About those sanctuary charges….PWC is not a “sanctuary county”

MoonHowler

howl more whine less

Funniest thing. Two local bloggers go berserk making all sorts of charges about Prince William County becoming a sanctuary city. they obviously need to spend more time howling and less time whining and making up crap.

Those of us who have been around a while and who were involved with immigration issue remember all too well what happened.  We knew it wasn’t true.  Our police department has always cooperated with I.C.E.

That didn’t stop the local bloggers. One them  absolutely knew better. He wanted to send the immigrants back with love.  In fact, he led the charge to send them out and drive them out.  (I would sure hate to see “hate”.) The other one just wanted to take a few more pokes at Melissa Peacor and Chief Hudson. There might have even been a little gouge or two directed at Corey Stewart, just to poke the bear.

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Silver Lake–revisited

MoonHowler

I went out to Silver Lake with a friend today.  I love Silver Lake.  I have some wonderful memories involving Silver Lake. There is always something to see.  Today the treat from nature was about 80 water turtles lined up along logs, sunning themselves.  Way cool.

However, the County just hasn’t done right by Silver Lake, even with cute little turtles.

Let’s start by driving in to the lake area.  The road going in is just dreadful.  Pot Hole City.  I thought I was going to break an axle.  I thought that Rainbow Riding was supposed to keep the road upgraded until you pass their property.  If that is the case, they have failed.  That is the worst part of the road.  The rest isn’t any great shakes.  It needs to be graded  and re-graveled.

Part of the road is closed off.  There might be a good reason but the public hasn’t been told.  The cones don’t really limit access.  Cones can be moved.  Why is that part of the road closed?

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Corey Stewart: Liar, Liar Pants on Fire

Elena

When will Corey stop spreading the misinformation?  It never gets old for him and yet I find refuting his propaganda exhausting!

So, let’s just recap, shall we? Indulge me for a moment as I take us down memory lane.  Only recently, after Romney lost, Corey was oh so eager to impart his wisdom upon Mr. Romney.  You know, all that knowledge and experience he has reaching out to the minority community, oh, excuse me,  just a moment, as a I…….(choke, sputter, cough, gag).

Whew, that was close, I had difficulty catching my breath there.  Where was I?  Oh yes, Corey, the great communicator with the immigrant and minority community.  Here was his sage advice for Mr. Romney, via the New York Times:

“You don’t have to sell out on the issues and suddenly take on the Democratic position on taxes to win the black vote or the Latino vote or the women vote,” said Corey Stewart, a Republican who is chairman of the Board of County Supervisors in Prince William. “But you do have to modulate your tone.”

Mr. Stewart, who is running for lieutenant governor next year, drew some criticism in 2007 by pushing for local crackdowns by the police on illegal immigrants. That has cost him support among many Hispanic voters in the county, but he says it helped him politically among blacks who felt threatened economically by the surge of newcomers.

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Flood Victims to be evicted by PWC on Friday

MoonHowler

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From insidenova.com:

An estimated 150 to 175 individuals from 35 to 40 families from the Marumsco and Holly Acres mobile home parks were left homeless when more than 10 inches hit the U.S.1 corridor in Woodbridge last Thursday. The heavy rainfall caused massive damage to the parks; 66 out of 108 units in the Holly Acres park were declared unsafe to inhabit.

Many of the displaced flood victims are staying at the Dale City Recreation Center because they have no where else to go.  This arrangement will be very short-lived because the county is shutting the shelter down at 5 p.m. on this coming Friday.

Those still staying at Dale City Recreation Center – between 35 and 40 families – have until Friday at 5 p.m. before they have to leave the Red Cross-administered facility. Many of those families came to speak to the board on Tuesday, relaying their plight.

 Prince William Countydoesn’t have Section 8 housing vouchers at this time. And Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart reiterated to the crowd gathered at Tuesday’s meeting that the county could not provide permanent housing to the victims of the storm.

Residents and community activists appealed to the county at the BOCS meeting. 

