Much time and angst was spent during the past week or so over Supervisor Wally Covington’s decision to give Rainbow Riding $100,000 from his discretionary fund and then his decision to cancel his request. Many Prince William County citizens have sprung into action on blogs, facebook, in email and over the back fence. Neighbors, friends, colleagues from work and acquaintances are now talking about county funds and how they should be handled. Some egotists out there are bragging that they uncovered the problem but that’s just all bragging and self aggrandizing. The people of Prince William County are the real heroes here.
Kipp Handly with the News & Messsenger continues his discussion of how the county spends its cash, especially on non-budgetary items:
In the aftermath of that decision, InsideNoVa.com and the News & Messenger examined the long-standing tradition of county supervisors contributing their magisterial districts funds to area non-profits and athletic and academic teams and found some interesting results.
Through Nov. 22, supervisors have contributed $86,912.90 to area organizations or relief funds from their own district funds in 2011. Potomac Supervisor Maureen S. Caddigan has given the most with $20,170 while Woodbridge Supervisor Frank J. Principi and Supervisor John D. Jenkins have contributed $18,375 and $18,325, respectively.
Of all supervisors that have contributed money, Occoquan Supervisor Michael C. May gave the least with $5,400.
Out of the $86,912.90 contributed this year, $7,000 was given to the future Americans in Wartime Museum and to the American Red Cross’ annual Heroes campaign, respectively. The Arc of Greater Prince William and Project Mend-A-House received $4,000 apiece and the Boys and Girls Club’s annual Steak Dinner received $3,100.
Covington gave the largest donation of the year — $10,000 – which was used by the Greater Prince William Healthy Communities, Healthy Youth Council for its student leadership conference in October in Blacksburg according to school officials.
Each supervisor has a budget between $322,000 and $350,000, much of it used for staff and office overhead. Money is also allowed to be carried over from year to year should the supervisor not exceed his budget for the year.
Coles Supervisor Martin E. Nohe, who gave $16,132.90 in charitable donations, said his office is unable to assist every group with a request. Nohe said his criteria for giving includes whether the organization is in the Coles District or whether the organization serves the greater good of the county.
“I ask the question, does it help with our strategic plan goals?” Nohe said.
Nohe defended his $500 contribution to the city of Manassas-based Manassas Ballet, citing the fact that the performances are put on in Prince William County at the Hylton Performing Arts Center and are attended by many county residents. Gainesville Supervisor John T. Stirrup, who donated $500 to Manassas-based Historic Manassas, Inc. this spring, did not return a phone call regarding his donation.
Historic Manassas is largely funded by the city of Manassas.
Some county supervisors also use their district funds for emergencies such as the flood that left hundreds homeless in September or to assist with larger capital projects down the road. Principi donated $5,000 of his office funds to the flood relief efforts organized by Prince William County Public Schools.
And when the Action in Community Through Service food bank closed for a week in October due to a lack of food, Nohe, Principi, Jenkins and Caddigan contributed a total of $2,500 at the Nov. 22 board meeting. In all, ACTS received $3,500 for the year.
PROCESS, HISTORY
When supervisors donate their money, they do it through a two-step process. During supervisors’ time, they announce their intent to donate and then the following week, the board votes on approving that donation.
Nohe said the two-week window provides enough public notification without having to bog down the process with a mandatory public hearing should the contributions become part of the budget deliberations. Also, accounting for emergencies like the September floods would be extremely difficult to do during the creation of the annual budget, said Nohe.
The controversy surrounding supervisors’ charitable contributions has existed for quite awhile. In a 1999 Potomac News story, former Occoquan Supervisor Ruth Griggs presented the idea of ridding the board of “discretionary funds” in the amount of $17,000 per district office.
However, no action was taken regarding Griggs’ idea and according to county spokesman Jason Grant, there has been no recent board directive to staff to look at incorporating discretionary funds into the annual budget process.
