Friday, September 1, 2017

Moon Beam Bagels, Stories From The Campfire

Tales from the Camp Fire
This is a fictional story for your reading enjoyment
This is the story of Moon Beam Bagels
Once upon a time there was a local civil servant named Dogwood that worked in a local office for the director answering phone calls and directing people to the correct office.  Dogwood was very unhappy with his job and everyone knew it. Dogwood's boss had a problem that Dogwood could help with.  They schemed and found a way to make Dogwood’s boss happy and Dogwood would get a fake injury and collect workers comp to be able to leave his job and open his own business “Moon Beam Bagels” where he could be his own boss and not have to answer the phone any more.
Dogwood found a vacant building in midtown and opened Moon Beam Bagels. Dogwood did not think everything through.  He was able to buy a Bagel machine that could make 50 bagels an hour and work four hours in a day and try as he might he was not able to make enough bagels to pay the rent and the staff and buy supplies.  Dogwood worried about this until he was offered a deal he could not refuse. We like your bagel business and we will give you money for you to claim as income to keep Moon Beam Bagels open you just have to make us silent partners and hire who we tell you to.  But I can only make 50 bagels an hour for four hours a day and this cannot be increased.  Not a problem just do as we instruct.  So Dogwood took the money added more space in the shop making it three times larger.  Hiring the extra staff not to work and kept on making bagels. The money kept on coming in and Dogwood was happy.  Dogwood even tried to expand the business to a new site.  If I can sell my 200 bagels faster each day I will not have to stay open but during the morning.
Did I mention Dogwood was not a good business man and had no experience in a commercial kitchen?  He was posting pictures on Face Book that showed that he did not understand the importance of using the right kitchen tools and keeping everything clean.  Someone shared this information with the Health Department.  Dogwood’s friend when dropping off some cash told Dogwood about the inspection. Dogwood closed Moon Beam Bagels on a holiday weekend to clean the shop so it would be spic and span for the inspection on Tuesday.  The inspection was done and Moon Beam Bagels passed with flying colors, with instructions to remove the pictures from the web site and to be careful what he posted in the future.
The last time the person telling the story around the camp fire was in the store the floors were dirty,  the place was understaffed, the bagels?  Okay at best.  The argument was given that they were busy and it was hard to keep the floors clean.  The response “I was the first customer of the day.”  There were no replies.
I hope you enjoyed this work of fiction.  If it reminds of any business in Gloucester, VA it is just a coincidence since this story is made up?
Sincerely,
Alexander James Jay

The Untold History of Public Education, Part 3




Although I am not in agreement with the author of this video as he seems to be against any form of Christian based education in any form, I am not posting this video to either argue that aspect for or against.  What is shown here is past, present and future plans of public education.  In the future, I will be showing and it has already been partially shown, the system is rigged in a way that it can not be fixed.  That is right, no matter what anyone does, the system is rigged so that it can not ever be fixed.

  So throw all the money you want at public or private education,   It will not get any better.  There is only one plan that will work.  A mass exiting of adults taking their children out of this insane system of pure indoctrination.  Sending your children to be with people you do not know, to be trained in areas you have no idea about, is insane.  Public schools are teaching a new religion and yes, they do call it a new religion, but not at the media level where you will be offended.  That is only at the highest level that it's called a new religion and it's designed to replace all other religions.  That new religion has a name and it's called humanism.  Yes, that is a new religion and you are sending your children to school to become a part of this new religion.  Evidence on this coming soon.

  Any teachers offended by any of this, not to worry, we are still working on a sensitivity program for you.  The same for our elected school board.  Folk's do not send your children back into this horrible public system of deceit and corruption.   Also, take the time and do your own research.  We have asked the local school board to look at all of this information and we invited them to a public dialogue.  So far, they refuse to respond.  I would love it if all of this could be refuted and proven either wrong or somehow not correct.  But their silence is proving the information we are covering scares them because it is true and shows the fraud they are part and partial to.

  But lets be fair.  Many of them have no clue about a lot of this.  Some should.  It may very well be that their eyes are now being open and they will soon learn that there is nothing they can do about it and except maintain the deception.  I would like to think that many of them are seeing the real issues now and are starting to look for answers.  Keep your fingers crossed and pray they are on our side.

