The destructive nature of these constant attacks on the ever widening circle of county employees must end. The climate within the McCoart building is one of mistrust and confidence levels have been diminished. Whether it be for a desk, a toilet, a sink, an Easter egg hunt or the process of finding a new logo, these constant investigations and searching for wrong doing is no way to run county government. It’s like big brother is watching every move just to see if they can catch wrong doing. Who can work effectively in such an environment.
We witnessed a serious smack down during Supervisors time today. Supervisor Peter Candland, for unknown reasons, decided that it would be a good idea to attack Supervisor Frank Principi over this continued, ad nauseum, discussion over a county logo.
Pete submitted a three page, single spaced, diatribe demanding to know every single detail of who, what, when, why, where of the county directive to obtain a new logo for marketing strategies. My question is why? Why has this issue risen to the level of such intense scrutiny? Like there was some kind of fraud involved. Was it the best process or best logo choice, probably not, but the insistence on making this logo issue the next Benghazi conspiracy needs to stop.
There was an “all call” fundraising e-mail that was penned by Robyn Candland, excoriating the process and targeting Frank Principi as the “democrat” villain. Pete chose to turn his need for every nook and cranny to be inspected from a BOCS issue into a FOIA need. That is not how it should have been handled. Frank apparently thought the level of questions were over the top and formally objected . Having read them and included them in this post, I would say that I agree.
NOTE: Video below the fold
Pete chose to turn his letter into a FOIA request, an unnecessary step. What he needed to do was follow the Board’s own rules and simply find 5 supervisors to agree with his document request. Maybe, during that process, he would have realized that many questions on the last page were over the top. Asking to recreate discussions county employees had about the logo? Really? How is that even a realistic request? Asking about all information as it pertains to focus groups? Really? Why? Is this a legal investigation? How will this help get a better logo? More importantly, how will this help attract new business to PWC?
Let me throw out a heretical premise. The lack of a good logo, this just in, is NOT the reason why Prince William County is not attracting fortune 500 companies. Could it be because we have a chairman who wants to be known for going after “illegals”? Could it be because we now have a new Supervisor that insists on making mountains out of molehills? Could it be because, only a few months ago, he wanted to have a tax rate that would make any investment in infrastructure impossible? Could it be because, comparatively speaking, we spend the least per pupil than any other surrounding counties? Oh wait , maybe its because we treat our treasured parks like dumps.
I have a question. How many man-hours will it take to research all the questions Peter Candland has asked? A little birdie told me it would be hundreds of man- hours and dozens of employees. So wasting THAT kind of money is a conservative value? We aren’t talking Watergate here people, we are talking about a logo. A logo that is NOT going to be the magic panacea to fix our commercial base problem.
Blaming Frank for standing up for county employees is not the productive way to run government, nor is creating the impression of being on a witch hunt.
To see the endless letter
of questions, click your heels three times to get to Oz.
(3 pages of questions from Pete Candland to county staff)
And the Category 5 Sh!t-Storm begins
Read more: Washingtonpost.com (Tom Jackman)
So, this is what Arlington’s BOCS accomplished yesterday. How do we get grown ups on our BOCS in PWC? Might not be any merit to a Community Energy Plan but it definitely sounds a lot more like governing than picking on each other ON TV!!!!
And who is behind Candland anyway?? What is their motivation? Why is the BOCS allowing some angry man direct them through an aging Ricky Martin look alike that clearly doesn’t like Ms Peacor. Didn’t Mr Jenkins ignite this firestorm? For what? Tobacco? They all look ridiculous and spineless. NOT my idea of tax dollars well spent.
“The Arlington County Board voted unanimously on Saturday (June 15) to adopt the six-part Community Energy Plan. The CEP acts as a guide for transforming the way energy is used, generated and distributed in Arlington through 2050. It sets “ambitious, yet achievable, goals in the areas of building and transportation energy efficiency, and county government activities.”
Supervisor Candland is following a course that most inexperienced and young politicians and other newly minted mangers follow. They come to their new responsibilities believing that their existing staff is all wrong and that they need to micro-manage to correct everything. He will eventually learn that County staff actually know what they are doing and that micro-managing is a huge waste of his time. I would hope that he would spend his time attracting new businesses to our County rather than casting the County staff as inept and/or corrupt. If I am looking to relocate my company, I would not likely select a place that is governed by amateurs.