The Social Services budget comprised the largest piece of the charitable pie with $575,962 to its partners, which include ACTS and the Northern Virginia Family Services. The county has also contributed to charity’s one-time capital campaigns.
Most recently, the county agreed to pay $200,000 each of the next five years for the expansion of The Arc’s Dale City facility.
Chairman Corey A. Stewart, who didn’t give any money to charities this year according to meeting minutes, doesn’t find fault with other supervisors who take that route. However, Stewart said he typically he doesn’t like the idea of giving his office funds to non-profits, in large part because his budget is stretched thin as it is. He also said is not comfortable giving money from his office budget to charitable organizations that are not already a partner with the county in some fashion.
“The office budget for the supervisors are roughly the same, but I have got a bigger office as chairman,” said Stewart, who conceded supporting amateur baseball and soccer teams with his funds in previous years. “My funding just barely covers my expenses from staff salaries and the operation of the of the office.”
Kipp did a nice job. However, without a team of investigators, neither he or any of us are really going to be able to bite out a very big chunk. Prince William County money is still pretty hard to track. You might have better luck being the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Is it my imagination or are they just telling us what they want us to know?
The PWC budget appears to be this behemoth monster, impossible to wrap one’s mind around. I wouldn’t know where to start trying to unravel anything this large and intentionally opaque. However….many folks out there know a lot and a lot of them are either my friends or friends of friends. What if all the folks out there wrapped their minds around the same issue and started watching whose was minding the store real closely? Then those same folks shared what they knew and taught others? Pretty soon we would all know something. Imagine that!
What if all friends and friends of friends, lets call them the super heroes for right now, contributed their area of expertise to shining sunshine on all of our money here in the county? What if we knew how our money was spent? How awesome would that be? Its not impossible, you know. With modern technology, it’s quite possible to have a network of experts, who each in his or her own way, takes a chunk out of the behemoth. Stay tuned for your invitation to the party.
Item 7A on this Tuesdays board meeting is Fiscal Year 2013 Board Budget Guidance –I’ve made my suggested addition to my supervisor and county exec; WHEREAS, the Board has decided to longer continue the practice of donations from their office budgets and wants to incorporate discretionary funds into the annual budget process.
Please elaborate. There were too many whereases for me to follow. That all part of the grand plot to confuse us.
Excellent idea, NoHype!! Now, will they listen? 🙄
@NoHype
Love it. Or at least push it to the PWC voters to decide if we want the existing process or one that’s more transparent.
@marinm
We’d need more than a 26% registered voter turnout, like we just had.
Moon – thanks for extending the invitation to everyone. We’ll be organizing a group of people to serve as fiscal champions in PWC to look after the interests of middle class people and taxpayers. This will be a sort-of budget committee and we’ll need people who are committed to the interests of PWC taxpayers and will actually show up for meetings.
Well, I am not sure who all will be officially asked to join what but certainly if you are interested, leave your calling card here or email me and I will pass your name along to the organizers.
I think the organizers will want to be dealing with actual names and monikers will not be accepted. I do know that the organizers plan on confidentiality though.
@Moon-howler
Moon, thanks for the clarification. The group will observe confidentiality for those who want to support what we do but keep their heads down. Some who know these subjects well will be speaking out in public. We will only consider people who provide their names and contact information, and can document any information or data they provide. Blowhards are not welcome.
My guess is that blowhards won’t receive an inviitation to join. the blowhards’ reputations preceed them. 😈
Off thread, but not off title:
http://monsterdonut.wordpress.com/2010/08/08/batman-4/
****://monsterdonut.wordpress.com/2010/07/23/captain-marvel-mary-marvel/
****://monsterdonut.wordpress.com/2010/07/25/thing-thor-psylocke-silver-surfer-iron-fist-wolverine-ghost-rider-phoenix-robin-batman/
****://monsterdonut.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/iron-man-6/
****://monsterdonut.wordpress.com/2010/07/12/bender-3/
http://monsterdonut.wordpress.com/2008/04/30/stormtrooper-9/
(this one REALLY crosses genres.)
or…just start at the first page
Gotta add this supervillian. Makes you just go “aaawwwww……”
http://monsterdonut.wordpress.com/2007/12/25/mister-mxyzptlk/
Kipp did a nice job as far as the article goes, but he could have mentioned Stewart’s using over $30K to fuel his anti-immigrant campaign with his postcard mailout and his 10s of KKs spent on “office staff” that actually worked (works?) on his political and “rule of law” campaign activities instead of county business, all at taxpayer expense.
