2020-03-03 - Board of Supervisors Meeting Notes

by Neil Richard

The Board of Supervisors began their meeting at 6:30pm.

There was an amendment to the Agenda to add a Closed Session.

Mike Maldonado was the only speaker during Public Comment. He wanted to tell the Board about two things. First, he attended the Father and Daughter Princess Ball with his daughter. He said the dance, hosted by the Parks and Recreation Department, was fantastic. Second, his daughter attends Potomac Elementary School and she asked him who the Mayor of King George was. He thought this meeting was the perfect place to ask.

In breaking from the usual process of being a one-way comment period, Cathy Binder addressed Maldonado's daughter who was in the audience. Binder said there were five people up here and four represent a specific voting district and one represents the whole County. She added that there's no one person that's the head but that every year they elect a Chairperson. Binder said she would love to come to Potomac and talk to the kids there and asked the young Maxie Maldonado what grade she was in. The young lady said "my grade is Kindergarten" and her teacher was Mrs. Brinkman. Binder said her daughter goes to Potomac too but she had Mrs. Shaw for Kindergarten.

2020-03-03 - Service Authority Meeting Notes

by Neil Richard

The Service Authority began their meeting on time at 5:30pm. Annie Cupka, Vice Chair, noted that Cathy Binder, Chair, was en-route from Washington D.C.. Binder had been representing King George County at the National Association of Counties (NACo) but should be back in time for the upcoming Supervisors meeting.

There were no amendments to the Agenda.

There was no Public Comment.

Jim Morris reported that he attended the budget work session on the 27th.

Allen Parker said he attended the same budget work session and added that the budget was coming along well. He said a lot of the heavy lifting was done by the previous Board of Directors. Parker also said that Jonathon Weakley, General Manager, has done a great job getting things in order as well.

2020-01-21 - Board of Supervisors Meeting Notes

by Neil Richard

The Board of Supervisors began their meeting at 6:34pm.

There were amendments to the Agenda to add Closed Session.

Kim Dodge was the only speaker for Public Comment. Dodge said she wanted to speak on the part of the taxpayers and said she knew budget season was coming up. She wanted to thank everyone for their work in getting the County out of debt and keeping taxes low and hoped the Board could continue to do that. She said that when the Board increases property taxes, it takes money from each household and many families do not get pay increases. Dodge said she was proud to see a chart of the 2018 budget and that property tax revenue wasn't being used to pay for everything. Dodge said that the schools seemed like an endless money pit and that they'll ask for money and say it's for the children but there needed to be something else that paid for teacher salaries. She said that when she asks the Board to not increase taxes, she's asking on behalf of the poor, the single family households, and those that don't have dual incomes. Dodge said she gets that a lot of citizens in the County would support a tax increase but said it was because they thought it would increase their salary. She said she saw something on Facebook about the Sheriff's Department hiring and the salary was low but people said they would be willing to pay more in taxes if that meant the Deputy's salary would go up. Dodge said that she would rather see more grants used to pay for salary increases. She said we only hear from the people being paid from taxpayers and not the rest of the population and they would like to keep their taxes low.