Gloucester VA Links and News

Friday, October 27, 2017

Delegate Keith Hodges Debates Sheila Crowley For The 98th District

Delegate Keith Hodges debates candidate Sheila Crowley in the race for the delegates seat of the 98th district here in Virginia. Keith Hodges is the present seated candidate here in the 98th district and is a Republican. Sheila Crowley is the Democratic challenger for that seat. This debate happened in Gloucester County, Virginia at the Moose Lodge along route 17 North. Watch the video and then cast your vote on November 7th, 2017 for the candidate you think will serve the 98th district the best.

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Second 2017 Gloucester County, Virginia Election Forum Video (Brought to you by GVLN)

Meet the candidates of 2017 for seats on the Board of Supervisors and School Board. Held at the Lighthouse Worship Center on Route 17, Gloucester County, Virginia. Forum was held on October 23, 2017. Gloucester Virginia Links and News (GVLN) brings you this video. This meeting was produced by the Gloucester Citizens for Accountable Government.

Monday, October 23, 2017

Are Gloucester County’s Real Estate Tax Assessments Corrupt? You Decide

During a recent Gloucester Board of Supervisor and School Board candidate forum, York District Candidate Kevin Farmer expressed concerns about real estate tax rates and real estate tax assessments. § 58.1-3201 of the Code of Virginia requires all property to be assessed at 100% of fair market value. If that is the case, why does Gloucester County seem to adjust the values of property based on the amount of money needed to run our local government? I have been asking that question ever since Gloucester County Assistant Administrator Garrey Curry explained such to me about three years ago. When Mr. Curry rendered his explanation to me and another citizen, I told him under the method he described, one key element is left out of the equation; fair market value of the property.

During the candidate forum, current board members mocked at Mr. Farmer’s assertion that increases in certain real estate assessment values is how they have avoided increasing real estate tax rates each year. In Mr. Farmer’s defense, the County, through certain assessment value increases, increased revenue from real estate property taxes by $3 million since 2012.

I became even more skeptical of Gloucester’s assessments in 2016 when the Board of Supervisors approved a land swap deal with Gloucester resident Charles Kerns, Jr.; in which the County traded two pieces of property for one of Mr. Kerns’ properties. When the deal was first presented to the Board of Supervisors, then Chairperson John Meyer publicly asked, “Is the concept of swapping properties the way the County wants to do business?” He then said, “Sounds like it has the potential for a win win.” As it turns out, Supervisor Meyer had a stake in the land swap deal, in that the entrance to his personal estate shares a property line with the piece of land Mr. Kerns traded to the County.

During that time, I was an appointed At-Large member of the Gloucester Public Utilities Advisory Committee. Once I reviewed the seven properties contained in the land swap proposal, I discovered serious flaws in the assessment values of the three key properties contained in the deal. I pointed the flaws out to the Board and an independent appraiser was hired by the County to determine the value of the properties.

When the Board approved the land swap deal, their decision was based on the independent appraisal values. The combined value of the County’s two properties at that time was $35,000 and Mr. Kerns’ property was valued at $45,000. The combined assessment values of the County’s two former properties after the deal changed to $70,180 and the value of Mr. Kerns' former property changed to $41,780. At the time the deal was approved, Mr. Kerns’ property was determined to be worth $10,000 more than the property he received from the County. Within days of the deal being made, the property Mr. Kerns received from the County was assessed by the County to be worth $28,400 more than the property he unloaded on the County. Not wanting to be associated with corruption, I resigned from the Utilities Advisory Committee immediately after the Board approved the corrupt land swap deal.

The land swap deal story did not end there. Three months after the Board approved the deal, the Gloucester Mathews Gazette Journal listed one of Mr. Kerns new properties as being sold for $55,000. According to online property records; Mr. Kerns sold it to the property owner who has lived right next door to the property since 1998. Why didn’t the Board offer the property to the adjacent landowners before trading it to Mr. Kerns? Even Mr. Kerns’ offered to sell his property to Supervisor Meyer before offering it to the County. Something tells me the new owner would have preferred to buy the property for the $30,000 independent appraisal value; saving $25,000.

One can’t help but wonder if the whole corrupt land swap deal was perpetrated to keep anything from being built at the entrance to Supervisors Meyer’s and Mr. Kerns’ estates. One can easily assume the recent paving of the entrance of Summerville Road to the end of Mr. Meyer’s property line was funded with money from the land sold by Mr. Kerns. One could also easily assume this was done to move the entrance to Mr. Meyer’s estate so it is easier to find by his Airbnb customers. Despite whether or not these assumptions are correct, one fact remains; manipulation of the assessment values is clearly evident and is nothing short of government corruption. This deal needs to be investigated and those found guilty of corruption and conspiracy to commit corruption need to be held accountable.

Below we have provided a listing of randomly selected waterfront properties in four different areas of Gloucester County. Notice how the smaller the property is, the higher the assessed value per acre is. We have also provided a Slideshare presentation of Frequently Asked Questions about real estate tax assessments.

