To whom it may Concern (i.e. All Prince William County residents and Tax payers):
It has come to our attention that Supervisor Wally Covington, Brentsville District Supervisor, intends to give away $100,000 from his discretionary magisterial funds to the non-profit organization Rainbow Riding. This resolution is to be voted on at the BOCS meeting on Tuesday, November 29.
Rainbow Riding is a worthwhile organization that provides therapy riding for children with physical and mental disabilities. People are often hesitant to say what they are thinking when questioning process. Especially when children are involved as beneficiaries. However, we cannot ignore irregularities when those irregularies involve public money.
Allow us to be crystal clear: This is not an issue regarding the credibility of Rainbow Riding or the services that they provide to a very specific population. Instead, this is an issue about how county funds are spent and the degree of transparency involved in the determination of who will receive these funds.
During the past year, this blog has posted several articles regarding the permitting process or lack thereof for a huge riding arena constructed for the Rainbow Riding facility. It became clear to citizens that Rainbow Riding was exempt from the regular processes that other residents are required to follow. For example, the county informed us that this huge building, equipped with seats and bleachers, and bathroom facilities, was classified as a “barn.” In the Rural Crescent, barns are not required to go through the permitting process. Then, as now, we dispute the idea that a huge complex riding arena the size of this structure is a barn. A riding arena is not a barn and a barn is not a riding arena.
From the very beginnings of negotiations with Toll Brothers, somehow Rainbow Riding became an integral part of that process. How did a small 501C (3) organization become entrenched in negotiations regarding county land use? The 45 acres that Rainbow Riding sits on is public that excludes the public at large.
Fast forward to the present. Paying only a pittance for the public land this organization occupies; now the taxpayers will be required to put $100,000 more into a private organization.
Does anyone else find it troublesome that Supervisor Covington’s immediate family members are in leadership roles at Rainbow Riding? Is there a fair process for the allocation of county funds to non-profits? Or better yet, is there even a process? How can citizens be assured that favoritism does not come in to play when taxpayer funds are being distributed to various organizations? Should being an elected official entitle one to take care of family and friends’ favorite charities and organizations? At what point do we question whether this isn’t nepotism?
Note: this article was originally published 11/24/11 in the evening. Thanksgiving night. I moved it up several days as I felt it was an important story to have out there. We do that with stories we want to keep active.
The time stamps stay behind the scenes and can be used for documentation should the need ever arise.
Well Moon, I guess we’ll “Have to call you Al”
Greg Letiecq
Oh, and where is this controversy coming from? The N&M’s emails to the perennial loser candidate John Gray asking for comment, apparently. No, bloggers like Al Alborn didn’t have anything to do with this despite actually breaking the story and starting the controversy. When the N&M has to wholly manufacture the narrative needed to justify a story’s importance you know journalism is dead in Manassas.
@Moon-howler
Moon, I’ll go along and even having said nasty things during the campaign give a tip of my hat to Jamie also. One thing I’ll say about MH and its contributors is that they always try to be honest and fair, and not hold grudges. My view of Peter is also higher if he shares what Jamie wrote.
Here’s the kicker. Want Peter to really shine in the eyes of people (Republican and Democrat) who opposed him during the election? PETER should turn up at Citizens Time tomorrow, criticize Covington for what he’s doing, and publicly state his opposition.
“PETER should turn up at Citizens Time tomorrow, criticize Covington for what he’s doing, and publicly state his opposition.”
Theseus, if that happens, the first round is on me. But I suspect my wallet is rather safe.
@Mom
I’m sure you’re right, but it’s only fair to offer him the opportunity.
I just picked up on InsideNova’s coverage of this mess. It is a rare event, but I find myself largely in agreement with their article! That should say something right there, as I find InsideNova’s coverage of things often 180 degrees opposed to my feelings on most topics! Good for them, and it again highlights how outrageous this whole thing is. Does Wally really think we believe him when he says he sees no conflict of interest? Duh!
