Dear Editor,

We write to you as individual members of the Manassas City School Board regarding the recent article “Metz Middle scores decline…” and the significant online discussion that ensued.

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It’s easy to spend money when it’s not your own.

At the last Prince William County Board of Supervisors meeting of 2023, I spoke to the board about the massive cost of feeding board supervisors during their meetings. I showed a video of county residents waiting in food pantry lines.

Talking to some of the organizers of these charities, they tell me they try to serve everyone, but there are many occasions when more people are looking for help than they can serve, and they regularly must close the pantry lines. The board appeared to listen intently to what I was saying. Still, to my dismay, outgoing Chair Ann Wheeler announced that the board would be going to Los Toltecas Bar and Grill in Woodbridge for dinner between the day and evening sessions.

Employees of the county’s social services department tell me that comparing the last full years of the Stewart and the Wheeler boards, the amount of first-time public assistance requests of Prince William County residents rose 48.5%.

Despite their ability to put food on their table, those seeking public assistance are still required to pay the county real estate and personal property taxes. Those tax rates are set by the supervisors who are eating for free using money paid by people who can’t put food on their tables. I

It’s a circle of craziness that is only made more surreal when you realize that unpaid tax debt can subject people to civil and criminal sanctions.

Public records of the Board of Supervisors’ expenditures from January through November 2023 show they spent $12,548.28 taxpayer money on food for 19 meetings. That averages to $82.55 per supervisor per meeting.

As you can tell by the price tag, they are not eating burgers or pizza. They eat from restaurants like Carrabba’s, Los Toltecas, Bonefish Grill, Firebirds, Texas Roadhouse, and the Cheesecake Factory.

Adding to the cost, the Wheeler Board required county staff to have lunch waiting in the board chambers despite not starting work until well after lunch at 2 p.m. To add insult to taxpayer injury, sometimes the board decided to go out to eat, even though the county had already purchased food for them, making taxpayers pick up the tab twice.

Why does the public pick up the tab for their meals in the first place? Last spring, the board gave itself a sweeping pay raise – 70% in the case of the chair’s salary.

There are so many meal options from delivery to door dash where each supervisor can choose to order their food for themselves.

County Executive Christopher Shorter and county attorney Michelle Robl, two of the top 3 highest-paid county employees, are also having their meals provided for them by taxpayers during these meetings.

Shorter hasn’t been here a year and just got 6% and 3% raises. His annual salary is more than $380,000, and he also gets a luxury car allowance and deferred compensation of an additional $20,o000 a year.

This makes his salary more than 10 times the salary of the average Virginian. He still eats for free on Tuesdays.

If it’s too much of a bother to order food separately, why not reimburse the county for the food they’ve purchased?

Hopefully, the incoming At-large chair, Deshundra Jefferson, will put a “Pantry closed” sign over the supervisors’ excessive meal spending because the people can no longer afford a ruling class; that’s why we ousted Ann Wheeler.

Alan Gloss
Coles District

September 22 is the start of early voting. To prepare yourself, you need to know where the candidates stand on the issues. Some candidates seeking your trust don’t think it’s any of your business.

A Bristow homeowner’s group asked all incumbents and candidates for your Board of County Supervisors to state their positions on five contentious land use cases: Prince William Digital Gateway, Devlin Technology Park, John Marshall Commons Technology Park, Potomac Technology Park and Bristow Campus.

Predictably, five incumbent supervisors declined to respond. They were Ann Wheeler, Kenny Boddye, Margaret Franklin, Andrea Bailey and Victor Angry. These are the same five supervisors who voted against a resolution to prevent “lame duck” land use votes. Do I detect a trend here?

Notably, they didn’t say they supported these projects either.

You can draw your own conclusions about the reasons for their evasion, but at a minimum it indicates an arrogance of presumed exemption from accountability. Why would you vote for anyone with such an obvious disregard for the electorate they are supposed to serve? If you can’t get an answer from someone vying for your vote, how responsive do you think they’ll be should you be foolish enough to elect them? You may have already learned this about the five holdouts.

A recent Inside NOVA editorial lambasted Chair Ann Wheeler for her decision to consider contentious cases during the “lame duck” period. Now her ducklings won’t even tell you where they stand.

Use your imagination, then use your vote.

Bill Wright
Gainesville

I have watched as Democrats on the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, the School Board, and the Racial and Social Justice Commission addressed so-called “systemic racism” as an issue in Prince William County and our schools.

