Will this change improve our drinking water
quality? Time will tell.
Related Stories: http://www.gloucestercounty-va.com/2017/09/is-gloucester-countys-public-drinking.html
Defending The Republic, Not some Democracy, and enjoying some of life's rewards along the way.
Saturday, October 7, 2017
Friday, October 6, 2017
Gloucester County At-Large School Board Candidate Brenda Mack's Campaign Flyer
This post does not signify our support for any candidate at this time. Just providing what is out there to our community.
The Black Budget And Gloucester, Virginia
Please take the time to watch this video. It will give you the proper background for you to better understand the rest of the story I am about to present here.
What a strange ride the video is. But, can it possibly be true? One has to look at the backgrounds of those reporting on this subject. One area of talks is trillions of dollars that the government is missing and can not account for, and this is all verifiable. More keeps turning up missing every day. How can this be? Is it really happening? Well, let me tell you of a recent story that is going on here in Gloucester and some very strange events. I can not say this is a Black Budget situation, but it smells like it very well could be.
SNAP. Food benefits for those with incomes below a certain national average. It starts from the Federal Government and is handled in each state by the state government and filters down to each locality. So, many working families do get assistance for food if they qualify. It's not a handout to those who are not willing to work only like so many people believe it is. It is much needed by many as there are not that many good jobs left in this country.
Recently a family on SNAP had their benefits date altered and were not notified of this change. Benefits were expected on the 1st of the month like they have always been but in September, those benefits were not there. When the family inquired as to what was going on, they were told that because of the case number of that family fell on a certain number which meant that they were now scheduled for a new benefits date to begin on the 7th of each month.
Okay, no big deal except the family never received the notice. I was informed of this and asked if SNAP was going to compensate the family for the week they were not receiving the usual benefits. Answer? They didn't really know. In the past SNAP or Social Services did compensate for missing weeks. So, I checked into the matter for them with a number of politicians I know and a few I have corresponded with in the past. Here is what I learned. From Social Services, the dates had to be offset as the food retailers gathered together and complained to our government that having benefits all start on the first of the month, the retailers could not properly manage the demand. Rightfully so. So the retailers asked for benefits to be staggered. Rightfully so.
What I was looking at however, in the past Social Services compensated for any potential lost benefits in the past. This time they are not. Money is pooling somewhere on all of this. The one family alone lost $125.00 for one week of lost benefits. They were not complaining, but I wanted to know where that money is going. $125.00 for one family. This is happening to maybe one million families in this state alone. If the average loss here is say $75.00 per family times 1 million families in the state of Virginia alone, that is a lot of money. My first thought was this is all happening real close to election time. Could someone be putting that money aside to try and rig the upcoming elections at the state level? Stranger things have already happened folks.
Interesting news. I get a call from one the the aids of one of our state representatives. He has been stonewalled looking into this matter. I have even sent inquires as high as Congressman Rob Wittman's office. As of yet, no response from his office. I just recently stumbled across the above video, looking at the people and credentials of these folks, I am seeing that there just might be something to this Black Budget despite it's insane underlying nature. Maybe it's not all that far fetched. There is a comment at the end of this video I really liked. If you do not think conspiracies are real, try getting involved in one and see if you can disprove it first. You may just learn more than you ever knew existed. Yes, we are often considered a conspiracy theory site. That is because conspiracies seem to actually exist everywhere. Some are frosted with stupidity or some insanity, but there is usually still a good level of truth in most all of the far fetched conspiracies that you hear about.
So again, I can not say that state SNAP money that is not being accounted for is going to this Black Budget concept. I can't say it isn't since those actually digging are getting stonewalled in their investigation. You have to determine for yourself and do some research on your own and make up your own mind.
Gloucester County Employees May Be Getting More Tax Dollars; But Is It The Right Type Of Pay Increase?
After publishing our story about Gloucester County’s Administrator and Attorney getting raises,
we received numerous comments from Gloucester residents. It looks like there
are a whole lot of people in Gloucester who do not agree with the Board of
Supervisors repeatedly giving nice raises and increased hours of paid time off to our local government
executives while our non-executive employees get little to nothing. In fact,
there are employees who take home less pay now than they did ten and more years ago. This type
of crony socialist practice in our local government should be considered
unacceptable by anyone who has worked for a living.
Now
there is talk of bonuses for county employees, (Imagine that, just before
election time) but are bonus payments in the best interest of non-executive
local government employees? Yes and no. If a person working for our local
government has no intentions of ever retiring under the Virginia Retirement
System (VRS), then yes, bonuses would likely be beneficial to them.