Does anyone remember how Prince Wiliam’s fortunes, reputation and image rose dramatically in the 2000-2005 period. At that time you had an intelligent, energetic Chairman who loved being a booster for the County. His enthusiasm was sincere and infectious. The trouble alluded to by Moon is that your current Chairman is always (and always has) looking for the next gimmicky election device to advance his own interests. The immigration issue is a classic example. To embrace it for maximum personal benefit, he had to run down the image of the County, not build it up and make people proud to live there. The issue worked only if its negative aspects and impacts were grossly exaggerated.
The new guy seems to also be looking for troubles as a way to keep his name out front. Who cares about the silly logo? If that’s the biggest problem you have, you’re in County governance heaven.
Yesterday was an all time low for PWC. There have been too many lows under this Chairman. Time to put an end to this nonsense and the characters behind it. It’s simply destructive and disrespectful to the taxpayers enduring this. I believe we pay the Boards salaries.
Or stop televising meetings until they can develop some self-control.
While I appreciate the angst over the “cost”, design, and method of contracting for the logo, I think it delving into the problem should be handled by the entire BOCS, not just one member. The idea that someone on the “staff” would suggest that Superivsor Candland’s questions required a FOIS request and that he would be charged for the information is way over the top. (Stand by for the “however”) However, for Supervisor Candland to use this as an excuse to have his wife create a fundraising request is even further over the top. It seems to me the “staff” should have forwarded the request to the BOCS asking for guidance. BTW—just who in the hell is the “staff” and who had the temerity to come up with the “Pay for it FOIA” idea?
Although Mr. Candland has been touted as the, “answer to our prayer” for an honest supervisor, it may just turn out that he has the same feet of clay that we find on most politicians, local, state and federal.
It is standard procedure when boxes and boxes full of ducuments are requested. When you tied up dozens of people for days on end, who else is going to pay for it?
Is that where our taxes should go? I don’t wnat mine going to satisfy some gotcha game every time someone gets a burr under their saddle over something. Time for Pete to play by the rules. The lone wolf mentality doesn’t fly well in PWC. He should have moved for a resolution. If you can’t get 5 people to agree then perhaps you aren’t doing the right thing.
There is a work session over the logo on July 16. Why must there be instant need gratification out of adult elected officials?
If you can sift through the masculus bovine merde in The Sheriff’s latest posting found here: http://sheriffofnottinghampwc.blogspot.com/2013/06/supervisor-principi-county-executive.html it may be possible to follow the continuing saga of LogoGate.
Why bother? The Sheriff, as he well admits by pointing out his pride at being the instigator of this “juicy story”, does not have the best interest of the community – the whole community – in mind.
Pete himself came up with the FOIA angle George. Here is the reality, the multitude of questions were simply over the top. Did you read the letter? The Staff has a job to do and Pete, to be perfectly honest, is so intent of finding whatever nefarious undercover scam job over a logo, that is making their actual job difficult to do. I can see asking for clarification, but what he appears to be doing is hoping to do find some huge scandal, some reason to keep this in the papers. It’s like he’s on his own NSA Verizon excursion, hoping to cast a broad enough net that something will turn up.
He sent out his fishing expedition letter, not only to BOCS and specific staff member’s, he also included the media. If I thought he wanted to help change a process that needed to better oversight, I would be all for it. But that isn’t what I see happening here. I see a need to bolster oneself. If anything, the influence of developers in government is the real problem, not a logo.
As much as I loathe to compliment Wally, if you listen to his part of the discussion, even he tells Pete his letter was too “exuberant”. He was even willing, if Pete altered the scope of his investigation (my words here), that maybe they could reassess and approve a somewhat diminished request right then and there. Pete’s response was no, not interested. He is sticking to his outlandish expansive request. If Pete had simply reached out to a few fellow BOCS members, he would have realized that either he had the votes as is, or he needed to remove a few of his questions, probably from the page three, and there would have been no problem. Instead HE made the decision to go with melodrama in lieu of spending the time to reach out to his fellow board members.
