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Draining The Local Government Swamp

Draining The Local Government Swamp

Our new President promised that if he were elected he would drain the federal government swamp and return power to We The People. So far President Trump appears to be living up to his promise, but he cannot do it alone and our federal government is not the only place where the government swamp needs to be drained. Our Commonwealth government (I emphasize “Common”), needs some draining and so does our local government and many other local government’s throughout Virginia.

One of the biggest issues of government overreach in Gloucester County, Virginia is land use zoning. Gloucester has been driven onto the path of the local government telling land owners what they may or may not do with their property. That is not the Gloucester I and many others grew up in. Our local government and elected representatives have passed local laws and adopted policies that require land owners to comply with “their” restrictive zoning requirements. In fact, our current Board of Supervisors has passed local law prohibiting certain styles of buildings because they do not like how they look. Further appalling is the fact that one of our elected Supervisors has publicly stated during a Board of Supervisors meeting that he believes they sometimes need to tell land owners what they may or may not do with their property. In my opinion Gloucester County “is” the definition of United Nations Agenda 21 micro-zoning.

Several years ago our local government began to implement what they refer to as the “Village Plans”. These plans constrict growth within the Hayes/Gloucester Point and Courthouse areas. They want retail and other business, medium to high density housing and other such growth restricted primarily to these areas and are making a concerted effort to develop every space possible. 

Recently our Board of Supervisors approved a rezoning request so a developer can build an apartment complex next to the York River Crossing Shopping Center. This complex will contain around 120 apartment units and will share parking with the shopping center. The apartments will also share the existing entrances to the shopping center, as there are no plans to construct additional entrances. In this instance our local government made exceptions to their zoning restrictions in order to accommodate the developer even though, People spoke against the apartments at the Public Hearing and there will be traffic and other impacts that will negatively affect a significant number of us. Yet, they would not approve a small developers request for an exception to their zoning rules so he could build a single duplex apartment unit in a Courthouse area neighborhood.

About three years ago our local government approved a developers request to rezone land behind the American Legion Hall so they can build around 260 apartment units. This land is well outside of their Village Plan development area, but the rezoning request was still approved. Recently a developer requested our local government to rezone five and half acres of land so he can build five, four unit, apartment buildings; for a total of 20 apartments. This developers rezoning request was denied.

Recently a Gloucester land owner spoke publicly at a Board of Supervisor meeting about his dismay at not being able to rent out a house located along Route 17 because the house had not been occupied for two years or more. As it turns out, some years ago our local government implemented a local law that rezones residential property within the Development District to commercial property if the residence remains uninhabited for two years or more.

Our local government would like us to think they are taking steps to accommodate growth in Gloucester, when in reality they are just hand selecting what they want to see in Gloucester and continuing to follow the United Nations micro-zoning path created by their predecessors back in the 90’s. I believe the village plans and other constrictive zoning and zoning associated laws and policies should be scrapped. I believe land owners should be given their property rights back. If it does not pertain to health, safety or security, our local government should refrain from interfering in what landowners do with their land. Getting rid of micro-zoning practices will save a lot of tax dollars and will also generate additional revenue from growth.

Do you agree or disagree?

Comments about articles and submissions for publication on GVLN may be emailed to: Kennysr61@gmail.com

Let your voice be heard on any topic pertaining to our community.

We will publish many opinions the newspapers will not.

Kenny Hogge, Sr.

Gloucester Point, Virginia

Kennysr61@gmail.com

Where Do Your Local Tax Dollars Go?

Gloucester County, Virginia is once again entering into the annual budget building season. Last year there were folks who wanted to see a seven or more cents increase in real estate taxes. After efforts by several conservative minded Gloucester People and a lot of deliberation by the Board of Supervisors, the increase turned out to be ½ cent. Let’s review what I suggested to the Board of Supervisors during the public comment period of the meeting in which the Board voted, in a three to four split decision, to increase real estate taxes by ½ cent. I began my suggestions with: Any tax increase is unacceptable considering last year’s increase, the repeal of the boat tax and the amount of money irresponsibly spent year after year. I then made the following suggestions.

-Parks and Recreation funding should be limited to what it takes to operate and maintain our most used parks and programs and the lesser used (over half of them) should be closed. Manpower should be limited to minimum operational requirements. All parks and recreation capital projects should be frozen until financial ability and growth trigger further expansion. This will save over $250,000 annually.

