Giving up the Salem seat

This will be Spotsylvania’s loss. More than any other single person, Mr. Jackson has insisted that the county become more fiscally responsible – not only about growth but it’s other finances.

Mr. Jackson is also the kind of person who won’t do a job unless he is going to commit to the time and effort to do it right.

When a significant development proposal is made, I ALWAYs want to know Mr. Jackson’s views on it.

I wish him the best and hope and pray that absent his voice, the county does not slip back.

My statement on this can be found at http://blog.spotsygop.com/. Holmes is an awful excuse for a public servant and the people of Salem could do MUCH better.

In contrast to Gary Jackson’s record of fiscal discipline, Don Holmes never met a budget he could cut; never met a tax he didn’t campaign for. His record on transparency and accountability is awful, as evidenced by his extending the contract of our indicted Superintendent in 2005.

He does not deserve a promotion.

Dan- I understand what you are saying- everyone makes mistakes, including me. But Holmes also attacked Eric Martin in 2007 for having speeding tickets. The hypocrisy there is pretty rank.

Perhaps more relevant, he broke the law by not disclosing his conflict of interest when voting for a promotion for his wife in 2008. That’s pretty recent.

More recently still, he missed 1/2 of all SB meetings just last year. Further, he convicted Amanda Blalock without even seeing the evidence aganst her! His record does not say honorable. It says blatent disregard for honor and, in many cases, law. SB members like him are the reason Spotsy has many homeschoolers.

Well, I’d challenge Steve to show where I have cut any slack on the transparency and accountability continuum for anyone.

I don’t really know Mr. Holmes at all but I would welcome a campaign with choices and debates on the issues.

Mr. Holmes did seem to be okay with the SB approach to the censure … he did not object or abstain.

I do think Mr. Jackson is pretty straight but also point out that he has really not made a point of promising transparency and accountability no more or less than any of the others.

but then again.. I don’t think that fiscal conservatism means absolute opposition to taxes either.

And if we talk taxes – we include all categories including the schools and don’t cherry pick our favorite targets.

bonkers about Hap? show me guy……..where?

I think it is you that is clearly bonkers about the man…guy.

And hey… news flash – the man is NOT a Republican much less a Tea Party Republican!

At the local level – for some of us – politics has been less about the two parties and more about the person though I acknowledge that guys like yourself have managed to make it more about party labels as of late – in my mind – not such a good thing but that’s life.

I would rather hear more from you guys on concepts like Balanced Scorecard, what is a fair approach to development costs (proffers, impact fees), UDAs, and what should we do about our transportation needs in this area, etc. and less about who shot John (or what Hap said).

LG- it was on this very blog. “guy”… “Musical Chairs”.

I’m not bonkers about or for him. He’s a liberal Democrat who was Executive Director of the South Carolina Democratic Party- fired for calling the governor a “Fascist”. He was also chair of Dem Terry McAuliffe’s campaign for governor, and has hurled insults and epithets at GOP candidates for years now.

He also blamed the Arizona shootings on Republicans.

He’s a partisan liberal Democrat. He’s just not honest about being so.

And by the way- show me one, even one, development project he’s voted against in the last 2 years, or even 4 years. This myth of him being “smart growth” is just that- and he’s sitting on a pile of campaign cash from developers to prove it.

My evidence is in his quarterly filings. Look there. And there is a mountain of documentation for his various insults and slurs (hurled exclusively at Republicans and conservatives).

But this episode illustrates the issue I brought up earlier. When elected officials you happen to be friends with are held to account, you attack me for doing it and make excuses for them.

And by the way, it is extremely likely that we will not just support Republicans in this election. We will support conservative independents and even conservative Dems if they agree with us. I am much less interested in partisan labels than in what someone’s beliefs are and how they act. And in that measure, both Hap and Holmes are found wanting, for different reasons.

VERY glad to hear that about VPAP, but the past reports are not yet online.

I don’t think developers are evil, nor do I think they should somehow not be allowed to make money. This is America. But they need to work with the county in a reasoned and moderate fashion. But the county supervisors need to keep a bigger picture in perspective. For instance, the 600 apartment Cosner East dropped a bunch more units on an already oversupplied housing market where we are still the foreclosure capital of Virginia. The shame of it was that they took away Industrial-zoned land- and its potential for high-paying jobs- to do it.

But look at what happened with VRE. You had a developer- Fitz Johnson- who owns land in Eastern Lee Hill and who is actively campaigning for the new VRE station to be put there. He writes an op-ed to the FLS calling the GOP candidates “Neanderthals”, then drops $25,000 apiece to Gary Skinner and Benny Pitts to purchase their elections, all to make sure he can retire to Florida on the Spotsylvania taxpayer’s dime.

