for the middle schools.
If this expenditure is $712,000 per year times 5 is $3,560,000. How many supervisors don’t need these funds? Can’t we put them to use that will serve the entire county?
County employees haven’t had a raise in 3 years. We are short uniformed officers and promises made to fire and rescue have never been kept. These discretionary funds are growing by leaps and bounds and nothing else is.
Please tell me to have my hearing checked or that I misheard.
Also, while speaking of the county, let’s look at the new redistrict map keeping 7 magisterial districts. Am I having visual hallucinations or is the old Gainesville district being carved up in Sudley and Westgate? It seems to me that these are communities of interest and should not be split. I am willing to be in Coles District but I am just not sure how this community is to be carved up. The maps do not show street names. Do I smell a rat?
Maybe or maybe not but I was trippin’ last week during the tornado watches for PWC when Topper & Hill ( others ) broke it down to Sudley and Westgate. LOL!!! Reminiscent of…..the introduction of Bristow, VA! LOL!! ( instead of Gaineville and Bristow was just a road ) Like a tornado…oompp there it is 😉
I took a nap during the tornado….what did I miss?
Nothing it skipped us LOL:) But it was funny to hear them report & warn the areas of “Sudley, VA ” like it was it’s own independent city. LOL! Oh, wait, is the joke on me and it is? LOL!
@Red Dawn
I have heard them doing that Sudley, VA thing before. I wonder what they really mean.
They are talking about Sudley, the community without a single street light!! Maybe, if it’s redistricted into the Coles District the street lights will come. 👿
We’re back to those damned “discretionary funds.” Obviously there is a lot of $$$ slopping around in ther BOCS’s public trough. I don’t know how the cirtizens get this under control except to seek help from the state Inspector General if there is one.
@Lafayette
Alas Lafayette you only get street lights if you are prepared to put your obicularis oris muscles into a state of contraction and place them on the gluteus maximus of your supervisor. ;-*
Those street lights will never ever happen.
It seems to me that if something comes out of the general fund, and it isn’t used, then it goes back in to the general fund.
How on earth can there be a public hearing on different plans when you can’t even see the streets on the maps?
Where are the various lines of demarcation on these 7 and 8 magisterial district plans?
Who does one call to even get an accurate map? boundaries?
Welcome to Prince William County. Its like playing pin the tail on the donkey.
I’m still waiting for my email to be answered regarding the street names on the maps. Nothing but crickets chirping so far.
@George,
I have street lights in WestGate, but my friends Sudley have NONE and NEVER will have any. If I didn’t bring up the street lights, Juturna may have beat me to it. 🙂 I liked your last post to me. 🙂
MH, sit down, relax, take 2 nitro tablets, follow with three fingers of 18 year old Single Malt.
Okay, relaxed, ready, BP at normal levels?
Bearing in mind its an election year, the Queen of Dumfries gave $89 grand out of her magisterial funds to the Montclair library last year as well. To be fair, so did May.
You wouldn’t believe what the BOCS spendt more than a quarter million in discretionary funds. I didn’t until I put it all into a spreadsheet. I suspect that everyone from agnostics to hardcore fiscal conservatives would be right disturbed at some of the other places a chunk of their county tax dollars ended up. For example:
Hylton Center $15,000 – Covington $10,000/Caddigan $5,000
Rainbow Center $11,000 – Covington $10,000
Curious how the same names turn up over and over, whether is the museum on the Hylton property or the Rainbow equestrian compound, err, “Riding Ring”
@Mom, (how did you know I like single malt?)
Actually, I was doing fine until you got me all stirred up. I am tired of these pet projects. I don’t mind planting a few trees along major thoroughfares so that ALL can enjoy but…..the operative word is in caps. In fact, a little beautification would help all over. Thats the reason western Fairfax looks planned and most of Prince William looks rat-ass.
Maybe its time to rethink some of these funds since no one seems to need them.
As for Rainbow equestrian when are people in this county just going to start questioning all the money and perks going in to that place as conflict of interest?
Middle School resource officers serve huge numbers of children. Senior citizen day care frees up families with extremely stressful living situations a few days a week. These programs have been cut. Somehow discretionary money ends up the same old place.
And speaking of Hylton Center–how much more money gets dumped into that place out of county coffers?
Couldn’t find the Hylton Center in last years budget (I don’t know how they have it listed or categorized) but I did stumble across another $31,750 to the Rainbow Center.
I’ve been harping in various places that there is WAY too much “discretionary” money in the budget.
These fat cats put the “BS” in “BOCS.”
@Cato the Elder
Your not alone at all in your thoughts about those “discretionary” funds.
BS on BOCS-good one.
I’ve always used BoS for Board of Supervisors. Then I saw what BoS stood for on another local blog regarding one of our supervisors. 😉 I will continue to use BoS.
