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Zhurnalistskoye Prikrytiye: A Thin Excuse For Craig Gerhart
By Greg L | 10 September 2008 | Prince William County | 29 Comments
What if Prince William County employees have held discussions with operatives who work with the Obama campaign about obtaining reviewing videos from public meetings and footage from security cameras installed in the McCoart Center regarding residents who expressed an opinion during citizen’s time that these folks who work with the Obama campaign don’t agree with, and did this during working hours? What if Prince William County Employees consulted with these campaign operatives, suggesting specific clips that may be of interest, evaluating how they may be used so they could further a political effort, and providing feedback on the draft work products? What if these County Employees provided taxpayer-owned resources to these Obama campaign operatives so it would be easier for them to do their jobs?
Would any of this bother you? Is it OK for public employees to assist in political intelligence operations targeting county residents?
Prince William County Executive Craig Gerhart apparently thinks all of this is fine, as long as you can call the campaign operatives “journalists”. It’s a page out of Vladimir Putin’s KGB, right here in Prince William County…
Stay tuned.
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29 Comments
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Seriously?
If so, someone needs to get fired.
If this turns out to be true, this would be big, very big.
And heads should roll….
I think governments should cooperate with journalists in most circumstances. But of course, it depends on what you consider a journalist. Is Greg a journalist or a political operative? I don’t have an answer. Some people wear many different hats.
Providing video clips and surveileince photos are ok. They are an open record of government and should be given out to members of the media or to the public if requested. However, providing interpretation or analysis on how to ‘use’ the information is in effect taking a partisan stance. If that’s the case, any government employee found doing so should be fired and then charged with fraud.
Anyone have any credible details on what occured?
What is the position of the County attorney. Has the Virginia Attorney General been informed of this situation?
Unless this situation has made John McCain change his position on illegal immigration then this has no bearing on my thoughts on the Presidential Race. That being said, heads should roll at the county.
Evidently public records can be provided to the public UNLESS the requestor supports a political candidate. Then the records can’t be provided. Why? I don’t know. Ask one of the members of Manassas Mensa.
When I want a public record, I have to send a FOIA request which then gets coordinated through the county attorney’s office. In some cases, a government employee or official will respond directly, if it is convenient and the records are immediately available, and then it goes into coordination and review with the county attorney. In every instance, responses are limited to the public records that currently exist, and never does this seem to allow employees or officials to do anything beyond producing existing documents. It doesn’t even allow the information to be summarized in a new document. Additionally, if there is the slightest opportunity to redact or refuse to provide information, the county always seems to avail themselves of the opportunity.
I never had a county employee offer to search through documents or records to see if anything contained within them would be of interest to me. They never offered to provide suggestions on how to edit the information, or a review of something I wrote based on that information. That’s what has happened here, apparently.
I never had the county offer to lend me county-owned equipment, credential me as a member of the media, coordinate the reservation of public space for me, attest to the accuracy of something I said or promoted, or discuss opportunities to obtain access to security infrastructure in government buildings.
This goes far beyond releasing information to the public. Based on the information I have, this appears to be a case of county employees volunteering for the Obama campaign while being paid by the taxpayers to perform their public duties.
Greg, have you dealt with the media relations people at prince william? I have dealt with them and the staff that runs the TV channel through clients of mine and they have always gone out of their way to help. Everything I read about this sounds like standard media relations stuff.
Most satisfied with county’s immigration policy
By Elisa Glushefski
Published: September 9, 2008
A majority of residents is satisfied with the Prince William County Police Department’s execution of the illegal immigration policy, however sentiment for the police department declined among Hispanics and blacks, according to the 2008 Citizen Satisfaction Survey.
The findings from the questions added to this year’s survey—done to get public opinion about implementation of the policy—were presented Tuesday in conjunction with a status report by police Chief Charlie T. Deane at the Prince William Board of County Supervisors meeting.
Some of the results of the survey have caused worry that more crimes are now going unreported, he said during his presentation to the board.
Several questions were added to this year’s survey, one was aimed at determining how satisfied residents are with the implementation of the policy.
The survey showed that 36 percent were very satisfied; 24.2 were somewhat satisfied; 6.1 percent were somewhat dissatisfied; 8.6 percent were very dissatisfied; 7.7 percent opposed the policy and declined to rate the police implementation; 17.2 percent had no opinion; and less than 1 percent refused to respond.
