by Neil Richard
Having just left the second Open House hosted by the Planning Commission, which was more heavily attended than the first one, I once again entered the realm of the budget work sessions held by the King George County Board of Supervisors. I noticed three main topics rise to the surface in this meeting. I'll try to cover each.
Next, Dr. Young asked for guidance on the Smoot Library's request for additional funding to staff their Adult Services Librarian position. Young said this was an existing position, not a new one, and that the Library opted to remove funding for the job because it was level funded last year. Both Brabo and Bueche asked if the Library had done any fundraisers to help increase their revenue as the Supervisors had asked them last year. Cathy Binder, who is also a member of the L. E. Smoot Memorial Library Board of Trustees, said the Library has events planned for this spring and summer. Bueche said he was disappointed that they hadn't followed through with the fundraising and Brabo suggested that maybe it would serve the County better to join the Central Rappahannock Regional Library (CRRL) system to save $200,000 a year. Being painfully familiar with the proposal of CRRL taking over the Smoot Library, I knew this savings only looked true on paper. King George County contributed $384,858 to the Smoot Library in 2017 according to the library's 2017 Annual Report. This is very close to the drafted proposal from CRRL last year of an annual fee of $374,490. As I learned last year, joining CRRL isn't as beneficial as it may seem. In looking strictly at the potential savings to the budget, it would be just over $10,000, not $200,000.
Jane Yuan, Executive Director of the Rappahannock Area Community Services Board (RACSB), gave a presentation to the Supervisors and the Citizen Budget Advisory Committee. She detailed the services offered to residents, both those in need and those in the community. Of note was the REVIVE! Training they offered (which I wrote about here) and that they treated 1,628 King George County residents in need. Yuan did caution the Supervisors that due to law changes, there would be expected shortfalls in their budget of about $200,000 next year and potentially $600,000 the following year.
Dave Coman, Director of Social Services, also gave some further details on his use of the Thurman Brisben Homeless Shelter. By referring single individuals there, Coman said he saves the County money. He said the Thurman Brisben Shelter can house a person for 90 days as well as feed them and offer them access to public transit at no cost. Otherwise he would have to pay $250 to $300 per week for just a hotel room. Because of his financial responsibility and tenacity, the Supervisors agreed to fully fund the request from Thurman Brisben.
Ryan Gandy, Director of Economic Development, gave a shortened version of his previous presentation on the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance (FRA). While there were no new details, it was explained that the budget amounts cited in the original presentation were not clarified enough. As we previously reported, each locality contributes one dollar ($1) per capita. However, the spending budget cited was not the budget of the FRA but rather the budget of the locality. Therefore, our previous return on investment calculations were flawed. Instead, the spending budget for each locality is simply a representation of what each locality is willing to spend on economic development. To put it simply, Fredericksburg spends $971,249 while King George spends $164,081. With this clarity in mind, the Supervisors felt a need to look at the overall percentage of the Economic Development budget compared to the entire County budget when doing future comparison. They felt this would be a better measure of efficiency. During the conversation about bringing businesses to King George County, it was noted that some parcels in the Industrial Park do not have three phase power or broadband internet, both of which are frequently necessary for a manufacturer to do business.
Additionally, Coman said that his DSS team is the only one to partner with the Commonwealth Attorney to use those requiring community service hours as their judicial payment to society. Coman said these individuals are used to make repairs to the elderly residents in the County that are in need. He was careful to note that these were repairs and not improvements. He also said this process, and many others that he has used over his lengthy tenure, have earned our DSS team many awards.
Jeff Bueche said that he was appointed to the Social Services Board last year and fully expected to dig into their budget to root out waste and excess. He said that instead he found a group of hard working people that are very frugal with their money. Although I am not personally familiar with Coman or Social Services, it was very clear that his employees worked hard for very little money because it was the right thing to do. Brabo questioned if they were part of the compensation study done by the County and Wilma Ward and Dr. Young said they were not because they were not technically County employees.
When Brabo said no reports are given to Supervisors on their travel expenses and that no staff had told her in the past three years that she had overspent, Granger agreed and said that was a great reason for a new policy on how Supervisors handle their travel expenses. He said that because there has been overspending, it needs to be addressed and that a new policy seemed like the best option. According to materials handed out during the meeting, the travel expense budget was exceeded in FY16, FY17, and FY18. FY18 was the worst year with a budget of $7,500 and actual expenses of $18,924.90. No clarity was given on how much of that was reimbursed to the County from other entities such as NACo.
