When Mr.
Fedors presented his first budget to the Board of Supervisors and the public,
it lacked details that were present in budgets prepared by his predecessors.
When we pointed this out to Mr. Fedors he said,
“While we are not planning to add
that level of detail to the proposed budget book for FY17, we are preparing a
supplemental information piece for Board Members that does. I will make sure
you get a copy when it is ready.”
After receiving
his response, we forwarded the email conversation with Mr. Fedors and the following
statement to the Board of Supervisors.
“I and others find Mr. Fedors' budget
proposal and last response disturbing for a number of reasons and hope the
majority of you do as well. Foremost, Mr. Fedors' budget process does not
appear to include transparency; as the Code of Virginia requires the People to
be presented information at the same time as the governing body. (Unless
otherwise exempted by FOIA) Mr. Fedors' budget process does not appear to
include an acceptable level of transparency which has led to restricting the
People from data that is necessary to evaluate how their tax dollars are being
spent. I will not say much more at this time as I understand Mr. Fedors' is new
to the government game. On the other hand, his staff certainly are not. One
would hope they would guide their new boss in a better direction.”
Mr. Fedors
provided us the information piece as he promised, but even after we expressed
our concerns to him and the Board of Supervisors, his FY18 budget demonstrated
the same lack of transparency. Again we contacted Mr. Fedors via email to
request line item data, which the Finance Director provided.
What we find concerning is the fact that Mr. Bazzani publicly stated Mr. Fedors’ FY17 Budget was the most comprehensive budget document he has seen in all his years of managing budgets. How could anyone make such a statement about a budget document that lacks the amount of detail Mr. Fedors’ lacked? The FY17 budget email conversation we have shared below clearly demonstrates the Board of Supervisor did not have the necessary data to effectively scrutinize Mr. Fedors’ proposed budget until several days after Mr. Bazzani praised Mr. Fedors.
What we find concerning is the fact that Mr. Bazzani publicly stated Mr. Fedors’ FY17 Budget was the most comprehensive budget document he has seen in all his years of managing budgets. How could anyone make such a statement about a budget document that lacks the amount of detail Mr. Fedors’ lacked? The FY17 budget email conversation we have shared below clearly demonstrates the Board of Supervisor did not have the necessary data to effectively scrutinize Mr. Fedors’ proposed budget until several days after Mr. Bazzani praised Mr. Fedors.
We have
provided Slideshare presentations of both of Mr. Fedors’ budgets and the last
budget his predecessor prepared. We have provided our email conversations with
Mr. Fedors, the Finance Director and the Board of Supervisors, as well as Slideshare presentations of the data we were forced to request from Mr. Fedors. We have also provided
some video clips for your enjoyment. Though there are numerous other
transparency shortcomings and many wasteful spending practices that we have not touched on here, we ask you to take special notice of the difference in the
amount of data provided for budgeted expenditures for each department. You will
see that Mr. Fedors combined budgeted expenditures into three line items for each department,
whereas his predecessor had many more line items for each department. What are they trying to hide??
Written
comments may be emailed to Kennysr61@gmail.com
Read more stories at: http://www.gloucestercounty-va.com/
Supervisor Bazzani stating he knows every aspect of the budgetSupervisor Bazzani praising Mr. Fedors' FY17 budget even before Mr. Fedors' information piece with detailed data was provided.
FY16 Budget (General fund expenditures begin on Slideshare page 75)
FY17 Budget (General fund expenditures begin on Slideshare page 66)
FY17 info we were forced to requested from Mr. Fedors
FY18 info we were forced to requested from Mr. Fedors
Fy2018 proposed budget gf & capital expenditure line item including exte. pdf from Kenneth Hogge Sr
Email conversation about FY17 budget
03/20/16 at 11:57 AM
Board
Members,
I and others
find Mr. Fedors' budget proposal and last response disturbing for a number of
reasons and hope the majority of you do as well. Foremost, Mr. Fedors'
budget process does not appear to include transparency; as the Code of Virginia
requires the People to be presented information at the same time as the
governing body. (Unless otherwise exempted by FOIA) Mr. Fedors' budget process
does not appear to include an acceptable level of transparency which has led to
restricting the People from data that is necessary to evaluate how their tax
dollars are being spent.