The reasons behind those answers included comments on the problems caused by illegal immigration, positive and negative remarks on the county’s policy, and negative and positive comments about police enforcement or action, according to the survey that was conducted by the Center for Survey Research at the University of Virginia.
“The results are of interest because most turned out not to be about police at all,” said Thomas M. Guterbock, director of the Center for Survey Research, which has conducted the annual survey since its inception in 1993.
Satisfaction with police attitudes and behaviors toward citizens dropped this year to 79.3 percent from 87.9 percent in 2007—”lowest level of satisfaction since the question was introduced in 1995,” Guterbock said.
The decrease, he said, can most notably be linked to the decline in satisfaction among Hispanic respondents—53.5 percent of whom reported they are satisfied.
Whites were most satisfied with 86.8 percent, blacks were second with 73.1 percent, Asians were third with 66.5 percent, and those who fell into the category of other rated at 48.3 percent.
They were also asked about overall satisfaction with police, which was also down, and “satisfaction that the department treats everyone fairly.”
Of the 1,666 who were randomly surveyed, 1,591 spoke English and 75 spoke Spanish, Guterbock said.
For the first time, households using cellular phones were also surveyed, he said. They were asked if they lived in the county and if they answered “no” were not surveyed.
Board Chairman Corey A. Stewart, R-at large, said that the flaw with including cell phone users was that there was no way to know whether they are here legally, noting someone here illegally would be more likely to rate the county and police lower because of the county’s strict policy.
Respondents were not asked about their citizenship status, Guterbock said.
The survey has a margin of error of less than 3 percent, he said, adding that including households that only use cell phones resulted in a more accurate representation of the county.
It was conducted from April 29—around when the supervisors revised the police directive on checking immigration status—to July 25, according to the county.
“So that was a volatile period of time,” said Supervisor John D. Jenkins, D-Neabsco.
The county’s policy—which originally required officers to check a person’s immigration status if there was probable cause to believe he or she was in the country illegally—was revised to require police to check the immigration status of every person arrested.
The change was made in response to a resolution passed by the board after deciding not to fund the $3.1 million it would cost to install cameras and monitor the footage.
In the last six months, Deane said, police have made contact with 616 people identified as illegal immigrants.
In that same time, a total of 7,500 arrests have been made and 18,700 traffic summonses issued, he said, adding that immigration arrests and summonses made up 1.6 percent of the department’s enforcement activity.
Since police began carrying out the revised policy in July, officers have arrested 142 people identified as illegal immigrations—67 in July and an estimated 75 in August—and released an additional 21 people identified as in the country illegally on summonses—13 in July and an estimated 8 in August, Deane said.
The police chief also discussed the county’s overall crime rate, which his report showed has been on the decline for at least the last four years and is projected to be 19.6 crimes per 1,000 residents for 2008—a drop from 19.8 last year.
He said the department would continue with the public education aspect of the policy to try to prevent people from not reporting crimes.
Col. Peter Meletis, superintendent of the Prince William-Manassas regional jail, gave a progress report on the jail’s involvement in Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 287(g) program.
The results from the survey are available at the county’s Web site at http://www.pw cgov.org/accountability.
Staff writer Elisa Glushefski can be reached at 703-878-8062.
Is this how you feel Prince William county What do you think this survey was all about . Do you feel it represented how you feel?
from Inside Nova.com
I found it on americanpatrol glenn spencers website.
I would love to know just how close to the truth this survey was.
If the reporter was spot on or off base.
I seem to remember some emails that were sent out privately by members of the BOCS before the recipients actually had a chance to respond.
that seems like prefered treatment to me.
Isn’t the survey using “profiling”? I thought that was illegal? Why don’t we just see results from *citizens* of Prince William County?
These folks in questions are not paid or part of the Obama campaign. They may be volunteers but thats it.
You’re right. That’s as ridiculous as saying Greg isn’t allowed to receive public information because he’s a McCain supporter.
More cheesy campaign stunts. Both sides are guilty of them. The more of this chicanery that gets exposed, the better. Informed voters need this kind of information.
Is Greg a McCain supporter?
What is a Journalist?? Certainly not Park and partner.They only write on one side of the issue. They should go join the Washington Post,if they would have them.
Wonder if the County can produce the FOIA request/ I bet they didn’t file one.
Us citizens have to for everything and we still don’t get a good report.
One of mine on the $100,000 spent on renovating the Woodbridge Supervisors office was a jumbled mess. No wonder they are not aware of where the money goes.