-We pay over $250,000 a year to rent our libraries. The rent arrangement for the Main St. Library is an unethical back door funding mechanism for a non-profit organization (That organization is the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust) and is not a fair and transparent way to spend tax dollars. As a first step, the library at Hayes should be closed and funds normally appropriated for its operation and rent should be diverted to a library construction fund. Owning our libraries will save over $200,000 annually, after depositing $50,000 annually into a maintenance and expansion fund.

-Last year I called for the elimination of the Community Education Department. (Instead of eliminating it, more money was dumped into it and the name was changed to the Department of Community Engagement.) I also called for returning the department’s functions back to schools, social services, County administration, human resources, IT and the various non-profit organizations the department supports. I suggested moving the director to the planning department. (I now feel the position should be eliminated all together.) This will yield an annual savings of at least $350,000. (If the director position is eliminated the savings would be over $100,000 more than the $350,000 I suggested last year.)

-Animal Control should be reorganized into a reactionary department and patrolling should cease. This will make the department more citizen friendly. Staff should be limited to two officers. The Sheriff’s dept. dispatcher should receive incoming calls and dispatch the officers as needed. This will save over $100,000 annually.

-What to do with our bus garage and old Page properties is being considered. It has been rumored that selling all or part of the properties is the best option. Considering our substantial infrastructure needs and need for consolidation, any option to sell the properties does not seem to be fiscally responsible, in the best interest of managing our assets or taking care of our employees.

These properties afford us the ideal location to consolidate county and school functions. We should expand our bus garage and consolidate all school and county transportation functions under one fleet director employed by the County. We should consolidate all of our school and County public works, buildings and grounds and janitorial type functions under one director employed by the County. Utilities has money to purchase property for of a new yard and office. It should be used to begin the consolidation process by moving Utilities to the old Page property. (The County and our public school system continue to kick this can down the road. Someone wants the old Page and school bus garage properties and Gloucester taxpayers are going to end up on the short end of the stick if we allow the property to be sold. As it stands now, tens of thousands of dollars have been spent to do a study on where a consolidated facility should be located. The County and schools have limited the amount of land that can be used at the old Page and bus garage properties by focusing the study on using only ½ of the property. Even after imposing that restriction, the study determined that the old Page and bus garage property is the most economical location out of three locations that were considered. I have been telling them for three years for free, what they have now spent tens of thousands of our local tax dollars to learn.)  

-All IT and financial functions should also be consolidated under one director per department and employed by the County. All of the mentioned consolidations will lead to a savings of over $1 million annually. (I now believe these functions should also be consolidated on the old Page and bus garage property.)

Total potential savings from these few suggestions would be in the neighborhood of $2,000,000 annually. Unfortunately, not enough People in Gloucester are speaking out against the unnecessary spending of tax dollars. There is an ongoing effort to bring industrial and other types of businesses to Gloucester. They claim we need to generate more revenue to ease the tax burden. Generating more revenue in the manner they are attempting will result in more local government and higher taxes. Gloucester enjoys one of the lowest real estate tax rates around, but it continues to inch up. When government grows, taxes rates generally increase in feet instead of inches.

The County Administrator will eventually release his proposed budget for next year. I will let you know when he does. I bet they will be asking for seven or more cents again. In the meantime, here is the web address to the County budget that was approved last year.

http://www.gloucesterva.info/Portals/0/finance/documents/FY17AdoptedBudgetandFY17AdoptedCapitalBudget.pdf?ver=2016-08-19-125753-407

Keep following and please share with everyone you know in Gloucester County.

Comments about articles and submissions for publication on GVLN may be emailed to: Kennysr61@gmail.com

Let your voice be heard on any topic pertaining to our community.

We will publish many opinions the newspapers will not.

Kenny Hogge, Sr.

Gloucester Point, Virginia

Kennysr61@gmail.com

My experiences while serving as an At-Large member of the Gloucester County, Virginia Public Utilities Advisory Committee (PUAC) (The 5th in a series of articles about my experiences and findings)

Our Public Sewer Collection System

Like our public water system, parts of our public sewer collection system are very old and in need of attention sooner than later. Our sewer system is made up of a series of underground pipes, manholes and pumping stations; with some components in the Courthouse area dating back to the 1950’s.