Email comments to: Kennysr61@gmail.com

To read a detailed account of the corrupt land swap deal click on this link: http://www.gloucestercounty-va.com/2017/03/gloucester-county-va-real-estate-tax_50.html

Waterfront Property Heywood Creek Area

RPC Acres Assessed Per Acre

34244 1.39 $209,110 $150,439

13952 1.46 $260,770 $178,609

30791 1.48 $208,560 $140,919

43160 1.51 $145,940 $96,649

26229 2.53 $222,950 $88,123

10669 2.67 $243,790 $91,307

30679 3.43 $280,310 $81,723

13369 9.33 $364,960 $39,117

33757 12.6 $404,020 $32,065

31355 170.476 $636,730 $3,735

Bena Area

RPC Acres Assessed Per Acre

28739 1 $225,000 $225,000

21922 1.25 $233,200 $186,560

19725 2.88 $201,090 $78,955

27404 5.25 $296,720 $56,254

40850 6.39 $342,070 $53,532

27619 6.46 $817,360 $126,526

21425 9.3 $365,060 $39,254

21951 13.11 $402,110 $30,672

41567 13.54 $346,810 $25,540

14341 58.35 $1,190,730 $20,406

Ware Neck Area

RPC Acres Assessed Per Acre

16800 0.75 $211,490 $281,987

21047 0.96 $222,850 $232,135

22199 1.44 $256,780 $178,319

16984 1.88 $239,750 $127,527

10396 2.01 $233,520 $116,179

23437 2.36 $236,480 $117,652

22617 5.02 $340,480 $67,825

43034 6.9 $417,910 $60,567

18864 7.39 $209,550 $28,356

31023 342.57 $1,510,140 $4,408

Gloucester Point Area

RPC Acres Assessed Per Acre

34254 0.296 $131,440 $444,054

29005 0.361 $145,470 $402,963

30469 0.52 $178,910 $344,058

18220 0.6 $189,900 $316,500

12063 0.93 $221,220 $237,871

30104 1.23 $258,690 $210,317

29202 1.49 $263,000 $176,510

33908 2.49 $482,670 $193,843

15105 3.58 $246,770 $68,930

22581 17.49 $534,910 $30,584

Slideshare presentation of frequently asked question about real estate tax assessments. (Compiled by Albemarle County, Virginia)

2017 real estate assessments faq albemarle county from Kenneth Hogge Sr

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Are Gloucester County’s Budgets By Administrator Fedors As Spectacular As York District Supervisor Bazzani Claims?

During a recent Gloucester County candidate forum, York District Supervisor Phillip Bazzani touted his vast experience in creating and managing budgets involving substantial amounts of money. He further insisted he knows every aspect of Gloucester’s 2018 budget. Supervisor Bazzani has also repeatedly publicly asserted that County Administrator Brent Fedors’ budget documents are the best he has seen in the 34 years he has lived in Gloucester. Are these assertions true? Here is what we know to be true and factual.

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.

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 budget

Supervisor 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)

Gloucester county va adopted fy16 budget capital budget from Kenneth Hogge Sr

FY17 Budget (General fund expenditures begin on Slideshare page 66)

Gloucester county virginia fy17 adopted budget and capital budget from Kenneth Hogge Sr

FY18 Budget (General fund expenditures begin on Slideshare page 71)

Gloucester county va adopted fy18 budget capital budget from Kenneth Hogge Sr

FY17 info we were forced to requested from Mr. Fedors

Fy17 ca proposed budget general fund expenditures by department from Kenneth Hogge Sr

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

To Board of Supervisors

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

To: Kenny
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

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

Tinsley, Stephanie <stinsley@gloucesterva.info>

Mar 20 at 11:15 AM

To Kenny

CC Lewis, Christi , Fedors, Brent

Message body

Good Morning Mr. Hogge,

Attached is the information as requested.

1^st tab – General Fund by Expenditure Line Item

2^nd tab – Provides information on the Total Transfers Out line item from the General Fund

3^rd tab – Capital Projects

4^th 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

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

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Gloucester County Employee Pay, A Response

It’s a bit disheartening to run as a change agent in 2013, and then read “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.”

We get elected on our own platforms, then get saddled with all the sins of previous Boards. If voters vote for a change, and the change candidates win, why don’t we at least start with the premise that something’s changed. I’ll be happy to address your outlined areas of concern at a later date, but right now, the only thing that relates to “promises” is that of a coming employee pay increase.

“Same old empty promises”? The only time I believe you’ve heard this Board (certainly Phillip and I) state an intent to raise pay was in 2016. And we did, with a 4% across the board raise. Now you may certainly argue as to whether or not that was enough, but we did say we’d provide a pay raise, and we delivered. Was that the “old empty promise” you were referring to?

The Board is saying that a raise is coming in FY18. Based on previous experience with this Board, you should count on it. Unless, of course, you have a NEW Board next year … they are also promising pay raises. Only difference is, they haven’t delivered on a promise yet.

Thanks for listening,

John Meyer

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

IRS Admits Most Americans NOT Responsible For Income Taxes

April 15th, that dreaded date every year is the last day of the year to file your 1040 tax return or it is considered late. Many American's file early. But what if you do not even have to file? What if you should not even have any taxes taken from your wages to begin with? We have been studying this information for some time now and we keep getting the same information over and over that there simply is no law that requires most American's to file and or have any money taken out of your wages for income tax purposes. Most American's simply do not owe the IRS any money.

Why do most people pay into the system then if they do not owe any money? The IRS is not required to inform you as to whether or not you owe any money. If you think you do, they are more than happy to allow you to pay them. If you get the information wrong on your filing, then they can come after you even though you didn't owe the money. You got the information wrong per their rules. Can you just stop filing income taxes? You want to do it in the correct manner because if you just stop, and having been paying into the system for years, then they believe you to be one of those folks who are required to pay income taxes. You see, in their book, it is up to you to know the tax laws. It is not up to them.

Watch the video above, and if you are still not convinced, there are plenty more videos that feature IRS agents, Senators, Congressmen and lawyers who will take you through the law. In fact, here is yet another video.

Do your own research and verify what you learn here. It may be worth a fortune to you. It's a raise that won't cost anyone anything. The government won't go out of business if you stop paying. That is also covered in these videos. Take the time to learn something new.