Washingtonpost.com (Jeremy Borden):
A Manassas City Council member who is the executive director of the Manassas Ballet Theatre voted again Monday to fund the non-profit with $23,000 of city money.
Mark D. Wolfe (R) is the unpaid executive director of the ballet, and his wife, Amy, is paid $50,000 per year, Wolfe said. Last month, Wolfe did not disclose his position in the ballet — although he is well-known locally for that role — before a vote that gave a total of $142,500 to arts and human-services groups, including the ballet.
Wolfe said there was no reason that he could not vote on the funding package. At the request of Mayor Harry “Hal” Parrish II (R) the council took the vote a second time in order to discuss the issue and so that Wolfe could properly disclose his role in the ballet.
The 4-2 vote Monday was the same as in June, with members Marc Aveni (R) and Ian Lovejoy (R) voting against the allocations.
Parrish, who does not generally vote, and other members of the council said Wolfe had made a mistake by not disclosing his position on the ballet.
Wolfe said that it did not cross his mind to disclose given that the city’s new non-profit process was “apolitical” and grant recommendations were handed up from a committee of city staff before being acted on by City Council.
However, he said he should have disclosed and he apologized “to this board and to the public.
Parrish said he would not release a confidential memo from city attorneys about the situation. But he read from a statement that focused on Virginia conflict of interest laws. There is nothing that precludes Wolfe from voting on the matter, according to state code.
Aveni said Wolfe should not vote on the matter. While Wolfe votes on the full budget, he has always abstained from the arts vote because of his ties to the ballet, according to minutes of past votes on budget line items. This year, if he had abstained, Aveni said, the allocation would not have passed because City Council rules mandate four votes to spend city dollars.
“The honorable thing to do is Mr. Wolfe recuse himself,” Aveni said. “Obviously something has changed between now and the previous four years.”
The crux of the matter is that the process for funding the arts in the City has changed. A committee decides the funding now and makes a recommendation to the City Council. Any funding must receive 4 votes in favor. Let’s take a look at what what has changed, as Mr. Aveni suggests.
The funding for the ballet goes back to the 90’s as part of funding for the arts. Mr. Wolfe came on the City Council in 2008. The Ballet was still funded and he recused himself when it came to a direct vote on the funding going to Manassas Ballet. Until this year, the council decided who was to receive funding and each of the arts organizations was voted on as a line item.
Now the funding is decided by committee and only presented to the entire council for a final vote. Had Mr. Wolfe recused himself, no funding for the arts–any of them–would have passed. Now, let’s take a look at the players.
It sounds like the same players after the same old thing. Deja Vu. Changing the process by which organizations are selected to receive City money sounds innocent enough and probably it is a lot more efficient method. It removes the funding from the political process. However, if the City needs 4 votes to spend City money, it looks like the Tea Party folks, Lovejoy and Aveni, are striving to do away with all funding of the arts and that they are using Mark Wolfe as the sacrificial lamb to accomplish their goal. Those were the only 2 nays.
What is it about funding the arts that jerks the Tea Party chains so much? Most of us feel funding the arts is just something civilized societies do. Perhaps it isn’t about the arts at all. Perhaps it is the old political strife Mr. Aveni seems to see under every rock when non-Tea Party Republicans are involved, in particular, when Mr. Wolfe is involved. To the outsider, it appears that Mr. Aveni has put on sheep’s clothing to conquer a wolf when indeed it is he who is trying to pull the wool over someone’s eyes.
What has changed? Process is all that has changed. Perhaps Mr. Aveni would like to tell us what has changed in his mind and what his real goals and objectives are. Lovejoy can play back up. He might find that preferable to local speculation. My! Tea Party! What big teeth you have!
This whole episode is the result of Wolfe’s refusal to sign the letter supporting AG Cooch’s war on women three years ago that the City Council sent to Richmond. Aveni and the “All Saints/Sudley Road picketers” have been up in arms ever since then and with the help of Del. Jackson Miller have been trying to discredit him ever since. This has been a “Quixotic” quest on the part of Miller and Aveni. There efforts to enact a “purity purge” of the Manassas Rep. Committee has alienated most moderate R’s in the town.
It has become such an obsession with Aveni that last night he pretty much ended his political career in Manassas. Apparently, he called out Mayor Parrish for being a member of the Ballet Board and implied that he was a party to this so called conflict of interest. I am told the the Mayor was not pleased and pushed back hard. If you are an R in Manassas, pissing off a Parrish is no way to enhance your political career.