@Blue Moon, yea, he could have. You just had to stir me up, didn’t you. 🙄 That story is one of my pet peeves.
He spent $30-35 K on mail out invitations and then didn’t want to let anyone speak. He also didn’t let the county do the print work which would have been cheapers.
Stir me up more. Tell us about the money spent on the Rule of Law campaign. Who were all these staffers that worked on that? Are they county employees?
Has John Gray been invited? It seems he has a fair handle on this.
@Blue Moon
Blue Moon, if you have proof of y our allegations, it should be turned over to the Commonwealth Attorney since I am pretty certain that if such is true, it is against the law.
@NoHype
“WHEREAS, the Board has decided to longer continue the practice of donations from their office budgets and wants to incorporate discretionary funds into the annual budget process.”
NH–I presume you meant to say “the Board has decided to NO longer continue…” then at the end, add something like, “the staff is directed to recoup all discretionary funds left over from previous fiscal years, eliminate future discretionary funds, and develop budgets for each magesterial office.” Or some such thing.
Ahh, the infamous invitations. I’m starting to mind all of these years. Really, not printed by the county? That could have saved big bucks. I guess that’s not in someone’s nature, and when it’s not their money. NO problem spend away, money grows on trees in PWC. Grr..
Not just not printed BY the county but also not printed IN the county. They went across the river to be printed. Grrrr
@George S. Harris
Stay tuned . . .
These are just earmarks – the ability for the elected individuals, to funnel money to their own special causes, in order to pay back the constituents that voted them in.
@Blue Moon
I wait with bated breath (and I haven’t been chewing worms). I believe I wrote to Stewart once and challenged him on this and was told that he did not use office funds to pay for this. But since I am not paranoid I do not keep old postings so I no longer have that information.
Tomorrow begins the BOCS budget cycle–does anyone plan to attend and to bring up concerns about discretionary funds? I amy, bur I have a wife recovering from open heart surgery. Am already corresponding with Marty Nohe to let him know it is no longer business as usual–discretionary funds must go and all that are now being held must revert to the general fund.
@Blue Moon
I think you need to check with the Commonwealth Attorney’s office. While I would not walk across the street to pee on Corey if he was on fire, I think Mr. Ebert investigated this issue with Corey and came up with nothing.
@George S. Harris
LMAO. I’ve not heard that fire expression since my dad was alive. Thank you for the laugh and memories of my dad. 🙂
@George S. Harris
Mr. Ebert did not investigate Corey on this issue. He referred it to an independent, outside CA. That investigation was with respect to the postcard issue. It was not regarding any other use of the slush funds.
@Lafayette
As I said above, . . . . stay tuned . . .
Oh, trust me, I am……I’m not going anywhere. 🙂
@Blue Moon,
Will you be hanging in there with us? If yes, you need to email me.
I hope you get an email.
@George S. Harris
George, thanks for catching my mistake. I sent in my modified recommendation
WHEREAS, the Board has decided to no longer continue the practice of donations from their office budgets. The staff is directed to recoup all discretionary funds left over from previous fiscal years, eliminate future discretionary funds, and develop budgets for each magisterial office as part of the annual budget process.
As expected it went nowhere.
@Moon-howler
When the time is right.
Blue Moon, you up for a drink Friday evening, I suspect you know where to find me.
@Mom
Sorry, prior plans. Wouldn’t know where to find you anyway.