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Who Controls The Children In Education? Part 2




Here is a must watch video.  It's nearly an hour long, but you need to see the entire video to see what this teacher uncovered about local, state and federal involvement in our, actually their, educational, or better put, propaganda and indoctrination system.  If you think there is any real control over the educational system at any level by our local officials?  Think again.  This woman documented more than you would ever expect.  Now the video is comparatively old, 1990's, but the situation has not gotten any better.

  What we keep hearing is that more money must be thrown at the school system to improve education.  This is a broken record and a full out scam.  This ploy has been used now for the past 100 years and it works very well.  If you listen to this teacher, sending your children to public school is a horrible idea.  Think private schools are better?  Wait til the end as that question is answered in the video.  We viewed this video in it's entirety and we were shocked with what is revealed in here.

  Teach your children at home otherwise you are going to seriously dumb them down and hurt their real potential of what your children can really become.  It's by design and it's well documented.  What we are going to continue to put out is all very well documented.  Again, for any teacher that may find any of this offensive, we are working on a sensitivity class for you, so do not worry about any of it.

  Coming up we will be showing the shocking history of indoctrination education since the early 1900's and who has been behind it all.  Yes, it has always been the plan to dumb down the population.  Those behind financing education did not want competition in their future.  They planned well and have pretty much succeeded in those plans.    

Friday, August 25, 2017

Our Present Educational Crisis, Part One, Common Core




In the above video, a mother from Arkansas destroys common core education in front of her local
officials.  Watch the video.  It's pretty shocking, especially if you do not really know what common core is about.  It's not about education folks.  It's about the full fledged dumbing down of our youth.  It makes no sense whatsoever.  And the school boards all across this country are all screaming for more money.

  Here is the bottom line on what is really going on.  For the past 100 years education has been on a very steady downhill curve.  It's by design.  Can you think of a better plan to pull more money from people than to tell them you need more money to fix issues with education?  This ploy has been used on us for the same amount of time.  The state of education is falling, we need more money to fix it.  It never gets fixed.  It continues to get worse.  We need more money to fix this.  For a century we have been throwing money at a system that just keeps getting worse.  Blame the parents.

  Over the next few months we are going to cover many areas on the present state of education in this country and in Gloucester.  That is if you want to call it education.  It's going to offend a number of people, especially those employed in the field.  But hey don't worry about that, we are working on a new sensitivity program for you so that you will no longer be offended, instead you will back everything we say.  On some early advice, we recommend a mass exiting of all students from the public school system as fast as possible.  You will fully understand why when we are done with this series.

Thursday, July 20, 2017

Gloucester County Supervisor’s Trees Destroyed By Tree Trimmers

I never cease to be amazed at the things that happen in this county. The following entry is contained in the Gloucester County, Virginia Utilities Department June report:

“Resolved the complaint from adjacent property owner that tree removal for replacement of Pump Station #12 with Smith & Loveless package station  encroached on their property by requiring the contractor plant replacement trees to satisfy property owner;”

I’ll be damned!! After obtaining way more land than needed, in what I and others consider nothing short of a public corruption property deal, they encroach upon the adjacent property owner’s land to make room to install a new sewer pump system.

As many of you may know; I served on the Gloucester County Public Utilities Advisory Committee for a couple of years or so. I resigned from the committee in 2016 after the committee and the Board of Supervisors approved what I and others strongly believe was a public corruption land deal between Gloucester resident Charles Kerns, Jr. and the Utilities Department. We consider the deal to be public corruption primarly because it appears evident the Gloucester County tax assessor or another person or persons with access, lowered the assessed value of Utilities Department properties and increased the assessed value of Mr. Kern’s property. Click here to read the Gloucester County public corruption land deal story: http://www.gloucestercounty-va.com/2017/03/gloucester-county-va-real-estate-tax_50.html