Rumor has it that Mr. A is one of the Sheriff’s birdies.
There seems to be a common theme here regarding bare bones spending. Of course, he might be a little more generous with county money since it isn’t coming out of his pocket.
Ridiculous. Liberals are nothing if not consistent in how much they embrace and defend corruption. Blaming Aveni? Pathetic. This is corruption and no councilman will get away with it
I suggest you tone it down a notch, Erik. Please tell me what has changed over the past 15 years regarding funding for the arts, in particular, the MBC? Perhaps you might want to tell me where the corruption crept in. Let’s hear your argument, if you can do it without falling back on something as shallow as calling me a liberal.
So we fund tutus for wives but not homes for the homeless. Habitat for Humanity was denied funding. The council would at least be more honest if it passed a law requiring all residents to purchase two tickets to the ballet, at least then I would get worthless tickets in return for the money. You blame Aveni? Shame on you. This is corruption and is being brought to the attorney general for investigation. Game on, liberals. You wanted a fight? You got one
I would think that coming on a blog for the first time in a threatening, adversarial way would not be the best way to make your point.
Habitat for Humanity is a good cause. However, it is not part of funding for the arts. Why is it being brought up?
I see the use of the word ‘Liberal’ being used as though it were an insult. Is that the worst thing you can say to me? That I am a liberal?
BTW, I am not putting your other comment through. Your rudeness towards me is unacceptable as are your allegations.
Just a friendly reminder about the moonhowlings rule on county employees.
If county employees wear two hats, then make sure you address the non-county hat.
Boy, was Aveni a piece of work last night. He singled out an e-mail sent out by the Ballet to it’s supporters to show up at the Council meeting as a show of support for Mark Wolfe claiming it represented an example of a conflict of interest. Apparently Mr. Aveni foregot about a time a few years ago when a certain “ladies Shop” was moving into Old Town and he got up in his church and urged parishioners to show up at City Hall and try to save the town from this threat to the morals of the town. It appears if the cause is part of your agenda, breaking the rules or making up ones that suit your purpose is acceptable.
The council members all have been informed about return on investment for the arts, and they all know you can’t compare one arts nonprofit to another because they vary in size, box office sales and reach. The ballet brings in, from what I understand, a high percentage of box office sales and has attained a national reach, with featured stories on CNN Money and taking an original production to California later this year — all a great return on investment for our community. I also saw an army of school buses at the Hylton Center this spring when they cycled in school kids for lecture/performance/meeting the dancers with the ballet.
The PWC Arts Council meets tonight, Tues., July 9 at 6 pm in the Powell’s Creek Room in the McCoart Building. This is the council’s annual meeting of the membership with, according to Chair Sheyna Burt, lots of business to discuss including board elections (the nominations committee’s proposed slate will be distributed at the meeting and nominations will be taken from the floor), reflections on the current fiscal year, and plans for the upcoming fiscal year. Debbie Andrew, Executive Director of the PWC Department of Parks & Recreation will be there to discuss the liaison position (Kathy Bentz left to become Executive Director of Leadership Prince William) and to answer any questions. The public is welcome. It’s a great opportunity to get a wider understanding of the arts. I’ll be there tonight, helping to represent Write by the Rails, which used a $300 grant from the Virginia Writers Club to help bring one of the Fall for the Book events to Prince William on Sept. 26. On that same day, three of the authors (Forrest Pritchard, Scott Gray and Ellen Cassoff Gray) are expected to make an appearance at the Manassas Farmers Market.
http://fallforthebook.org/2013/06/24/whats-cooking-at-fall-for-the-book-lots/
Faith-I think the point is that a non-political staff made the recommendations. Who knows why Habitat wasn’t funded? Maybe they didn’t compete well in the grants process? Maybe they don’t serve as many people as other groups? Again, the point of Wolfe was that this should be a non-political process. Aveni brought politics into the process and showed his ignorance of the process and the applicants by some of his comments.
Let me let out HOW the contribution for Health & Welfare and Community Enrichment process works in the City so folks here understand what was different this year than in many years past. Being the Board President of a Human Services Nonprofit here in the City that applied, I am quite intimate with the wherefore and the whys.
1. The Council back in October had a retreat and created the “Manassas City Council Priorities and Implementation Plan” (aka Strategic Plan).