I wonder, what did the final approval of Pete’s questions look like that night? My guess is they aren’t the same and probably don’t include to more unrealistic expectation of the latter questions.
Scout,
Clearly you are quite the Sean C fan, not me. He was a developers dream and it clearly showed. Lest we forget, he is pushing to break open the RC in prince William county for a road that is fraught with questions. In fact, the bi county parkway is only one of several very questionable high dollar projects.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/wasteful-charlottesville-highway-highlights-problem-with-bob-mcdonnells-road-plans/2013/06/15/bb41b078-d539-11e2-b05f-3ea3f0e7bb5a_story.html
I will agree with you though on one point, Sean never behaved like either Corey or Pete nor would he. But it’s funny, he also started out as man of the people so to speak, coming against the current corrupt climate of the BOCS at the time and yet, eventually, he too was swayed by the power of the position of Chairman as many have recounted to me. The debacle of the transportation plan seems to prove that right now.
But I digress, let’ keep to the circus before us and discuss Sean another day.
I have never seen anything quite as insulting as that Candland letter to Grant and Kaczmarek. These men, like Ms. Peacor, are highly skilled professionals. You just don’t talk that way to people at that level. They aren’t your errant school boys.
You just don’t treat grown up professionals like this.
As for some of the other BOCS members….apparently they have short memories. It seems like just yesterday that Mrs. Caddigan was the bug under the glass, all while being subjected to falsehoods and spin by the bloggers. Now its someone else’s turn to have their wings pulled off, she gets amnesia.
How did the press get involved? I think we know. Mr. Candland alerted the press.
He shows incredible disrespect to county staff, as though they have nothing better to do than fill information-seeking requests.
Too bad all he sees when he looks at the county is potential wrong-doing. He fails to see the dedicated county employees, many who went for several years without a raise.
If you always look for evil you will find it but often in your own self and belief system.
@George S. Harris
Its all bullshit. Why reference it.
Candland needs to work within the system. He is part of a board. A single Supervisor can’t really get much done. You need votes. If you don’t have ’em you can cause all the trouble you want but actual achievement? not so much.
If this stuff doesn’t at least moderate the County is going to start losing quality staff and your moderates – the consensus builders that have made PWC a great place to live – are going to stay as far away from elected office as they can get.
Beeky, thanks for your input.
Pete has been advised by many others to try consensus building. I suppose he and his puppet master feel they are too good to deal with the rest of the BOCS since his poison-penned side kick does nothing but run those other supervisors down with remarks of derision and mockery. I can’t think of a one that hasn’t been ridiculed and criticized.
You are right about losing good staff people. Who will replace their years of experience when many throw up their hands and say they have had enough. Morale is horrible over there at Complex 1.
The WaPo had a bit more info on this story – including the fact that the Board had allowed $30,000 for the development of branding/county logo in FY2012. This makes the work so far appear under budget. And the fact that Candland had his wife beg – cup in hand – for money to support his FOIA request makes him appear weak.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/local/wp/2013/06/19/prince-william-logo-controversy-boils-over-supervisor-files-a-foia-request-for-answers/?hpid=z
The tin cup stunt was just unnecessary and very political. He can either follow the rules, wait, or pay out of his own pocket.
Why is he entitled to get something for free? If you and I went in there and wanted volumes of documentation as well as reconstructed conversations, we would be charged.
Does Pete think he is special? Why should supervisors be entitled to perks? That’s the word I have been searching for…he and his wife both have this sense of entitlement over county documents.
I find it unacceptable.
great article Censored, thanks for posting. It sounds like a fair compromise WAS found, funny, and all the drama was unnecessary in the end.
Pete had fair and reasonable questions answered. If only he had actually made an effort to reach out initially, this whole fiasco would have been avoided.
I can’t help but think about Mrs. Nohe going before the BOCS when she was so outraged over how Marty was being treated. At least one blog had a high old time making fun of her and ridiculing her defense of her husband.
I wonder if that same blog will take Mrs. Candland to task and make fun of her as it did Mrs. Nohe? I think we know that answer to that aleady.