At-Large Supervisor John Meyer, who is also the owner of the destroyed trees, had this to say in response to an email I sent to the Board of Supervisors about the tree debacle.
.
“No less amazed than I.  The professional tree service 1) did not know where the property line was and 2) allowed the large trees they were cutting to fall across the property line, wiping out a half-dozen smaller trees in the process.
The County did hold the tree-service responsible and they did replace the trees (six-footers) at no additional cost to the County.
Next time you head down Belroi, take a look at the way Dominion Power mangled the trees between the 1st entrance to Courthouse Square and the Summerville Apartments.  Somebody on their payroll doesn’t like trees!
John”

Proper communication with the tree company and supervision of the trimming by the Utilities Department would have likely prevented the destruction of Mr. Meyer’s trees. As for Mr. Meyer’s complaint about the appearance of trees on Belroi Rd; well I guess now that it has happened on the road to his estate he can see something that has been the norm for decades. First, it is far cheaper to trim trees than to completely remove them. Second, if Dominion hated trees as Mr. Meyer suggests, they would find a way to cut all of them down instead of just trimming them. Maybe the Board of Supervisors can drum up another corrupt crony capitalism deal to get the power lines buried down Belroi Rd. Then the trees Dominion Power chopped up can grow out again, so VDOT can come along and chop them up again. Isn’t it just awful living in an aesthetically imperfect world? But then again; in a free society no individual or class of individuals has the right to determine what should or should not be considered visually appealing to other people; not even the elected class.   

Kenny Hogge, Sr.
Gloucester Point
Kennysr61@gmail.com

Crony Capitalism
BusinessDictionary.com defines crony capitalism as; an economy that is nominally free-market, but allows for preferential regulation and other favorable government intervention based on personal relationships. In such a system, the false appearance of "pure" capitalism is publicly maintained to preserve the exclusive influence of well-connected individuals.
Sound familiar??

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Gloucester County Employee Resigns After Exposure To Carbon Monoxide

When I served on the Gloucester County Public Utilities Advisory Committee, one of the areas I found to be unacceptable was our Utilities Department’s workplace safety program, or literal lack thereof. Insuring that our employees are properly trained on workplace safety and making sure they religiously follow applicable rules, regulations and procedures established to protect their health and life should always be at the top of operational priorities. This is especially true for operations involving confined spaces in sewer pump stations and manholes due to the extremely high probability that they contain at least one of numerous deadly gases.

The Gloucester Department of Public Utilities' May report contains the following entry:

“filed incident report for Mr. Jackson’s exposure to elevated CO levels in the wet well of PS #11 on May 5th;”

After reading the entry I sent an email containing my concerns to the Board of Supervisors, the County Administrator and the Director of Utilities which resulted in an email conversation with the director. After that conversation I continue to believe there is still need for improvement and believe you will too after reading the email conversation that can be found below. Mr. Jackson resigned from the Utilities Department a few weeks after the incident.

Kenny Hogge, Sr.
Gloucester Point
Kennysr61@gmail.com

Email Conversation   
From: Kenny  
Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2017 12:49 PM
To: Board of Supervisors <BOS@gloucesterva.info>; Fedors, Brent <bfedors@gloucesterva.info>; Dawson, James C. <jdawson@gloucesterva.info>
Subject: Carbon Monoxide Exposure Incident
 
Greetings,
 
The May 2017 Utility Department monthly report contains the following comment: filed incident report for Mr. Jackson’s exposure to elevated CO levels in the wet well of PS #11 on May 5th;
 
This is a very concerning, dangerous and preventable incident. Was air quality testing performed before and during Mr. Jackson’s entry into the wet well? Was ventilation performed before and during his entry? Was Mr. Jackson connected to an appropriate retrieval system? What was the source of the carbon monoxide?
 
Respectfully,
Kenneth E. Hogge, Sr.

From: "Dawson, James C." <jdawson@gloucesterva.info>
To: Kenny; Board of Supervisors <BOS@gloucesterva.info>; "Fedors, Brent" <bfedors@gloucesterva.info
Cc: "Curry, Garrey, Jr." <GCurry@gloucesterva.info>
Sent: Wednesday, July 5, 2017 1:26 PM
Subject: RE: Carbon Monoxide Exposure Incident

Mr. Hogge,
 
Thank you for your inquiry.
 
Air quality in the wet well was sampled before entry in compliance with OSHA regulations and the results are documented on the Confined Space Entry Permit for that space entry. The wet well vent fan was operating and Mr. Jackson was wearing a properly calibrated “sniffer” while he was working in the wet well. Mr. Jackson was connected to a retrieval system.
 