2. For community contributions, the Council’s December 2012 Policy Statement set the guidelines on how the application and decision process would work. In the Budget Process for FY 2014, the Council approved a set amount just over $143,000 that would be used for all the various entities to compete. The Council approved for the City Manager (at that time, John Budesky) to select a committee comprised of City Staff Members to review and vote on the applications.
3. The Council also approved that the Staff Recommendations would come forward for approval after the FY2014 budget work was done….which is was and since the Council had already approved the set level for dollars when they passed the complete budget in June.
4. The application is designed as such to provide full information about the nonprofit, the number of City residents served, and what Goals within the Council’s above mentioned Plan would be met, and just how the nonprofit would meet it. There was also the requirement to submit IRS Letter of Determiniation, last tax return, audited financial statement, and other substantiation documents of what the nonprofit does. (I would be happy to provide a copy of it to anybody that asks so you can see the level of detail).
4. The application was designed that each area of information had a score, and the range for the total score was Zero to 100.
5. The Staff compiled the list, and yes, there were “winners and losers” in both major categories. Those which support Health & Wellness were going to have the hardest time competing for the dollars BECAUSE the Council’s approved Plan is more focused on Community Enhancements than those entities providing direct services under Health & Wellness (and I know all too well since it took me some doing to figure out how to fit in). Hence, the various Arts Groups gained, and Habitat lost because (1) the Plan is more centered on community and (2) the scoring process was based on how well you matched the Plan. And it was truly a non-politcal process since this funding action is no different than every other Staff Recommendation made throughout the year.
6. Last night, the Mayor read what the law said in terms of conflict, and the three instances of when there is exclusion/disclaimer or not because of involvement. Now, for the major caveat forgotten by the newspaper and the other blogs:
The motion presented by Vice Mayor Harrover was to accept the Staff Recommendations thereby approving the disbursement amounts (without any changes such as recommended by Mr. Aveni).
During discussion of the Vice Mayor’s motion which was seconded, the emphasis on the process was in the hands of the Staff for recommendations and before the Council for approval was commented on – emphasizing Staff’s work – was made by Messrs. Way, Randolph, Lovejoy, Harrover and Wolfe. The Mayor also emphasized it was to approve Staff recommendations and did comment back to Mr. Aveni that although he is on the Ballet Board, he did nothing to interfere in Staff Recommendations.
The vote went 4-2 with Mr. Aveni and Mr. Lovejoy as “no” – although I commend Mr. Lovejoy as his “no” was there was too much funding in Cultural and not enough in Human Services. Kudos to him! I can respect Mr. Lovejoy’s decision since that is also my view.
Now, as to why the “caveat”: the law allows that when the action “affects the public generally” and even though in terms of the Ballet Mr. Wolfe and the Mayor have involvement, since it is a broad impact and not just to the Ballet, Mr. Wolfe would not have to put in a disclaimer, and his vote was valid.
If you hung in this long to read all of this, my thanks to you!
Thank you very much for your detailed report to help us all understand the process. I hung in. Where is my gold star?
It sounds to me like the council might need to go back and make separate categories–one for the comminuty enrichment and one for the health and welfare. Let’s face it…enrichment is a little sexier than health and welfare. Two categories would level the playing field a little more.
You are right, there does need to be some balance. However, the tweaking can be done in future years.
Meanwhile, some of this attack sounds to me like more of the same, the same vitriol carried over from the election aimed at Mr. Wolfe.
I salute the City for its attempt to remove the funding from the political process. Voting to accept the recommendation of the committee is a far cry from what a small gang of backbiters are saying about Mr. Wolfe.
@Faith M Faith, you have no dog in this fight in that you are not a city resident and contribute nothing to our public finances or our quality of life. If your family lived in the city of Manassas, your share for funding the ballet next year would be $1.77
I am smiling over the ‘outing’ on the dark screen. I guess you sure showed me. Way to rack ’em up. Righteous indignation rears its ugly head.
At least spell the name right.What is so amusing is that most of negative detractors attacked me rather than explaining why either party mentioned in this post is right or wrong.
That indicates a weak argument to me, in other words, ideologues.
Ah, vicious attacks? Vicious? what wussies. The idea that someone posting on a blog calling for someone’s arrest accuses me of viciousness is laughable.
Can any one give me the address of the Mark Wolfe re-election committee? I want to donate money for his next campaign.
There is no shortage of assholes on blogs. @Moon
You’re right. That one was laughable.
