I finally listened to the missing Rainbow-gate tapes, otherwise known as the Board of County Supervisors Meeting pt. 2. It reminded me of listening to the radio, back in olden days before we had a TV in every room. I had to guess who was speaking.
Yes. The supervisors left the dais and went to dinner with the Service Authority, only to reconvene and mysteriously conduct business in a less than open manner. I didn’t realize that there was an electronic recording of the rest of the meeting. That was probably a good thing.
I have some responses to what I heard. First off, I distinctly heard some members of the BOCS attempting to goad Mr. Candland into calling out another board member. Gentleman that he is, Mr. Candland refused the bait. However, I am not a gentleman. It is a birth defect.
Make no mistake, supervisors! You know damn good and well why this has all come about. I also know all of you can read. The Candland Resolution clearly said that if the board is giving someone money, recuse yourself if you or a family member is on the board of the non-profit getting money. Stop with the hysterionics. That’s a pretty common business practice and it doesn’t mean don’t serve. Bad deflection.
Make no mistake in another regard, supervisors. What brought this to a head was/is Wally Covinginton’s brazen attempt to slide $100,000 to a charity that was near and dear to his wife’s heart. What made matters even worse is that he said he didn’t see anything wrong with giving them that money from his discretionary funds. The fact that he didn’t get it made it necessary to try to legally clarify how business should be run in Prince William County. Were there other examples? Sure. People had other issues, but that was the primary reason that brought it to everyone’s attention.
Now supervisors, what has happened is not going to be to your liking. After Candland couldn’t get a second. (shame on you all!) there was all this grumbling about the bloggers and how we weren’t going to force their hand…blah blah blah. Bloggers say such mean and awful things. blah blah blah. Yes, Mrs. Caddigan, they do. We here at Moonhowlings have tried to keep the discussion off the mean and on the policy and behavior we dislike. We haven’t been 100% successful but that has been our goal. When we are all lumped together, that stops discussion. You really don’t want to do that. Don’t take away our incentives to stay on the up and up.
Refusal to codify what seems like good governance just to show us bloggers is going to have an undesirable effect. There are bloggers out there who take no prisoners. Beware of unintended consequences. You might have won the battle–this time. I doubt if you have won the war. Some of the bloggers have shown you all that there are no taboo subjects with them.
To Mr. Stewart, the esteemed chairman. I heard your continued sneers and snickers on that broadcast that seemed to be at Mr. Candland and/or his efforts. I want to remind you that you were more than willing to take advantage of character assassination and meaness to gain political advantage. How does it feel to have that meaness turned back on you? I see it when I go blog-hopping.
You know we aren’t the really mean ones….We just nip at your heels. There are some folks out there who have the real ammo and you know who they are. Are you man enough?
I am shocked at the disregard I heard and have seen towards the constituents. All the bloggers think something is wrong. Perhaps Mr. Duecaster said it best in his discussion about politics making strange bedfellows. I would go read what he had to say. We might not all handle things the same way. That doesn’t mean we don’t think something is rotten in the state of Denmark, or in this case, County of Prince William.
As I understand it, the vote wasn’t to require recusal. It was watered down to meet the county attorney’s objection. It merely required board members to disclose when they are voting.
I think you are right, Clinton, and they couldn’t even get a second for that!
It’s high time PWC set some standards. This isn’t a one horse county any more, with the 4 Horsemen duking it out.
Unfortunately, the county thing is totally out of hand and is rapidly becoming just a pile on.
Sheriff needs to fix that problem. It will rub off on his fair haired child eventually.
@Moon-howler
Only time will tell if it will rub off on Candland. I don’t want to diminish what he has accomplished but I’m relatively certain that all of the candidates for the Gainesville seat would have brought forth a similar agenda, it had become too large an issue for a non-incumbent to ignore, particularly given the activist nature that presently pervades the western part of the county. The moment of truth will come when the discussion finally wends its way to campaign contributions and actions on land use applications. I can’t wait for that Pandora’s box to be opened as I suspect it will mark the end of many a “distinguished” political career.
Gainesville is the only seat with turnover. Time for term limitations in PWC?
Corey, lest you forget, you were once on the receiving end of smirks and smears by a Mr. Sean Connuaghton, not so long ago. I recall you did not appreciate the “establishment” belittling your concerns regarding over development and the subsequent burden on taxpayers.
I too await with baited breath to see what happens with Stonehaven/Brenstswood in the fall. Already the cloak of secrecty is pervasive. For citizens, this does not bode well for full transparency. MoM, I know you and I will be watching closely, along with many other like minded smart growth citizens in the county, republican, democratic, independent, we all leave our labels behing on land use!
@Elena
We may leave our labels behind but certainly not our pitchforks and torches.
One must always come armed. @MoM
After listening to the recording, all I could think was the Old Bard saying: “the play’s the thing” although Will would have problems to “catch the conscience of the King”.
So what is the next step? They did what they wanted and said screw you to the constituents.