Is that right? Both Pitts and Skinner were supported by the C-500 by the way, in their final act of ceding the moral high ground of being a “nonpartisan, smart growth” group.

Larry man, I very much see what you’re saying but I can’t link to a piece of paper or a statement given on the radio. You have to understand that. You can go to the Registrar’s office and look up the paperwork, it’s all public record. Google the rest. I will help, look for a comprehensive listing soon on the Spotsy GOP blog.

It’s also not enough for you to simply dismiss it out of hand. I personally witnessed things like calling people names on the radio. Hap also accused Republicans of being to blame for the Arizona shootings, totally without proof (he did it on Facebook). Do you condone that? How about this: Can you unequivocally condemn name-calling, invectives and the like from our local politicians and from the FLS Editorial Board? I can.

I will not impose a restriction on developer contributions, but at the same time I would not allow anyone to “buy” elections for us. We work with developers, they give a little to us but it’s no where near the order of magnitude they give to Hap, Gary and Benny. And importantly, they don’t ask anything of us in return.

The C-5 (sorry, but there are no “hundreds” there) group has never endorsed a contested Republican. Ever. Their board as it currently exists are all members of the Spotsylvania Democratic Committee and all their donations are to Democrats. All they are is the county Democratic party masquerading as independents…. much like Hap.

I don’t mind that they are active, I actiually like it whe more people are active in politics whether they agree with me or not. But at least have the honesty to say what you really are rather than go through this ruse because you know 70% of the county is conservative.

I can endorse a call for civility- but we Republicans are tired of getting called epithets and insults and not having it reported by the FLS (indeed, also having the Editorial board participate in the epithets). So I can tell you I will be particularly vigilant about the epithet-hurling. If folks behave in a civil way, there is nothing to fear.

The C-500 lost any pretense of being nonpartisan because then would never support Republicans. That’s why the Republicans left. Those that remain fight an uphill battle to make the group more fair- but to little avail.

As I said, I actually have no problem with developers per se, any more than any other type of business. Where I have a problem is dropping thousands of dollars into local races to sway outcomes, then expecting access. We fundraise with them, but they are far from being our larger donors. I don’t think the modern Spotsy GOP has any problem meeting the development community in the middle, as long as it will not result in a tax hike or increase county costs. I might add in there that industrial zoned land needs be preserved also.

And we spend more than $12,500 per student btw, most in the region. Our test scores are not best in the region, some some measure of accountability needs to happen there. The issue in Spotsy is more that the calls for higher taxes and more expenditures mask a lack of accountability and transparency.

Steve, can you honestly say that things like “Obama hates whites” and is a Socialist that hangs out with anti-Americans, blah, blah blah was not the first shot fired ?

I’m pretty sure C500 likes Mr. Logan and Jackson Steve.

C500 wrote a white paper supporting Mr Jacksons’s call for adequate proffers for development and maintaining a measured rate of growth (2%) that we could reasonably afford.

you still have to define how much developer money in local races is “too much”.

otherwise you just have an opinion like everyone else.

How about this – your candidates will put on their websites within 24hrs any contributions from developers?

you need to step up on this guy.

Schools are around 10K unless you have other data to provide.. I can provide you with link to the 10K data.

Keep in mind that the State-funded SOQs – about 4-5K …fund ONLY Academic uses and that all the other things are funded locally from property taxes – about 4K worth when the average home in the county generates about 2K in taxes. Clearly for a family with a kid – there’s another 2K coming from somewhere locally – a clear wealth transfer.

question is – what do you think about that?

Larry: is all parties running for office post developer contributions we could do that as well.

I don’t debate with people who won’t put forward their real name. By putting my name forward I put my personal integrity on the line. Larry does the same, we don’t agree all the time and have both taken hits for it but it is the honorable thing to do.

I do not debate anonymous.

I can back up each quote I mentioned. What moderate sounds like to me is a troll who was never a conservative to begin with and is aghast at someone who would actually stand up for lower taxes. Or job growth. Or openness in government. Or volunteerism.

My role for a couple years is to defend those things. Contraversial?
Sometimes, if you’re a liberal. But ultimately the amount of political intimidation here has silenced some good conservatives. I’ve been threatened three times already, which is a little scary, because some of these wackos sound like “moderate” and after Arizona you can never be too sure.

But I’ll step up, for the time being. This is my home, and my kid’s home. I want it to be better than it currently is.

Just remember folks, Steve Thomas as Chairman of the Spotsylvania Republican Party is going and saying what Republicans do best – BEING NEGATIVE. Don’t expect anything else or you will be surprised and disappointed.