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PWC sues feds over deportations

Angelina_Apr

Elena speaks with Channel 7 News:

 

 

According to insidenova.com, the county has filed suit against the federal government. 

Prince William County filed a lawsuit today against the Department of Homeland Security, according to a county press release.

In 2007 the Prince William Board of County Supervisors passed an ordinance that requires county police officers to check the immigration status of anyone they arrest.

If police find that they have arrested someone who is in the country illegally, they turn that person over to the department for deportation.

To date the county has turned over more that  [sic] 4,000 people over to DHS, the release stated.

At issue is the fact that an illegal immigrant who was an habitual offender hit a car carrying 3 elderly nuns.  One nun was killed and the other 2 were seriously injured.  The sisters belong to the Benedictine order and requested at the time of the tragedy that people not use the death of the sister to advance their political viewpoint.  The politicians and anti-immigration crowd of Prince William County have ignored the sisters’ request and have done quite the opposite.

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Former PWC IT chief pleads guilty to 49 felony charges

MoonHowler

Former PWC IT chief, Maneesh Gupta,  plead guilty to 49 felony charges related to a bid rigging scheme.  Gupta is the former head of Prince William County’s Office of Information Technology.   According to insidenova.com:

Maneesh Gupta, 47, the former OIT systems division chief, pleaded guilty to charges of public fraud, combination to rig bids, conspiracy to commit forgery, uttering and obtaining money by false pretenses.

The public fraud charge was amended from a charge of racketeering. Prosecutors dropped a charge of money laundering.

Prosecutors offered Gupta a plea agreement, but Prince William Circuit Court Judge Richard B. Potter said he would defer his decision on whether or not to accept it until Gupta’s sentencing hearing on Oct. 6.

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County Talk

MoonHowler

There was a request for a thread on Neighborhood Services.  I am not sure how many people are interested but here it is.  I am also going to combine it with another county issue:  DISCRETIONARY FUNDS

Many people see the discretionary funds given to the BOC supervisors as a way for the supervisors to reward their pet groups, charities, organizations with OUR money.  What do YOU think?

PWBOCS Cuts 8 More PWC Police Officers

MoonHowler

Today, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors unanimously cut  8 more officers from the police department budget.  That makes a total of 8 officers and 12 support staff in the past 2 years.  In addition, a million dollars has been removed from their supplies budget.  This would have covered  training, radar, and other equipment.  Another half million dollar cut is looming on the horizon.  The cut became effective today.

There have been no new police officers added in the past 3 years.  Supervisor Nohe asked if they were really cutting police officers.  The answer is yes.  Even though there were 8 vacancies, there are still 8 fewer uniformed officers out defending public safety today than there were yesterday because these positions were abolished and cannot be filled. 

Perhaps one of the most devastating areas to be cut  is in the schools.  Starting 2011, there will be no police officers in middle schools.  The school police officer program  has been a highly successful one which cut down on neighborhood crime, bullying, gang membership and other annoyances that seem to plague kids of middle school age.  These officers knew the kids, the teachers, the administrators, the bus drivers, and many of the parents and had a good working relationship with all of the above.  They were able to ward of f potential problems.  After this year, the schools will just have to call and get whoever responds.

There are still 6 officers who are authorized to process 287(g) related matters.  These officers in the Criminal Alien Unit only work on issues dealing with illegal immigration and continue to  be funded. 

Prince William residents are going to have to decide how important public safety is to them.  Most folks don’t give it much thought until something happens and they need a police officer, on the double.  The wait time might be getting a lot longer as retiring officers are no longer replaced.  This might be the time to start asking how much more of a loss can we take. 

Reading the paper, it seems that PWC is plagued by more crime that is associated with inner city crime.  Any time something large happens, many officers are tied up on the scene and cannot respond to other calls.  When officers work a large crime scene, that means they aren’t out in your neighborhood or mine.  Are we willing, as a county, to let this happen?  Or should we start howling and demand that PWC begin to budget for these losses from the state.  A few pennies added to our tax rate might make a great deal of difference in public safety in Prince William County.