Mr. Jackson was pulling rags off the bar screen when the “sniffer” he was wearing alarmed for carbon monoxide (CO). He immediately began to exit the wet well. The alarm cleared before he could exit the wet well but he waited a few minutes to see if the alarm returned before resuming his pulling rags.
 
There were no known sources of CO in operation while Mr. Jackson was working in the wet well so we believe the CO came from the accumulation of rags on the bar screen which were last pulled on May 1st.
 
Mr. Jackson reported some discomfort shortly after completing the work at PS #11 on May 5th so we filed the incident report and offered to send him to a doctor on our Workers Compensation Panel of Physicians.
 
James C. Dawson, P.E.
Director, Dept. of Public Utilities

On Jul 7, 2017, at 9:02 PM, Kenny wrote:
Chris,
 
Thank you for the timely and detailed response. It is refreshing to hear that at least some OSHA confined space entry procedures are being practiced. However, your response seems to suggest Mr. Jackson may not have fully exited the wet well once the alarm sounded and that other OSHA requirements for an atmospheric alarm during an entry may not have been followed.  
 
According to OSHA regulations; if a hazardous atmosphere is detected during a confined space entry, all employees are supposed to leave the space immediately, the space is supposed to be evaluated to determine how the hazardous atmosphere developed and measures are supposed to be implemented to protect employees from the hazardous atmosphere before anyone is permitted to reenter the space.
 
Nothing in OSHA confined space requirements or guidance provides any latitude at all for any employee to unilaterally disregard an atmospheric alarm and to ignore prescribed and proven safety measures.
 
Utilization of only an exhaust fan to clear the air in wet wells and manholes is problematic to say the least. When air is drawn out of a confined space, much of the area within the space lacks circulation. Inadequate air circulation severely limits the effective removal of contaminated atmospheres within the space. When using only an exhaust fan, clean air is typically only drawn in at the hatch opening and the lethal pockets and layers of bad air outside of the confined flow path between the hatch and the exhaust fan will be left in the confined space.
 
Forced air blowers providing the proper CFM of clean air through a properly configured duct system are far safer than utilizing only exhaust fans because clean air is being forced into the space. When clean air is forced into the space it creates adequate circulation and dilutes the atmospheres, resulting in harmful gases being expelled more completely and efficiently. Utilizing a blower or combination blower and exhaust fan, instead of just an exhaust fan, will also allow the flow of clean air to be directed to best cover the area in the space where the employee will be working; therefore better protecting the employee.    
 
In your response you made it a point of stating a properly calibrated detector was used. I can’t help but wonder, by its exclusion from your response, if the detector used by Mr. Jackson was bump tested prior to being used that day. As I am sure you know, daily bump testing is not addressed in OSHA confined space entry requirements, but is highly recommended by most if not all reputable detector manufacturers. Taking a few minutes to verify a detector is working the way it is supposed to before beginning to use it each day is a small price to pay to prevent injury or death.  
 
Depending on the model, body worn detectors can certainly have their benefits in certain confined spaces, but based on personal experiences, I recommend against relying solely on body worn detectors to keep employees safe when working in active wet wells and manholes. I also recommend increased training for at least those employees designated to enter, supervise and attend confined spaces.
 
Respectfully,
Kenny Hogge, Sr.

Message body

Saturday, June 10, 2017

Gloucester County Administrator Makes Positive Changes To Audio Recording Policy

Gloucester County Administrator, Brent Fedor’s made what he called, a 180 degree change to his Quality Assurance Audio Recording Policy. We find Mr. Fedors’ changes to be positive and appreciate his willingness to listen to and consider the voice of the people. 

Many of the Supervisors spoke against the revised policy, but they ultimately left the decision up to Mr. Fedors. Maybe they are worried about being recorded when they call, which could certainly happen if the selection process is completely random. A question that was not asked: "Are government issued cell phones subject to quality assurance recording?" If there is going to be a policy, shouldn't it apply across the board? 