Steve Thomas I have talked with Mr. Pitts and he denies your public statement that Fitz Johnson provided $25,000.00 to his re-election campaign (statement # 15). If I were Mr. Pitts I would challenge you to prove that your statement(s) is factual. If you can’t do it, you would be served with a civil suit. I have reviewed that campaign statements of Mr. Pitts, and Mr.Thomas you are not even close. You might want to consider hiring an attorney.

prolly would have been better to post the FLS article first – then commentary … that way you get the facts out on offense, eh?

harder to take the high ground when you blow off your feet before you get there…

is that date – January 2010 the FIRST TIME that the public knew about the developer donations?

I don’t recall an earlier articles on it and I’m quite sure if that info had come out in the heat of the election – there would have been a kerfuffle.

Lucky for us.. I (hope) VPAP is going to cover us this year and I’m pretty sure they are fairly timely in the disclosure end of things.

This pretty much demonstrates how different folks have different idea of how much developer money is “too much”.

For myself the threshold is much lower but without timely disclosure of campaign donations in the first place, citizens are not served well.

I’d have a hard time supporting any candidate for BOS who received that much money when we know that section of the county is targeted for major development.

Here we have a 30 post discussion between seven individuals of which two operate anonymously.

It seems to me that the discussion would have taken on more meaning had our two anonymous friends not been hiding their true identities.

Larry, you and I are certainly not far apart about transparency.

I will recommend anyone who seeks the GOP endorsement post donations on their website within 72 hours, which is a reasonable timeframe.

in terms of anonymous posting by elected officials – I’m sure there will be differing opinions.

Mine is that if they are commenting on issue that they are involved in with respect to their role in the county that they ought to post with their real name.

But if they want to comment as a citizen on something they have an interest in – as a citizen – but no role in it directly -then I think they should be able to post anonymously.

I can see folks arguing for the opposite… so maybe offer your opinions

In terms of what citizen groups and political parties advocating for better govt and transparency – BOTH could – on their list of questions for the candidates SPECIFICALLY address current areas of govt that LACK transparency and ask the candidates if they would make a motion if elected to make those things more transparent.

This type of thing is way, way more important than asking candidates if they support “generic” ….. “Smart Growth” or whatever.

okay, so I’ve blathered enough for now… and will retire to listen…. for a while…

…if the subject he(she) was commenting on was with respect to their official duties – yes but if the subject was… say on a subject they did not deal with as an elected official but had an opinion as a private citizen – I’d allow them the flexibility to not publically identify them-self.

Having said that – if someone is an elected official in the county – in some manner a wide variety of issues…. could be construed by some to be tangentially connected

a hypothetical: there’s a problem at one of the schools with something and the BOS – as a parent would like to comment – as a parent but not as an elected official.

…. my opinion… and I acknowledge an arguable point..

Bill, I also agree with you on posting under your real name. The only people here who did not post under their name were the ones who came to insult, threaten, and intimidate. These are not conducive to open discourse.

If you are a supervisor or other official, cowboy up and claim your statements. Otherwise they are nothing but useless blather intended not to further debate but suppress it.

well… it’s sort of a irrelevant discussion in a way as long as FLS allows anonymous comments… though …as we know .. at least some folks at FLS are not keen to that idea in the comments for regular news stories.. eh?

so it sounds like you are in the camp that likes the idea of people using their real names?

So, what relevance does anonymous play in getting results, beyond those MODERATE and GIVEMEABREAK2M bring to the market of friendly persuasion?

Take a second look at the comments provided by all and agreeing on only one thing; Government accountability and transparency.

And, Steve Thomas is going to look into this from his side of a fence while the public resides on both sides and the middle and still don’t have answers to PUBLIC inquiry.

Where and when do we stop running around in the same circle and start putting STUFF into writing? Too many lost conversations and far too many secrets that continue to wave consituents into the wind and no hope of hanging on, as their elected officials invest in more windmills than answers to serious questions for PUBLIC consumption.

Next time you want to check election records and who bought who, try going back to the election year that seated Gary Skinner and see who contributed to his win. Actually it’s public record and recorded. My presentation before the BOS provides the details; Cosner, Silver, Thomas Y. Welsh, Timmy Welsh (RCCI), Meadows and a car dealership that services Supv. Skinners collection of cars.

So, what bearing does this have on the current conversation, or has that all been religated to another trivia contest being served up by the FLS and its component parts?

Just saying you’re going to do something about accountability and transparency in local government, and within 6 months come back to tell US you have been unsuccessful because County Government cut you off at the pass, simply doesn’t cut the mustard anymore, unless of course you only want to continue to bounce the ball for appearances sake and never score a single point worth making. Your call.