Since then, we have seen our education system destroyed and money wasted on an Equity Department that does nothing but pit our children against each other based on the color of their skin.

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Ann Wheeler’s anxiousness to schedule a vote on the controversial Prince William Digital Gateway rezoning before the Planning Office has even completed its review is hardly surprising. She has been in the tank for this project from the outset, and her blatant subservience to corporate masters was largely responsible for her electoral defeat.

Now shift the focus to her accomplices, who have thus far evaded the same level of accountability.

The transformation of Prince William County into northern New Jersey cannot be completed without the willing assistance of Wheeler’s four obedient sidekicks: Kenny Boddye, Margaret Franklin, Andrea Bailey and Victor Angry. Is there an independent thought among them? What will they do without their den mother?

And what about our new County Executive Chistopher Shorter? Was he hired to serve the people or enable our lame duck chair’s undemocratic tactics? He’s got just a few months to show us before he answers to a new Board that may have a very different view of his expected role.

As for our volatile Planning Office, you’d need a scorecard to tell who’s running what on any given day. That’s less their fault than the leadership they’ve been saddled with, but it is long overdue for a planner with backbone to emerge and assert some degree of professional integrity. They are clearly being rolled over.

Will we trade the tenuous promise of tax reductions for a county no longer worth living in? Those with means will flee, but those tied here by jobs, families and limited resources will be stuck living in the Wheelerites’ new industrial wasteland.

Bill Wright
Gainesville

Potomac Local News aims to share opinions on issues of local importance from a diverse range of residents across all our communities. If you’ve recently spoken at a Board of County Supervisors meeting, send us a typed copy of your remarks for publication to [email protected].

I am writing in response to Rob Hartwell’s opinion letter on August 15 regarding the supposedly vandalized signs of Jeannie LaCroix in Woodbridge. Mr. Hartwell – using language thick with innuendo and unsaid accusations – implied that it was more than a coincidence that these signs were apparently vandalized on private property just when Ms. LaCroix’s election opponent had begun placing signs herself.

Reading his pearl-clutching letter, I couldn’t help but think of the quote from an infamous propagandist: “Accuse the other of that you are guilty.” After all, this is coming from a representative of a political party which has utilized every dirty trick in the book to obtain and hold on to electoral power, even going so far as to personally attack election officials and the very seat of our democracy itself – and has the glass house audacity to accuse by innuendo a political opponent of resorting to vandalism of signs.

His evidence? Her opponent – gasp – has placed signs in the median instead of private property. Well, Mr. Hartwell – since these were on private property and we live in a time of video doorbells and floodlight cameras, I say release this footage of these so-called perpetrators of these vandalisms instead of relying on worthless meaningless accusations.

But then again, doing so might reveal far more about Ms. LaCroix’s campaign than Mr. Hartwell would be comfortable with. And yes, I do agree that the timing is coincidental – perhaps some political operatives took a page from the GOP playbook and destroyed their own signs for attention. After all, destroying your own sign is much easier than breaking into voting machines.

Regardless, I’m sure Mr. Hartwell enjoyed the free headlines from these so-called crimes – coincidence or not.

Anthony Roberts
Woodbridge

Potomac Local News aims to share opinions on issues of local importance from a diverse range of residents across all our communities. If you’ve recently spoken at a Board of County Supervisors meeting, send us a typed copy of your remarks for publication to [email protected].

I certainly hope it’s a coincidence that at the same time Woodbridge Supervisor Margaret Franklin’s signs appeared in Woodbridge, nearly 10 of her opponent Jeannie LaCroix’s signs were vandalized, ripped down, stolen and even run over by a truck.

In stark contrast to Supervisor Franklin’s signs, most illegally placed in VDOT right of ways, Ms. LaCroix’s dozens of signs in Woodbridge District are all placed on private property with the permission of the landowners.

I’m calling on Ms. Franklin and her supporters to move their signs to private property and to cease from any efforts to vandalize her opponent’s signs. Using a car or truck on private property to run over personal property is in fact a crime.

I am also urging my counterpart in the Democratic Party to ensure their campaign workers obey the law going forward and refrain from the destruction or vandalism of private property.

Sincerely,

Rob Hartwell
Woodbridge District Republican Chairman

Potomac Local News aims to share opinions on issues of local importance from a diverse range of residents across all our communities. If you’ve recently spoken at a Board of County Supervisors meeting, send us a typed copy of your remarks for publication to [email protected].