Granger continued with his reasoning behind a new policy by stating that any other department isn't allowed to just "blow past" their budgeted amounts and that it wasn't right that the Supervisors aren't held accountable. Brabo began to say that her involvement in various committees and boards has been a good return on investment when John Jenkins interrupted and said it felt like this was turning into more personal attacks on either a specific Supervisor for their travel or for their ideas. Cutting to the quick, Jenkins cited the recent questions raised on social media about Supervisor travel and said that transparency seemed to be the key to addressing both Brabo's and Granger's concerns and ideas. Jenkins said that he looked at the Essex County policy and liked the idea that they publish their information on their website. Jenkins said he was comfortable with each Supervisor coming to the table with their expected travel needs and was fine if each Supervisor had different amounts.
Jenkins then questioned existing policy by saying it would put Dr. Young in an uncomfortable position if he had to tell his boss, the Board of Supervisors, that they were over budget. Cathy Binder agreed that it would put staff in an awkward position. Jenkins said they also need to keep future Boards in mind. Jeff Bueche suggested that everyone should come with a spending plan that shows a forecast for expected travel and then the Supervisors can vote on it at the beginning of the year. Bueche said that if anything unexpected comes up, it can be addressed during the year by the Board but that the plan up front would be transparent. He also said it would put the burden of following the budget on the Supervisor to ensure they don't overspend.
Brabo did ask the citizens present if they had an opinion on the topic. One citizen noted that she was fine with the travel as long as it benefited King George County. Any travel that was to further an individual's political aspirations beyond their current role wasn't right. Bueche further explained that by putting a plan out there for the public would help Supervisors be held accountable to their constituents. Brabo again reminded everyone that the expenses shown don't factor in the revenue received from reimbursement. She said her expenses for the annual NACo conference in July were covered by NACo. Granger again said that because of overspending, he felt a need to create a fiscally responsible policy for travel expenses. Binder asked where money came from to cover any overspending and Brabo and Dr. Young said it came from savings in other departments.
Brabo again said that no staff member had come to her and told her she overspent. Binder said it didn't seem like a fair argument that an employee would go to their boss to say something like that. Bueche again said it puts Dr. Young in an awkward position.
Brabo made one final parting comment before the meeting ended, saying that none of her peers on the Board had the courtesy or respect to bring the social media posts on her travel to her attention. Jenkins said that was a fair point but that during the conversation this evening, he never mentioned anyone by name. Brabo said she hasn't had that kind of disrespect in four years.
Having just left the second Open House hosted by the Planning Commission, which was more heavily attended than the first one, I once again entered the realm of the budget work sessions held by the King George County Board of Supervisors. I noticed three main topics rise to the surface in this meeting. I'll try to cover each.
Details
Dr. Neiman Young began the meeting by asking the Supervisors for information on how they wanted to proceed with two items. The first was the cost allocation for the Service Authority. He said in past years it was about $60,000 and this year it was dropped further but he felt it would be better suited to drop it even more to $1,000. Based on this meeting, the previous Service Authority Budget Work Session, and prior year discussions, the Service Authority was a wholly independent entity. However, because the Service Authority and the County shared many services, it was felt that there needed to be a line item to charge the Service Authority a fee for the services the County provided. Dr. Young noted that in the past, this amount was never paid by the Service Authority and caused some accounting issues. Ruby Brabo clarified that the Service Authority never paid because the Board of Supervisors voted to not bill them for it. The Supervisors agreed with Dr. Young to drop the amount to $1,000 to serve as a smaller placeholder in the books.Next, Dr. Young asked for guidance on the Smoot Library's request for additional funding to staff their Adult Services Librarian position. Young said this was an existing position, not a new one, and that the Library opted to remove funding for the job because it was level funded last year. Both Brabo and Bueche asked if the Library had done any fundraisers to help increase their revenue as the Supervisors had asked them last year. Cathy Binder, who is also a member of the L. E. Smoot Memorial Library Board of Trustees, said the Library has events planned for this spring and summer. Bueche said he was disappointed that they hadn't followed through with the fundraising and Brabo suggested that maybe it would serve the County better to join the Central Rappahannock Regional Library (CRRL) system to save $200,000 a year. Being painfully familiar with the proposal of CRRL taking over the Smoot Library, I knew this savings only looked true on paper. King George County contributed $384,858 to the Smoot Library in 2017 according to the library's 2017 Annual Report. This is very close to the drafted proposal from CRRL last year of an annual fee of $374,490. As I learned last year, joining CRRL isn't as beneficial as it may seem. In looking strictly at the potential savings to the budget, it would be just over $10,000, not $200,000.