We will continue to follow this and will likely submit a Freedom of Information Act request in the future, for documentation that verifies the recordings are being conducted randomly. We will also continue to strongly urge Mr. Fedors to implement body cam use by animal control personnel.

Below you will find the video of Mr. Fedors explaining his new recording policy and the written version of his policy. We would have provided the complete explanation and discussion video, but as has become the norm lately, there were "technical difficulties" that interrupted the Board of Supervisors meeting broadcast and recording. When it seems like the video is frozen and the colored bars appear, hang tight because the discussion will soon follow. We have also provided a link to where you can read more about the history of Mr. Fedors’ policy and other interesting stories. 

Email your comments to Mr. Fedors at:  bfedors@gloucesterva.info

Become and stay engaged in your local government and public school system. America’s future depends on it.

To read more about this and other topics click here:  http://www.gloucestercounty-va.com/

Mr. Fedors' explanation of his new recording policy:


Mr. Fedors' written policy:





Saturday, May 27, 2017

UPDATE: Rumors Turn Into Guilty Plea (Rumors Of Theft In Gloucester County Public School System)

 


Last May we published an update to the story below about “rumors” of theft within the Gloucester County Public School System (GCPS); in which we reported information contained in the May 17, 2018 edition of the Gloucester Mathews Gazette Journal.

According to the Gazette’s local court case information, “Larry Clark Lawson, 56, 668 Fickle Fen Road, Mathews, was indicted on two felony counts of wrongfully and fraudulently use, dispose of, conceal, or embezzle property having a value of $200 or more, belonging to Gloucester County, March23-April 19, 2017”

The property has been reported to be two welders owned by GCPS and the theft appears to have been initially covered up by Mr. Lawson’s supervisor who retired shortly after the indictments.

We have just learned from public records that Larry C. Lawson pleaded guilty to one of two counts of embezzlement on January 4, 2019. The public records indicate the next hearing is set for April 23, 2019 for Presentence Report. Once someone is convicted of a felony in Virginia, the judge will order a Presentence Report. Presentence Reports are prepared by a probation officer and include various family, background and employment information about the defendant. Sentencing should follow soon thereafter.

Unfortunately, it appears Mr. Lawson and his supervisor will continue to receive Virginia retirement pay and benefits. Shouldn’t Mr. Lawson have been fired when the thefts were discovered instead of being told to bring the property back and directed to retire? Shouldn’t he and his supervisor forfeit all pay and benefits and be forever barred from any form of government service? We think so.

We will continue to follow this story and keep you updated. As always, feel free to contact us with instances of public corruption in our local government and public-school system.

Kenny Hogge, Sr.
02/28/2019 


One year ago we published the story below about “rumors” of theft within the Gloucester County Public School System (GCPS). According to the May 17th edition of the Gloucester Mathews Gazette Journal; “Larry Clark Lawson, 56, 668 Fickle Fen Road, Mathews, was indicted on two felony counts of wrongfully and fraudulently use, dispose of, conceal, or embezzle property having a value of $200 or more, belonging to Gloucester County, March23-April 19, 2017”

In the same edition of the Gazette Journal there is an article about the retirement of Mr. Lawson’s supervisor, who according to the “rumors”, told Mr. Lawson to return the property and submit his resignation/retirement. If this part of the rumors is true, shouldn’t the supervisor be indicted also?

We will continue to follow this story and keep you updated.



Rumors Of Theft In Gloucester County Public School System
Several days ago we heard a “rumor” about a welder being stolen from the Gloucester County Public School (GCPS) Bus Garage. According to the “rumor”; someone working for our public school system stole a plasma welder from the bus garage and once the theft became known, the thief was told by administration to bring the welder back, submit their resignation and no charges would be filed. The “rumor” further alleges that the employee has enough time in local government service to retire and the “resignation” has actually turned into retirement for the thief.

That is a very ugly rumor and appears, “if” true, to be another prime example of our laws being applied selectively. If you or I walked into the bus garage and walked out with a screwdriver, law enforcement would be called; we would be arrested and prosecuted. End of Story. The same should happen to this thief if the “rumor” is true and they should forfeit their retirement benefits. Search warrants should also be executed on all of the thief’s properties to make sure they haven’t stolen other property owned by us. 