I also think (as I noted in another thread) it is BEYOND SNEAKY to hold this at 2 PM when most of us cannot easily get to Citizen’s Time without taking time off from work. I was fired up to go when I “assumed” there would be an evening meeting, but to my great dismay found out otherwise! Apparently there is some “dinner” scheduled for 6 PM or something that the supervisors are attending…. Whatever, nothing in this county surprises me anymore. Although I never thought Wally would do anything quite this outrageous, but now I know better!
Banana Republic.
@Mom
Bwwaaaahahahahahahaha I guess there was too much peace in the valley for old Greg. He wouldn’t give me credit for it if I had driven it over and tacked our story on his frigging front door.
Thanks for the laugh.
Actually, I should probably stop in my tracks and give MoM the credit for being the one to notice the Wally World item on the agenda. For those of you who were paying attention, there was such an explosion in Prince William County that I had to do some blog clean up. I had to go out and deal with gkids real quick….and wasn’t even sure what it was all over.
But I can promise everyone, Mom was johnny on the spot with spreading the alarm. Shall I go back through my time stamps?
Elena and I sat on it until Thursday night so as to not be Turkey grinches and spoil the day. It was hard. Damn I hate it when decency gets the best of us.
But MoM, you are the hero here.
@Mom
I will buy the 4 of us (included Elena) the second round of your favorite single malt.
But a girl can dream….
No heroes here, just us vigilant rat bastards.
BTW, speaking of rat bastards, Al “Is it Coffee, Tea or Beer Party This Week” Alborn, you were three days late to the party on this one and much of your self-aggrandizing post would appear to be based largely on someone else’s work. You really need to work on your attribution skills.
How did you all like my plan to insist when they donate, each supervisor must say, on behalf of the residents of Prince William County, I plan to donate x dollars to Y organization?
I grow weary of them acting like they are digging out of their own pockets.
@MoM, I keep moving my article up from Thursday night so it stays fresh on everyone’s mind. Maybe that is why they thought they could get by with it.
N&M has an update: covington pulls controversial donation
@Cindy,
Thank you very much for letting us know that Wally chose to pull his request. I immediately posted.
Only a few of us can be selected as VRB’s. VRB = Vigilant Rat Bastards.
I guess I’ll have to start checking my car for bombs again.
COVINGTON: “To maintain the comity of the Board and not to further politicize or demean this worthy organization, I will withdraw my notice of intent”
LAYMAN’S TRANSLATION: “I got caught with my hand in the cookie jar and rather than admit the error of my ways, I will blame this on those who caught me and hide behind the skirts of this fine charity”
Glad Wally changed his mind and did the right thing. Attention ALL supervisors we are not as dumb as you might like to think. This battle maybe over. However, many of us have worked feverishly making sure other citizens were informed. We really do need to consider if the supervisors really need discretionary funds.
I would be nice if there were always a pm session for citizen input. However, even if there were one the votes seem to happen in the afternoon session. Has the BoS ever considered starting their meeting in the evenings? An evening start time would certainly give the citizens more opportunity to speak at Citizens Time.
I found the comparison of Wally contributing to a small non profit and Marty funds going towards public bike paths an extremely poor example.
Totally agree!! It’s like comparing dog food to lobster.
Yay for citizens, Wally has withdrawn his request.
Thank you for doing the right thing Wally, I hope this is the springboard for a broader discussion on the viability of discretionary spending or at least, at a bare minimum, the process upon which awards are granted.
Elena, the nose count of how many are served by 501(c)(3) or 509 (such as religious groups like Shephard Housing) is part of the budget request from the Community Partner. Goes in with the other documents I mentioned. All of the ones on Pages 34 and 35 are nonprofits….I’ll skip the Interjurisdictional page that is easy enough to figure out the nonprofits vs. government entites such as Northern Virginia Regional Commission. The ones on page 36 and 37 are true nonprofits with names recognizable by many.
Exactly! And attempting to blame it on Frank Principi is really immature. Take responsiblity Wally, it is what we try to teach children.