I will not
say much more at this time as I understand Mr. Fedors' is new to the government
game. On the other hand, his staff certainly are not. One would hope they would
guide their new boss in a better direction.
Respectfully,
-----
Forwarded Message -----
From: "Fedors, Brent" bfedors@gloucesterva.info
From: "Fedors, Brent" bfedors@gloucesterva.info
To: Kenny
Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2016 10:41 AM
Subject: Re: 2017 Budget
Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2016 10:41 AM
Subject: Re: 2017 Budget
Mr. Hogge -
While we are
not planning to add that level of detail to the proposed budget book for FY17,
we are preparing a supplemental information piece for Board Members that does.
I will make
sure you get a copy when it is ready - likely Tuesday.
Brent
On Mar 17,
2016, at 9:22 AM, Kenny wrote:
Brent,
We are
looking for a proposed budget document that contains at least as much
information as the 2016 budget proposal which can be found at: http://www.gloucesterva.info/Portals/0/finance/documents/FY16%20County%20Administrator's%20Proposed%20Budget.pdf?ver=2015-03-05-090048-737
A
"general fund expenditure budget" as presented in the 2016 proposal
is one example of the expanded data we would like to continue to see and are
hoping the Supervisors are already assessing as they process the FY17
proposal.
Kenny
From: "Fedors, Brent" <bfedors@gloucesterva.info>
To: Kenny
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2016 12:37 PM
Subject: Re: 2017 Budget
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2016 12:37 PM
Subject: Re: 2017 Budget
Mr. Hogge -
The 2017
Budget Book provided to Board Members is the same as can be found at the
following link: http://gloucesterva.info/Portals/0/finance/documents/FY17%20Proposed%20Budget%20and%20FY17%20Proposed%20Capital%20Budget.pdf?ver=2016-03-11-154752-740
There are
also copies of the book available for public review at both libraries and in
the County Administration office.
Please let
me know if there are specific questions you have that I may be able to address
- I'm glad to help in any way I can.
Brent
On Mar 16,
2016, at 9:55 AM, Kenny wrote:
Hello Mr.
Fedors,
I would like
to get a copy of the "2017 Budget Book" that has been provided to the
Supervisors. The information posted on the County's website is not detailed
enough for the People to do any sort of analysis of what is being proposed.
Thank you
sir,
Email conversation about FY18 budget data
Mar 20 at 11:15
AM
To Kenny
Message
body
Attached
is the information as requested.
1st
tab – General Fund by Expenditure Line Item
2nd
tab – Provides information on the Total Transfers Out line item from the
General Fund
3rd
tab – Capital Projects
4th
tab – External Agencies Funding Request and what is included in the Proposed
Budget
Please let
me know if you have questions or need anything further.
Thanks,
Stephanie
From: Fedors, Brent
Sent: Sunday, March 19, 2017 2:06 PM
To: Kenny
Cc: Tinsley, Stephanie <stinsley@gloucesterva.info>; Lewis, Christi <clewis@gloucesterva.info>
Subject: Re: FY18 Budget Info Request
Sent: Sunday, March 19, 2017 2:06 PM
To: Kenny
Cc: Tinsley, Stephanie <stinsley@gloucesterva.info>; Lewis, Christi <clewis@gloucesterva.info>
Subject: Re: FY18 Budget Info Request
Mr. Hogge -
I am
forwarding this to Ms. Tinsley who will coordinate our response.
Thank you
for your inquiry,
Brent
On Mar 19, 2017, at 9:51 AM, Kenny wrote:
Hello Mr.
Fedors,
Hope this
finds you in good health and spirits.
Can I get a
copy of the proposed FY18 line item budget and proposed capital improvement
expenditures? If possible; I would also like something that reflects the name
of all external agencies/nongovernmental organizations that are requesting FY18
funding and how much each is asking for. Electronic copies are preferred.
Thank you,
Kenny
Routine Inspection