We sent an email to GCPS Superintendent, Dr. Walter Clemons, asking if he could confirm whether or not the “rumor” is true. Dr. Clemons replied, “I am unable to comment or provide information regarding employee personnel matters.  However, please know that any matter that we discover or are made aware of involving employee misconduct is investigated by our Department of Human Resources and reviewed by our school board with actions taken as deemed appropriate.  We also notify law enforcement on certain matters when necessary.” 

I guess his answer speaks for itself; they are not going to tell us anything under the cloak of employee privacy. I wonder what determines when they, “notify law enforcement on certain matters when necessary.” Do you think you or I would be investigated by human resources and our case reviewed by the school board before they notified law enforcement? I don’t think so. If this “rumor” is true and the thief remains uncharged and is not prosecuted, it will also be another clear example of how disengaged from reality and lawfulness the administrators of our public school system and our school board really are.
                                                                                                         
As bad as it sounds, this is not the ugliest “rumor” about our public school system that we have been following. In April 2014 and after considerable research that was ultimately stonewalled by the school system, we sent an email to the School Board in which we addressed a rumor spreading through the community about the theft of gate admission money at school sporting events. We also provided the findings of our research to the school board and offered suggestions to correct each identified shortcoming. It was not received well at all; imagine that.

Our public school system activity funds usually involve almost $1.5 million per year and are not monies from the school system's annual budget. Activity fund money comes from student parking fees, sporting and other event admission fees, club fees, money from fund raising, some scholarships, etc.

We will soon provide everything we know about the activity fund investigation. In the meantime, take a few minutes to share the rumor about the welding machine thief with others in our community and while you’re at it send a quick email to the school board and board of supervisors letting them know we know about the “rumor”. Here are their email addresses.

Board of Supervisors' email address: bos@gloucesterva.info 
School Board email address: SchoolBoard@gc.k12.va.us 

Click here to read more stories about our wonderful Gloucester County government, public school system and other topics: http://www.gloucestercounty-va.com

Friday, May 26, 2017

Gloucester County Administrator Changes Tone In Latest Reply To Citizen

The conversation between Gloucester County Administrator Brent Fedors and Gloucester citizen Chuck Thompson continues and it appears Mr. Fedors has lightened his tone. Below are each party’s latest replies. You be the judge.

If you have an opinion on the administrator’s proposed audio policy, let him or the Board of Supervisors hear it. For your convenience we have provided the email addresses for all of them after the replies. To read other parts of this story and more just click on this link: http://www.gloucestercounty-va.com/

County Administrator's reply:
Mr. Thompson –

While I am sensitive to your concerns, I prefer not to debate your points that seem to twist the spirit of what I was trying to say into something different.  In reading back through the email that I sent to you earlier, perhaps I should have used the word “and” instead of “nor” in the first sentence – I think it would have better communicated what I was trying to say – apologies if my poor choice of words caused any grief. 

My point was that I am not inclined to open an investigation into issues handled by law enforcement or the judicial system for the express purpose of bunking (or debunking) the draft policy (if for no other reason because of my lack of authority to do so).  Further, I did not interpret your initial emails as request to open an investigation, rather as an inquiry on draft future policy (which seemed to me to be the genesis of your concern).  My interpretation seems (to me) to be substantiated by the subject matter of your follow-up meeting request – “a meeting regarding the policy of audio recordings of the public by county employees”. 

With respect to actions of County employees…  If you feel that your personal safety or the safety of your property is in danger, I would encourage you to immediately dial 911.  If you feel that a County employee has committed a crime, I would encourage you to contact the State Police.  If you feel that a County employee has violated a policy, I would ask that you bring that to my attention so that I may deal with it as a personnel matter.

Note that there is currently no policy regulating or disallowing audio recordings by staff.  Addressing this potential gap in accountability is a primary purpose of the proposed policy. 

I understand and have noted your objection to audio recordings by staff, however if you are of a mind to provide constructive feedback on the draft policy as written I would welcome it.  The window for public input to the CA is open through this Thursday to allow time for June 6th meeting packet preparation.

With regards to your meeting request, unfortunately I cannot make the time you suggest on the 30th, however I am open all day (at this point) on the 31st.  If this date will work for you, please let me know after you confirm with Mr. Meyer and Del. Hodges and I will reserve a room.  If not, I will do my best to accommodate schedules to the best of my ability. 