Jane Yuan, Executive Director of the Rappahannock Area Community Services Board (RACSB), gave a presentation to the Supervisors and the Citizen Budget Advisory Committee. She detailed the services offered to residents, both those in need and those in the community. Of note was the REVIVE! Training they offered (which I wrote about here) and that they treated 1,628 King George County residents in need. Yuan did caution the Supervisors that due to law changes, there would be expected shortfalls in their budget of about $200,000 next year and potentially $600,000 the following year.
Dave Coman, Director of Social Services, also gave some further details on his use of the Thurman Brisben Homeless Shelter. By referring single individuals there, Coman said he saves the County money. He said the Thurman Brisben Shelter can house a person for 90 days as well as feed them and offer them access to public transit at no cost. Otherwise he would have to pay $250 to $300 per week for just a hotel room. Because of his financial responsibility and tenacity, the Supervisors agreed to fully fund the request from Thurman Brisben.
Ryan Gandy, Director of Economic Development, gave a shortened version of his previous presentation on the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance (FRA). While there were no new details, it was explained that the budget amounts cited in the original presentation were not clarified enough. As we previously reported, each locality contributes one dollar ($1) per capita. However, the spending budget cited was not the budget of the FRA but rather the budget of the locality. Therefore, our previous return on investment calculations were flawed. Instead, the spending budget for each locality is simply a representation of what each locality is willing to spend on economic development. To put it simply, Fredericksburg spends $971,249 while King George spends $164,081. With this clarity in mind, the Supervisors felt a need to look at the overall percentage of the Economic Development budget compared to the entire County budget when doing future comparison. They felt this would be a better measure of efficiency. During the conversation about bringing businesses to King George County, it was noted that some parcels in the Industrial Park do not have three phase power or broadband internet, both of which are frequently necessary for a manufacturer to do business.
Magic
Dave Coman stayed at the table to then go over his budget in the Department of Social Services (DSS). Much like the school budget, there is money from Federal, State, and local agencies involved, making things complex. To help simplify things, Coman said for every $100 he spends, he gets roughly $85 back from the state. Because of his good working relationship with Wilma Ward, Director of Finance, he's able to get those reimbursement payments processed quickly and easily.Additionally, Coman said that his DSS team is the only one to partner with the Commonwealth Attorney to use those requiring community service hours as their judicial payment to society. Coman said these individuals are used to make repairs to the elderly residents in the County that are in need. He was careful to note that these were repairs and not improvements. He also said this process, and many others that he has used over his lengthy tenure, have earned our DSS team many awards.
Jeff Bueche said that he was appointed to the Social Services Board last year and fully expected to dig into their budget to root out waste and excess. He said that instead he found a group of hard working people that are very frugal with their money. Although I am not personally familiar with Coman or Social Services, it was very clear that his employees worked hard for very little money because it was the right thing to do. Brabo questioned if they were part of the compensation study done by the County and Wilma Ward and Dr. Young said they were not because they were not technically County employees.
Drama
The meeting ended with a bit of drama. The Supervisors began to review their own department, line by line, and when they got to the topic of giving themselves a raise, Richard Granger said he was okay with taking the raise but if future meetings showed a need to raise tax rates, he felt any raise for the Supervisors should be the first thing to go. The rest of the Supervisors seemed to agree. When they got to the line item for travel expenses, the drama began. Recent social media posts drew attention to Ruby Brabo's travel expenses and when Granger noted overspending in the past and suggested a new method of giving each Supervisor their own travel allowance in addition to another central pot of money, Brabo seemed to take offense. She reminded her peers that they supported her running for office in the National Association of Counties (NACo) two years ago and that she told them then that it would require additional costs.When Brabo said no reports are given to Supervisors on their travel expenses and that no staff had told her in the past three years that she had overspent, Granger agreed and said that was a great reason for a new policy on how Supervisors handle their travel expenses. He said that because there has been overspending, it needs to be addressed and that a new policy seemed like the best option. According to materials handed out during the meeting, the travel expense budget was exceeded in FY16, FY17, and FY18. FY18 was the worst year with a budget of $7,500 and actual expenses of $18,924.90. No clarity was given on how much of that was reimbursed to the County from other entities such as NACo.