It’s all a matter of sainthood, isn’t it?
That’s ok, Kris, we still love you over here!
@Lyssa
I agree.
Please don’t think I’m defending Candland–far from it. While a certain blogger or two constantly sing his praises, you know who I mean, it is easy to see him for what he really is–another politician trying to make a name for himself. As has already been noted, the BOCS is SUPPOSED to be a team but they are far from it. They are supposed to be looking out for the welfare of the citizens of PWC but, with few exceptions, they are not. Let’s hope the next election sees some major changes in the makeup of the BOCS. I wonder if it will.
@Moon-howler
Moon,
Great point you are making. Mrs.Nohe was crucified for her comments by SON simply supporting her husband. She had more class than Mrs C. At least she was not seeking funds under the gusie of my poo husband is being attacked. Mrs.C is known to be a loose cannon. This being said Mrs.C did cross the line with her fundraising email at the county taxpayer’s expense.
Once again Candland has made Prince William County look like country bumpkins. The comments in the Washington Post eat him alive and it is embarrassing.
Please Pete, become a team player. Sell others on your ideas rather than acting like a bull in a china shop. Take that earpiece from your ear and think for yourself.
Why is Pete Candland still in campaign mode? The fund raising letter yesterday referenced the campaign several times.
It’s time for the campaigning to stop. Its time to learn the ropes and how the game is played. Rogue supervisor time is just not cutting it.
No logo need, Candland and his merry men have branded PWC. I hope they don’t move to Fairfax.
Perhaps my concern about the US Congress could be equally applied down the food chain to local governments. Perhaps we are so far removed from citizens donating their time and skills to assist in governance that we are now in full campaign mode all the time at all levels. Newbies like Candland, having no better role models than not-so-newbies like Stewart, assume that the purpose of holding elected office is to campaign for the next cycle.
A few years ago, I started getting the feeling that we would do as well at the national level just to get our Congress members by random drawings from voter roles (I think Mrs. Bachmann got me on that particular glide path). Maybe that’s what we should do for every office.
Everyone throw their name in a hat who might want to participate. I dont think we could do any worse.
I am really disturbed by what I see going on in the county, especially the Gainesville District. I don’t care for the bullying and badgering of people. I dont care for the anonymous blogs that pop up to sing the hallelujah chorus for one supervisor. I don’t like targeting individuals.
A refinement on my idea would be to select two slates at random from the voter roles and let them campaign against each other.
It is all just a shame. We have real issues in this county regarding transportation, schools, infrastructure and attracting businesses and we end up in the WaPo over a $750 logo. This is not the environment to solve problems, there is no true leadership and it’s divisive. None of this is making the county a better place to live, no one seems to care about that.
I truly believe everything Pete does is just to make a name for himself so he can move to higher office. He has never had any intentions of staying the Gainesville supervisor more than four years. Heck, the Sheriff has been trying to get rid of Stewart early so there can be a special election and Pete can move in. But of course I could be wrong and if Pete runs for another four years as Gainesville Supervisor I will eat my hat! Honestly, I pledge to!
From the Human Resources of PWC website:
Did I see that pledge happening last Tuesday during the BOCS meeting? NOoooooooo.
If I worked for PWC last Tuesday I would have seen how personnel disputes are handled in public and how someone’s job does NOT transcend the politics of the county.
As for attracting and retaining high -performing and deicated employees? Ha! Don’t even slow down as you go through Prince Billy Bob County.
I was ashamed during the 4 Horsemen days back in the 70s and I am ashamed now. At least I don’t have to collect a pay check from billy bob now.
I tried to tell the Sheriff that he has gay cowboys but he would not publish my comment.
Not to be rude, Orphan, but that’s really between you and him.
Is there something wrong with gay cowboys? I figure cowboys come in all orientations.
I LOVED Brokeback Mountain, fabulous but heartbreaking love story at its core.
The poverty of the area depressed me.
I agree, but the impossible love story is timeless.
There is no such thing as a “possible” love story.
Yikes: I have a new logo!
if you don’t like it I can switch it back. I just wanted to see what they looked like.
It just wasn’t me. What do YOU think? I guess if we come over to your place we should dress however you want us to.