Many of the Courthouse area sewer components and components in other areas of our sewer system are not sealed to prevent rain and ground water from entering the system and to prevent sewer water from escaping into the environment. In fact there is at least one building in the Courthouse area that has its storm drain pipes connected to our public sewer system. When rain and groundwater enter our sewer system it greatly increases the amount of sewer water that must be treated before it can be released back into the environment. Rain and ground water infiltration also increases the workload on our pumping stations, causing some stations to be flooded and overwhelmed during heavy rain and flood events. Because sewer pumping stations are typically built on low land, overwhelmed and flooded sewer systems have the potential to cause negative environmental impacts to our creeks, rivers, streams, etc. All of these negative impacts equate to a lot of tax and utility customer dollars being flushed down the drain.

Environmentally sound, operationally capable and dependable pumping stations are necessary components of our sewer system. Some of our older pumping stations pose significant operational and environmental risks. At least two of our pumping stations need to be completely replaced due to their age, size and the way they were built. We also have several pumping stations that need to be upgraded because they are so old that it is impossible to obtain repair and replacement parts. These stations typically contain two pumps, but some of our stations only have one operational pump. Not having an operational backup pump significantly decreases dependability and greatly increases environmental and other risks. It will cost a substantial amount of money to upgrade the pumping stations that need it, but it will cost far less than complete replacement of the stations. The needs of our pumping stations are all part of normal public sewer system operations and maintenance and should have been financially planned for years ago.

Employee safety in and around sewer pump stations, manholes and other such high risk areas should always be a high priority to those we hire and elect. Sadly and alarmingly that is not what I found to be the case in Gloucester County. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

Sewer pumping stations pose numerous health and safety risks to those who operate and maintain them. Sewer gases can form in pumping station tanks that will incapacitate a person within three seconds. Imagine climbing down a ladder into a tank 15 feet deep with liquid several feet deep below you. Imagine becoming incapacitated after you take one or two breaths. You will fall in and die if you are not already connected to a retrieval system and someone uses it to remove you from the tank immediately. It has happened, many, many times all over the world. In fact, in September 1996 four construction workers died on the Navel Weapons Station pier in Yorktown. One man entered a pumping station tank and became incapacitated. Another man entered to help the first man and he too was knocked out by sewer gas. Another man went in to help, he too fell out. A fourth man climbed in and he went down too. A fifth man called for help when he discovered what happened, but it was too late. All four men were dead within minutes because mandated employee safety procedures were not followed. What is even worse is they had an air quality tester and a retrieval system right there with them, but chose not to utilize them.  

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration or OSHA has established mandatory employee safety procedures for entering confined spaces like sewer manholes and pumping station tanks. Failure to follow OSHA mandated permit required confined space entry procedures can result in injury and death of employees; and fines, jail time and lawsuits for supervisors, executives, businesses, counties, cities, etc. Utilities has a portable tripod and wench retrieval system that can be connected to a single person when they enter some types of confined spaces. This system does not work at some of our pumping stations because of they way the stations were built and how much room the tripod requires. I suggested constructing a fixed retrieval system at these pump stations, but do not know if anything has been done as of yet to protect our employees and comply with law. Utilities also has air quality testers, but it appears they started using them only year or so ago. For years our elected representatives, hired government administrators and leaders of our utilities department have been allowing our labor level employees to enter potential death traps, on almost a daily bases, without testing air quality, utilizing adequate retrieval systems or following other workplace safety laws.

Over the years a heck of a lot of what I have shared in this and other articles about my experiences on the PUAC has been made known to our elected representatives and hired administrators. Over the years they have all continued to kick the can down the road. Well, the can has become thin and the road short. Before our current elected representatives throw more money away on pipe dreams of industrializing our County in support of turning it into a retirement community, they need to rectify our infrastructure deficiencies and set in place ordinances that will provide the necessary mandates to prevent further neglect, fraud, waste and abuse of our public water and sewer systems.

Keep following and please share with everyone you know in Gloucester County.

Comments about my articles and submissions for publication on GVLN may be emailed to: Kennysr61@gmail.com

Let your voice be heard on any topic pertaining to our community.

We will publish many opinions the newspapers will not.

Kenny Hogge, Sr.

Gloucester Point, Virginia

Kennysr61@gmail.com