The local Staunton newspaper (NewsLeader) recently did a piece on the Augusta County Board of Supervisor race where the challenger, David Karaffa (I), brought to light that the current Beverly Manor Supervisor, Jeremy Shifflett (R) has missed other than BOS meetings in the past. All of the seven Augusta County Supervisors are on special community committees and many times are welcome to attend but are not allowed to actually vote during the process...
.
Unfortunately the NewsLeader did not investigate or explore the meeting attendance record of any of the other Supervisors thus making this basically a "Political Hit Piece" by Karaffa against the sitting Beverley Manor District Supervisor...
.
Interestingly the NewsLeader article has gotten numerous comments from local citizens who have seen this piece for what it is. In addition to this one commentor has provided an interesting link to the minutes of a BOS meeting where one Supervisor (Beyler) questions another Supervisor (Pyles) regarding his attendance to a committee that dealt directly with the recent Augusta County re-assessment process that he (Pyles) has actively criticized and has been very critical about. The BOS transcript shows Beyler asking Pyles if he had attended these meetings and especially the meeting that dealt with the methodology used to perform the re-assessment process. Supervisor Pyles never really answers the attendance question or provides an actual number, if any, of meetings that he attended...
.
The re-assessment issue has become a obvious political tool used by members of the "Gang of Four" (Tracy Pyles, David Karaffa, Kurt Michael, Michael Pattie) who are all running for the Supervisor seats in their own districts. Instead of allowing the re-assessment process to evolve and allow the homeowner to challenge their individual assessment by the procedure provided, members Pyles & Kurt Michael organized a protest by county citizens before the actual individual challenge process was allowed to happen or complete. The vast majority of those protesting no longer see it as an issue now that the process was allowed to be completed as required by law, they had the opportunity to challenge any questionable assessment, and the BOS set an appropriate tax rate with the current economic situation...
.
With the above transcript of the Augusta BOS meeting it is obvious that Shifflett is not the only one that has missed committee meetings in the past and thus the "Pot calling the Kettle black" reference above...
.
The hope here is that the local newspapers will further investigate issues like this and others sure to come in the future so the voters will have all information to make their decision with....
.
.
15 comments:
Jeremy has done a great job as a BOS member, and voted AGAINST the reassessment.
So if he voted against the re-assessment why are they targeting him with thi BS?
So if he voted against the re-assessment why are they targeting him with thi BS?
Kurt sure "showed" himself in regard to the reassessment. If he understood the law, they would have let the citizens contest their assessments and show proof that there was an error in their assessment. The board can't just throw out an assessment! The BOS is responsible for setting an equalized tax rate. Nor is it the job of "The Treasurer" or "The Commissioner of The Revenue" to make changes to the assessments. There is a process that has to be followed. I guess KURT and DAVID think they will be able to run all the offices if elected to the BOS. LOL. They can assess everything, collect fees and set the tax rate. There will be no need for anyone else. Funny.
Where is the SWACster (media arm of the gang o' 4)? The SWACster has been awfully quiet lately, too quiet if you ask me (I'm reminded of that classic Chuck Norris Fact- If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can't see Chuck Norris, you are seconds away from death.). No doubt the SWACster is lurking in the political weeds, awaiting instructions from the gang o' 4 ringleader as to when exactly to release an October Surprise. Didn't the SWACster support Shifflett last time? What did Jeremy do to the gang o' 4 to deserve this cruel fate?
Anon 5:56,
They know that but they also know that if you continue to repeat the same BS over and over some people will buy into it. Kind of reminds you of Obama and his continual "Class Warfare" tactics... He knows the simple will fall for it if you give them sombody elses money !!!
Remember tye "Slick marketing plan" and watch it evolve over the campaign(s)...