Here are a couple more, I’m not saying they’re good or bad, I’m just pointing out where some Supervisors are unilaterraly determining where some county taxes end up.
Hylton HS Choral Boosters $1,000.00
Woodbridge Little League $1,125.00
American Pride Youth Football $1,200.00
Arc of Greater Prince William $1,250.00
Azalea Charities $1,250.00
Potomac HS Football $1,300.00
Marine Corps Heritage Foundation $1,400.00
Action in Community through service $1,450.00
Kyle Wilson Run $1,500.00
National Capital Boy Scouts $1,500.00
Rippon Lodge Landscaping $1,500.00
Ruritan Club $1,500.00
Beat The Odds $1,600.00
Pace West School $2,000.00
Park Authority BMX Track $2,500.00
Project Mend a House $3,000.00
CASA $5,000.00
Steak n Steak Dinner $5,000.00
American Red Cross Heroes $7,000.00
Maybe the supervisors could host some fund raisers for these groups rather than picking our pockets.
Why does steak n steak dinner get county funds?
The only one that doesn’t make me raise an eyebrow is the Kyle Wilson Run. He died serving this county. Put me down for a Kyle tax.
I think the people of PWC really need to start addressing the discretionary funds think. How come Potomac HS Football isn’t getting funds anyway, along with all the other high schools?
Steak n Steak Dinner is Boys & Girls Club
Why isnt one of the steaks spelled ‘stake?’
Hey, I’m the street light chorus….. someone’s moving in on my territory 🙂 Although I have added leaf pick up.
@Juturna
You have to live in a township or city around here to get leaf pickup. 😉
Personally, I resent having to pay a solid waste fee on my real estate tax bill, on top of paying some fly-by-night trash company to pick up my household trash. Don’t even get me started on their additional fees for large items. Not everyone owns a vehicle large enough to haul stuff to the dump, or BFCF(Balls Ford Rd Composte Facility), or a clean up day in the community.
@Juturna
You have to live in a township or city around here to get leaf pickup. 😉
Personally, I resent having to pay a solid waste fee on my real estate tax bill, on top of paying some fly-by-night trash company to pick up my household trash. Don’t even get me started on their additional fees for large items. Not everyone owns a vehicle large enough to haul stuff to the dump, or BFCF(Balls Ford Rd Composte Facility), or a clean up day in the community.
Oh, I’m with you. I grew up in the highly expensive NE but leaf pickup, large dump items AND streetlight were included in the bill. Along with speedy snow removal from streets, schools and shopping centers.
I keep bugging MH about ‘you get what you pay for’, if you’ve never lived anywhere else these things might seem foreign!
http://www.zvents.com/woodbridge-va/events/show/170043745-boys-girls-clubs-22nd-annual-steak-n-steak-dinner-silent-auction
Only person I knew to eat bark (stakes) was Euell Gibbons
@Juturna
I thought if you had a stake in something it was spelled stake. Of course, everytime we had steak at home, my father called it snake, so what do I know?
@Moon-howler
Or a Mormon diocese 🙂
@Juturna
Ah ha! Forgot about that.
Keep in mind about those “discretionary funds” – each annual amount is allowed to accumulate year to year. It is not allocated to only the fiscal year; it is allowed to rollover. So if you are relected several times, you could build up a tiddy sum, and could turn around for the next fiscal year and do a turnback like Mrs. C did. Only Supervisor with a low amount at the end of each fiscal year is John Stirrup – he puts out a lot of his money within his district such as roads for Bull Run Mountain. Commendable as he spends it for what it is intended for in terms of purchasing services for which no other funding is available.
@Raymond, I sure wish he would dump some of that money into street lights for Sudley or even finish off the tree lined drive on Sudley Manor Drive.
It would seem to me that if money wasn’t used that came out of the general funds then the money should go back to general funds rather than to pet charities.
I guess I am saying there has to be a better way….
When county employees have not had a raise in 3 years, it looks bad to be charity central.
Here’s a little more on street lights from the 2012 Proposed Budget (Transportation Section) at page 327.
http://www.pwcgov.org/docLibrary/PDF/13673.pdf
4. Street Lighting
This activity provides street lighting throughout the County. This service includes the coordination of streetlight installation and
maintenance with citizens, members of the Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) and electric companies. It also includes developing
long-range plans for the street lighting program; developing the street lighting budget; and monitoring costs and ensuring new
streetlights are installed in conformance with the Design Construction Standards Manual.
FY 09 FY 10 FY 10 FY 11 FY 12¾
Actual Adopted Actual Adopted Base
Total Activity Annual Cost $1,468,573 $1,413,454 $1,248,628 $1,422,800 $1,419,894
County-funded street lights installed and upgraded 43 35 28 35 35
Street light outages reported to power companies within
three working days 98% 99% 97% 99% 99%
Average cost per street light installed $5,173 $3,305 $4,290 $5,431 $4,504
Steak & Stake makes much more sense.