As an alternate, I would suggest that a meeting may not be needed to communicate your perspective and influence the draft policy in development…  If schedules don’t seem to mesh, perhaps direct discussion or communication with your Supervisor and/or Delegate and/or voicing your opinions on the draft policy in the Citizen Comment portion of the June 6th meeting would suffice? 

…just trying to offer some options…

Brent

J. Brent Fedors
County Administrator
Gloucester County, Virginia
6467 Main Street
Gloucester, VA  23061

Mr. Thompson's reply:
Greetings Brent;

  What really concerns me looking over the policy is that there is no time frame from when an audio recording stops to when it must be submitted for archiving.  That is detrimental.  To long of a time lapse is opportunity to alter the original recording.  If an audio recording is done between a county employee and a member of the public, there needs to be a time limit for getting that recording to the county, signed in under penalty of perjury by the county employee by a top level supervisor who will be handling the recording, meta data must be noted for accuracy of the audio recording.  (All computer files have meta data).  

  All audio recorders also produce their own meta data.  If the audio recording is to be used against any member of the public, I would suggest that the county employee has only 30 minutes to get the audio onto a county storage system or the audio is considered null and void as though it was altered.  No exceptions.  That is where local history is very important and why you should have looked at the links.  You would have found that meta data was missing from county audio recordings or the meta data was altered.  No time or date stamps on anything.  This is a very serious issue.  

  Now to elaborate on the 30 minute rule.  Once a county employee has finished recording audio, then the employee is done with the present task at hand.  From the farthest remote areas of the county, it would only take a maximum of 30 minutes to get back to the county job site where the audio needs to be entered into storage.  That means the employee does not have time to tinker with the actual recording in any way shape or form.  

  I am very strong on the public being made aware of any audio and or video recordings by the county in any interactions.  Where any form of investigation or actions are taking place, I would also recommend that the public be given the chance to equally record the interaction or wave their rights to do so.  That way there are 2 records of the interaction and they can be compared should any member of the public wish to exercise those rights.  

  In the past, Animal Control always hid the audio recordings and would only present the recordings when they took people to court.  Many found out the hard way that those audio recordings were horribly altered and were not at all accurate.  But they were never told about being recorded or that recordings would be submitted as evidence in court.  Why the judges allowed them without proper investigation is yet another serious issue not at your level to answer.  

  Regarding meta data from audio recorders.  The meta data from all audio recorders are a series of numbers that are codes for time and date stamps.  You have to contact the equipment manufacturer to get the interpretation for their codes as each manufacturer uses different codes.  (I have talked to most of them which is how I know).  Altering a recording also puts a meta stamp on the recording.  So that should be quality checked to make sure you can trust your employees.  

  Preferring video recordings, those are much harder to alter and easy to spot if and when they are altered.  Meta data is straight forward and there is little room for misinterpretations on videos.  Body language speaks volumes that you can not get from an audio recording.  You can also tap in to see where your employees are and what they are doing.  If they are where they say they are supposed to be.

  I can not support audio recordings by county employees without these extra and very stringent policies being put into place as the abuse in the past makes this mandatory in my own view.  The objective is to create a trustworthy atmosphere.  Without these extra stringent policies, I have no trust in the system.  

Now regarding an investigation into past employee misconduct, yes, I and others would like to request investigations into such areas.  You have two, in my opinion, nasty criminals in your employment, that are a danger to the public, with a very long record of illegal activity that I believe can be proven.  I would like to request that John Meyer and Keith Hodges be involved and that this be voluntary and that a fair hearing be done because I will suggest you think of what the potential alternative might be if a voluntary investigation isn't done and one has already been underway but needs further review from you.  I know you are limited in scope as to what you can do, but I am requesting you do what you can do within your scope.  

  At this point, a meeting next week isn't needed unless you have more questions about any area of the above that you do not think can be answered in email.  I appreciate your considerations.

Very Truly:

Chuck Thompson

Board of Supervisors' email address: bos@gloucesterva.info 
Mr. Fedors' email address: bfedors@gloucesterva.info