Thanks for the comments
Steve
If the "Swacster" you refer to is SwacGirl, Lynn Mitchell, it is my understanding that since she is a member of the Virginia Republican Party State Central committee, she is required to support all Republican candidates as required by State Central. In the past and during the re-assessment issue and un-needed turmoil created by the Gang-o-Four, SwacGirl,(Mitchell) was clearly supporting Pyles, democrat, and Kurt Michael who had not declared his run for Supervisor as an "I", but did support and broadcast the attacks made by Pyles, Michael, and Karaffa on the Republican "Electeds" as they liked to call them.
Many people saw her support for what it was and obviously it went to State Central by people who have seen what the Gang-o-four has done to destroy\harm the local Republican party..
Please note the lack of GOP headquarters when Senator Hanger beat out Scott Sayre for the Republican nomination. This was when Kurt was chairman and I was South River district chairman. We had always had a headquarters for important races like this but did not this time for Hanger was not their "Boy"... I campaigned and suported Sayre but when he did not win the nomination I then supported the Republican candidate. Senator Hanger....
Yes M&M (Michael & Mitchell) did support and worked to get Shifflett elecetd, actually Chris Green did the most work,but the dropped him once they found out Jeremy was not going to play the game of the "Puppetmaster", Kurt Michael...
Also you never see support for the Augusta Republican candidates now running in the election. Have you seen support coming from SwacGirl Lynn Mitchell (State Central Member) for Shrewsbury, Homes, Fisher, Shifflett,Beyler, etc. at anytime?...
Anybody from State Central out there?
Thanks for the comments....
Steve
Here are the stats on missed regular BOS meetings that the gang o' 4 has been waiting for and that the local professional media couldn't be bothered with.
From the first meeting of this term in January of 2008 until the last meeting in September posted on the county website, there have been 84 regular meetings. I simply took the announced attendance at the beginning of the meeting. If a supervisor showed up late or left early, that did not change the record for this purpose.
Sorrells- 6
Beyeler- 1
Garber- 4
Shifflet- 1
Howdyshell- 9
Pyles - 4
Coleman- 0
Nothing earth shattering here. It definitely does not support the contention that Shifflet has an attendance problem, with only 1 meeting missed in 4 years. Howdyshell missed 10% of the meetings, which may or not be high, in my opinion, that's borderline, seems to me one of the older members should have an ability to be at most of the meetings. Coleman commendably has not missed a single meeting this term.
I know this doesn't fit the Gang 'o 4's prepackaged marketing and media plan, but I thought it should be a part of the record.
This will probably be removed but anyway: Some good stuff on this blog occasionally but your pettiness and hatred are showing. You should rename your blog I Hate M & M's.
Ollie,
Surprise?
It's still here.....
Ollie,
Unlike many of the local blogs, and even some associated with the M&M crowd, this site allows people to comment even if it's directly opposite to my views or many of the readers to Rightside.
In fact I find it interesting that the Big "M"'s campaign website does not allow comments at all? Same if elected?
Open sites like this and comment sections to local newspaper websites allow comments, knowledge, facts, links, to get out there that the media did not know about to make the story complete...
Look at the story about Shifflett not attending some meetings? Where was the research by NL in to the other supers attendance records?
Imagine if the people knew that Pyles did not attend the meetings he was suppose to be attending that explain the methods used for the assessment process?...
Now people know and are asking questions.....
Thanks for stopping by......
Gotta be carefull when you open those "Cans of worms"
Where was the newsleadr reporter when he did this story attacking J.Shifflet? Do they just print whatever the candidate gives them?
Stan,
The reporters for the NewsLeader and NewsVirginian see these guys for what they are and I am sure they play them when they need the story. No doubt they read their comment sections for I have talked to one of the reporters about this and there is intrest by the staffs to keep up on the backstories..
Stan,
The reporters for the NewsLeader and NewsVirginian see these guys for what they are and I am sure they play them when they need the story. No doubt they read their comment sections for I have talked to one of the reporters about this and there is intrest by the staffs to keep up on the backstories..
Post a Comment