War Museum Status: What you see is NOT what you will get

MoonHowler

Several folks have asked about the status of the War Museum. Need to Know, a regular contributor at Moonhowlings.net  has been following this initiative and has kindly offered his findings for a thread:

 

[Disclaimer: All guest posts are the opinion of the poster and do not necessarily represent the views of moonhowlings.net administration. M-H]

 

Regarding the proposed War Museum:

The land belongs currently to the Hyltons. They are “donating” it but the package the BOCS will consider October 5 includes new development rights that will benefit the Hyltons. They, Stewart and their proponents are waving the flag for a museum to honor veterans to garner support but it’s nothing more than a land deal to benefit special interests and campaign contributors. The “donation” of land will not go through unless the BOCS approves the entire package.

The staff report can be found at:

http://www.pwcgov.org/planning/documents/PLN2010-00379.pdf

Note that this staff report reads like a promotional brochure for the project, lacking any semblance of due diligence and analysis as to whether the project is in the interests of PWC taxpayers or not.

A few more details:

The supporters state that the project will need $50 million and that they will raise all of that from private sources. Note, however, that after allegedly working on development of the project for nearly a decade they have, as of the last Form 990 filing, less than $1 million in real assets. Form 990 is the annual tax filing required by the IRS for non-profit organizations. You can see them by clicking on this link:

http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/PubApps/showVals.php?ft=bmf&ein=200008915

The 2009 Form 990 shows total assets of a little over $4 million, but over $3 million of that is in the form of pledges and grants receivable that their statements have carried for at least two years. It’s not real money.

There’s not a chance in h*** they are going to be able to raise enough money, especially in an economy such as we have now, to build this thing without extensive taxpayer support.

 

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ICE to Release Illegal Immigrant Names

MoonHowler

From the Manassas News & Messenger:

Prince William County, Va. – Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials will release to Prince William authorites the identities and final disposition of every convicted criminal illegal immigrant apprehended in the county and turned over to ICE, said Chairman Corey A. Stewart on Saturday.

Stewart indicated that this reversed three years of “stiff-armed” responses by ICE to the same question. “They’ve also said they will increase detention center space in Virginia to hold illegal aliens until deportation. It won’t solve the problem, but it will help alleviate the problem.”

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CNN Spotlights PWC, sans Corey Stewart

MoonHowler

Finally, another look at PWC, three years later, without editorializing by Corey Stewart. Hear an immigrant, Latino businessman Carlos Castro, and Chief Deane three years after the Immigration Resolution was first introduced.

While this video shows the Prince William County story from a perspective that doesn’t involve Corey Stewart making a name for himself, we still aren’t seeing the whole story.

What is still missing from the discussion is that the initial Immigration Resolution is NOT in affect and it is NOT the same as sb 1070. Until this fact is brought out, the conversation really goes no where and the story is only half told.

BOCS Meeting 12/15/09

MoonHowler
council_logo

The following  appears on the December 15 Agenda for the BOCS Meeting:  item A is detailed.  Item B is currently unavailable.

You may access the agenda at the following CLICK.  Choose current agenda.

 

 Sesquicentennial Celebration

A. RES – Transfer, Budget and Appropriate $77,353 from Non-Departmental Transient Occupancy Tax Funds to the Department of Public Works to Fund Expenses for 2010 Events and Programs to Support the 150th Sesquicentennial at County Historic Sites and to Match the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership’s STEM Educational Grant Request– Thomas Bruun – Public Works Department   

 

 B. RES – Consider Proposed Memorandum of Understanding Between Prince William County and Virginia Civil War Events, Inc. – Angela Lemmon Horan – County Attorney  

 

 Note: 

Item A deals with the Prince William County Committee.  It provides for  TOT funds to be transferred to Public Works and itemizes what each amount is allocated for. 

Item B is the Creston Owen group, Virginia Civil War Events.  No mention was made of a presentation.  The information appeared to be incomplete.

Interested parties should make every attempt to watch this section of the BOCS meeting.