Bonuses
are not in the best interest of non-executive employees who intend to make
Virginia government service a career. Bonuses are not included as part of a
Virginia government employee’s annual salary when determining how much their
retirement check from VRS will be. VRS defines Annual Salary as:
An employee’s full compensation payable
annually, not including overtime pay, extraordinary pay, bonus pay, nonpermanent
shift differentials or termination pay for annual or sick leave.
The
best way to compensate or reward our non-executive local government employees
is with a real pay raise. Throwing a bonus to these employees is nothing more
than an effort to get by with paying these hard-working people as little as
possible. What the current and previous Boards of Supervisors don’t seem to get
is, these employees are the ones who provide us with water and sewer, maintain
our infrastructure, repair our government used vehicles and perform numerous other
important functions and services. They don’t get the concept of investing in
those employees at any level, but they will hand out tax dollars and paid time
off to executive employees like it is candy. Some things need to change in
Gloucester and the last four years have not produced those changes.
Below
are the contents of emails one Gloucester resident received from some Gloucester
County Supervisors when she questioned our local government employees’ pay.
Sounds like the same old empty promises that have fueled the waste of
Gloucester County taxpayer dollars in other areas. Like renting our libraries and
health department spaces instead of owning them and not creating a revenue stream
from health department rent that is paid to Gloucester by the Commonwealth, not
consolidating compatible school and county services, building more parks than
our local government should ever be responsible for and numerous other wasteful
practices.
From Andy James:
“Thanks for sending your e-mail. I
totally agree, all our county employees deserve a substantial raise, and even
though I am one of seven on the BOS, will fight for this raise when it comes
up. Please know that even though the funding is tight, we still greatly
appreciate the great jobs that our employees do to make it all work.
Also, the raises that we gave to Mr. Fedors and Mr. Wilmot were much deserved,
as well.
Sincerely,
Andy James, Ware Dist. Supervisor”
From Phillip Bazzani:
“Coming from private industry as a retired
executive at Newport News Shipbuilding, we always paid employees for
performance and results.
Having said that, I will tell you that
for the upcoming budget, compensation for all County employees will be our
first priority. Because this Board has simplified
ordinances stifling new business growth over the last few years, and
the significant organizational initiatives Mr. Fedors has implemented, we will
have the ability to address compensation. This is due to the additional
sales tax revenue from new businesses who recently set up shop here, and
savings/cost avoidance we have experienced thus far thanks to Mr. Fedor’s
leadership.
Compensation will be a top priority for
me in my upcoming term for all employees. Moreover, Mr. Fedors has not
indicated that the County will not provide the additional
compensation bonus to our employees which is scheduled to occur at the end
of this year.
You will hear more about compensation as
the year goes on. I would be glad to talk to you more about this
issue, so please do not hesitate to call me at 757-262-8462 (cell).
Phillip
Chair, BOS”
From John Meyer:
“It
was a pleasure to talk to you at the Jubilee – I just thought I’d take the time
to put into writing what we discussed.
On
the road trip back from the Governor’s Rural Prosperity Summit last week, Mr
Fedors and I talked at some length about employee compensation. There are
several factors – sustained low wage growth; increased cost-of-living (to
include health insurance); an improving economy that offers employees options;
and increased competition for talent from other counties – that lead to the
conclusion that county pay must be increased. Brent is currently working
on the pay structure for next year to determine how much it should be and how
it should be allocated. But there is no doubt in my mind that an upward
adjustment needs to and will be made.
As
for the 1% bonus this year – this was based on using the unexpended fund
balance from last year, and couldn’t be awarded until after the books were
‘closed’ for FY17 (ending Jun 30, 2017). The review is nearly done and
the numbers look good. There is no reason not to expect the bonus in the
very near future.
Finally,
with regards to Mr Fedors and Mr Wilmot salary increases. As Mr James
pointed out, they have been doing exceptional work – and the Board wanted to
recognize that. But something to keep in mind is that they are on a
different pay cycle than the rest of the employees. The budget and
employee compensation for this current fiscal year has to be set in
April. The Administrator and County Attorney have their reviews in late
summer and their compensation adjustment is determined by the end of September,
and they are paid starting in January. This out-of- cycle pay adjustment
means that you could either think of them as the only ones that got pay
increases this year – or you could think of them as being the first ones to get
pay raises for next year … and as a leading indicator for good things to come
for all employees.
Thank
you for writing,
John”
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