Granger continued with his reasoning behind a new policy by stating that any other department isn't allowed to just "blow past" their budgeted amounts and that it wasn't right that the Supervisors aren't held accountable. Brabo began to say that her involvement in various committees and boards has been a good return on investment when John Jenkins interrupted and said it felt like this was turning into more personal attacks on either a specific Supervisor for their travel or for their ideas. Cutting to the quick, Jenkins cited the recent questions raised on social media about Supervisor travel and said that transparency seemed to be the key to addressing both Brabo's and Granger's concerns and ideas. Jenkins said that he looked at the Essex County policy and liked the idea that they publish their information on their website. Jenkins said he was comfortable with each Supervisor coming to the table with their expected travel needs and was fine if each Supervisor had different amounts.
Jenkins then questioned existing policy by saying it would put Dr. Young in an uncomfortable position if he had to tell his boss, the Board of Supervisors, that they were over budget. Cathy Binder agreed that it would put staff in an awkward position. Jenkins said they also need to keep future Boards in mind. Jeff Bueche suggested that everyone should come with a spending plan that shows a forecast for expected travel and then the Supervisors can vote on it at the beginning of the year. Bueche said that if anything unexpected comes up, it can be addressed during the year by the Board but that the plan up front would be transparent. He also said it would put the burden of following the budget on the Supervisor to ensure they don't overspend.
Brabo did ask the citizens present if they had an opinion on the topic. One citizen noted that she was fine with the travel as long as it benefited King George County. Any travel that was to further an individual's political aspirations beyond their current role wasn't right. Bueche further explained that by putting a plan out there for the public would help Supervisors be held accountable to their constituents. Brabo again reminded everyone that the expenses shown don't factor in the revenue received from reimbursement. She said her expenses for the annual NACo conference in July were covered by NACo. Granger again said that because of overspending, he felt a need to create a fiscally responsible policy for travel expenses. Binder asked where money came from to cover any overspending and Brabo and Dr. Young said it came from savings in other departments.
Brabo again said that no staff member had come to her and told her she overspent. Binder said it didn't seem like a fair argument that an employee would go to their boss to say something like that. Bueche again said it puts Dr. Young in an awkward position.
Brabo made one final parting comment before the meeting ended, saying that none of her peers on the Board had the courtesy or respect to bring the social media posts on her travel to her attention. Jenkins said that was a fair point but that during the conversation this evening, he never mentioned anyone by name. Brabo said she hasn't had that kind of disrespect in four years.
How many month's/years has Mrs Brabo maxed out her county credit card almost monthly? This is beyond her travel expenses. It was no secret within the department's that Mrs Brabo used the county savings like a slush fund. I am not sure why she is not required to report her expenses to the BoS and BoD being they "benefited" the county so dramatically . Does she not vote to pay for those costs each month?
ReplyDeleteRemember the border wall trip that left her in the state of not being able to attend a BoS meeting. Sounds like play time to many.
For that matter why has Project94 sat this story after being informed of the abuse?
Scott - We can't really answer your first question. Yet. As for her voting, yes, she votes along with the rest of the Board (both of them) to approve the warrants. Regarding your last question, we haven't "sat" on the story of extraneous travel expenses. If anything, we're playing catch-up. Although we will freely admit that there is a delay in reporting meetings such as this one because of our writing and editorial process. In this case, the meeting was the evening of the 13th and the article was published the 15th. Being honest, for us, that's a pretty fast turnaround. As always, thanks for reading!
DeleteNeil, I can appreciate the delay between public meeting and publication. I appreciate your families involvement in local government but I also would have expected objectiveness in your coverage as a journalist. I know you and others have sat in meeting with agenda's in hand and never took the time to look at them closely. Mrs Brabo attempted to use her unknowing knowledge of her expenses as a self defense. Yet she voted on those warrents each meeting. (This is not the only issue she has stood in front of the public and looked like a deer in the headlights.) How long has she been on these boards? One has to ask how a small Virginia county board member is able to afford the travel expenses that Ms. Brab has enjoyed. Sure NACo is supplimenting some of their board members costs but for her travels to continue without ever being questioned is a neglect of these boards. The previous board brought her travels under control. Once her stacked BoS fell into place she was off, and where are the travel miles accumulated going? Those flyer miles belong to KG.not Ruby Brabo.
ReplyDeleteHow did Mrs Brabo not know her credit card balance? When I was with the county, that card balance showed up as a debt on my personal credit card statement. There is no reason Mrs. Brabo needs to travel all over the country in her representation of King George County. Her focus should be on King George, understanding county meetings and meeting agendas, it's employees, and it's issues. Drop the county paid junkets, drop the social media, drop the employee back stabbing and lying and drop the need to see yourself in local news
In the 24 years I served the people of King George I learned one thing, King George is a very small community. Very little happens that the majority of citizen's don't know about, and unless you are a brainwashed FLS reporter these issues should be in front of a news reporter's pen.