I don’t see a lot of corruption here – it does appear to be continued attempts by amateurs to create some sort of star chamber in PWC and Manassas. Anyonymous, of course. The fall of the infamous star chamber in England was a the Habeas Corpus Act of 1640. (To be clear one of a couple). This particular one addressed the morality of the star chamber and how they carried out their decisions. In particular the impeachment and execution of an English noble.
In addition the attacks on individuals have expanded – a poorly written attempt to appear disingenuous by a first time poster should just be dismissed as seedy, as seedy as the venue where it appears and as seedy as the posters “home” blog.
The Rat Bastard Friar Tuck on bvbl is not I. He or she is an imposter.
Imposter, there was no class there. But then again, you probably wouldn’t recognize class if it bit you.
The two situations aren’t even close.
Friar Tuck, are you being maligned? Is someone stealing your identity? Maybe you should consider a gravitar.
And YES, laughable is correct. These people believe themselves – like the doll/dollhouse Twilight Zone episodes!
@Moon-howler
Moon, when it comes to Cultural Enrichment, Mr. Wolfe said it right on Monday night. Mark mentioned the “funding formula for the arts”, and that was written up years ago by the National Endowment for the Arts.
The difficulty in Health & Wellness is there is not just a standard table out there for costs. Each instance of support – whether that be repairing someone’s home, helping someone get a wheelchair or powered scooter, or any other human need instance – is always a case by case support. Always tough.
I personally like Mark Wolfe – that man has a lot of style! Sometimes I think if you attack him, he enjoys the fight. Now, when the cross the line and attack family, that is a different story. A friend of mine said it best “Ray, the ones who scream about it forget we are still a small town where you know all the local politicos are involved in something often for the good”
I always like a person with a little fight in them! Its what keeps the blood flowing through veins.
So I am anxiously awaiting the city video of the category 5 you know what storm from Monday night. What time will it post?
There are two categories of funds in the non-profit process: human services and arts. The council budgeted just the bottom line number but the staff tried to keep the numbers for each category as they were last year….at least that’s what I recollect…:)
It seems like an honest endeavor to divide finite resources.
@Friar Tuck
Perhaps you should change your name to “Nip and Tuck”.
Sheriff all freaked out because there is no word on resolving the $5m error from the BOCS. May be they’ve plugged the leak.
Plugging the leak would require not sending out memos to the supervisors.
How long does it take the city to get its video of council meetings up?
Do they need different software?
The council meeting is now online as VOD.
http://www.manassascity.org/MediaCenter.aspx
Very interesting. I am not buying Ian Lovejoy’s concern. So you keep everyone from getting what amounts to municipal grant money because you don’t like the distribution? How did this man vote when it was decided to let the committee decide on how to divvie up the money?
As for Mark Aveni–his intent is obvious and it sounded personal. He also would have denied all other organizations grant money.
I suppose that’s the tea party way.
On a positive note, Prince William County needs to watch a few City Council Meetings. Could anyone be more gracious and welcoming than Mayor Parrish? He defines southern hospitality during those meetings.
Corey Stewart needs to watch a few videos of Manassas Council meetings because Mayor Parrish is such a good role model. Mr. Parrish treats everyone with respect, especially the city employees. It isn’t just with respect. He welcomes them with his tone and his demeanor.
Moon, when I have spoken with “County people” who come to CoM Council Meetings, they say how much nicer it is than the BOCS sessions. Having been in all three local government chambers, the two Cities are much more pleasant in terms of making you feel welcome, City resident or not. Mayor Jones over in Manassas Park is also a gracious host.
As for Mr. Lovejoy, I again say I appreciated his stand on funding Human Services. The Staff did a great job with the directive/guidance from Council, working within the split of the total pot the best they could. I also would like to see a greater share to Human Services/Supporting Services nonprofits given around 13% of this City is in poverty, and we have around 6% of of our Older Virginians in poverty (they are bundled into that aggregate of 13%). Going to try to sell the approach of a Human Services Plan especially to Mr. Lovejoy since his two Masters fall into Human Services.
As for Mr. Aveni, his targeting of primarily the ballet and not so much the other Cultural Enrichment entities, would almost give the impression one could say there is discrimination in his approach of what is worth funding in Cultural and what is not.
I can appreciate what you are saying, Ray, about a different split. However, Monday night was not the time. The committee had done their job.
I would suggest that next year they should be given more specific objectives if that is what the city folks want.
Didn’t Mr. Lovejoy know what the directives were?
It seems to me that not funding any of the health and welfare or the arts would have not been the right thing to do, although many tea party types want to do away with this kind of govt. funding. You can see why I am suspicious of motives.