The Potomac News had to file a FOIA to get salary information of County Employees. They are recognized as Journalist and County paper for years. So why does Park & partner get a free run????
Don’t go to the County Attorney,he works strictly for the Supervisors. Go to the Attorney General.
We have to stop this underhanded dealings.
The County Attorney, Chief of Police, etc. report to Craig G. CXO, Technically speaking it is Craig G. reports to the BoCS.
The complexity in all of this, is that in order for the BoCS to take any administrative action against Craig G., it will require majority support and that just isn’t going to happen as many of you well know. As does he.
As a supporter of Open Government and fan of Senator Ken Cuccinelli, I wonder what he has to say on this. This appears to be a case of using transparent government to manipulate and expoit elected officials who happen to be Conservative Republicans.
The real issue in my opinion is if any violation of public law has occurred, or if any violation of public policy has occured.
In my experience government records belong to the government, and can only be obtained through FOIA request procedures. This is a government, citizen privacy issue that I’ll bet violated FOIA laws and privacy security laws, and I’ll bet government policy directives.
The solution is to determine what laws or policies were violated, what penalties are associated with that and what the administrative prosecution procedures are.
Officially a complaint should be filed with the county or with the state depending on the laws violated.
This is what the law in a Democracy is for, to protect the community and its citizens from criminalization of the political infrastructure, such as occurs in socialst and dictatorship nations today. The law is everything in these procedures, go look at Argentina’s past if you want a model for the consequences for failing to stop illegal political activities of this type.
Democracy barely won and barely stopped such criminals in Argentina.
The same man responsible for cleaning this up in Argentina is now the United Nation’s chief prosecutor “ocama” in the Darfur ethnic cleansing crimes.
How much money/time was spent doing favors for Eric and Anabel? Were they ever charged like ordinary citizens?
Great question, Love the USA!
Gerhart runs the County government as his own personal fiefdom, with Melissa Peacor, his sycophant “Igor” by his side. Ask County employees (in private where they speak without fear of retaliation) about the awards Gerhart chases. For one award he wanted desperately, he mobilized hundreds of County employees spending probably thousands of hours that should have been spent serving the citizens’ needs, to compile an award application. All of this effort costs taxpayers millions and serves only to massage his ego. Gerhart has no hesitation to provide information to people outside the County government when such actions advance his agenda.
Things are going on in the County building that would astound and disgust the citizens of Prince William County. The main problem is that Gerhart and crew have a solid reputation for swift and harsh retaliation against any County employee who says anything. I know many County employees and have heard the stories first–hand. There are too many of them and they are too consistent not to be believed.
One clarification to Greg’s original post. Most County employees are good people who are just trying to do their jobs. They would not become involved in inappropriate political activities on the job, unless under duress from senior management. The problem is at the top - mainly Gerhart and Peacor. However, department heads such as Martino in Finance and Griffin in Planning are fully in sync with Gerhart’s agenda. Gerhart and Peacor cover up the shenanigans and retaliate against County employees who express any objections.
Just the Facts said on 12 Sep 2008 at 10:40 am:
One clarification to Greg’s original post. Most County employees are good people who are just trying to do their jobs. They would not become involved in inappropriate political activities on the job, unless under duress from senior management. The problem is at the top - mainly Gerhart and Peacor. However, department heads such as Martino in Finance and Griffin in Planning are fully in sync with Gerhart’s agenda. Gerhart and Peacor cover up the shenanigans and retaliate against County employees who express any objections.
The ” TOP ” is our BOCS and Stewart is at the very top. Nothing happens in this county unless Stewart and the BOCS want it to happen. Even the County Attorney says it is perfectly legal for PWC to accept several hundred dollars in fees to request a setback variance knowing full well they will tell you after the hearing that they will not and cannot grant a variance because of a Va Supreme Court decision. If any person did this in business they would be convicted of fraud and have a criminal record. We will not even get into how the county cheats the public on thier valuation of cars and does so delibertly. These are things that cost evey citizen money but no one of the Board cares at.
Come on Bob, either you’re joking, intentionally trying to mislead people on this blog or Gerhart has suckered you too.
It’s time for Corey to reform our local government and expose the blantant abuse of power that has been going on in our local government for far too long.
The reason county staff works against Corey is because he is a threat.
Gerhart intimidates his staff, and they don’t want to lose their jobs so they’re loyal to him.
The reason the permitting process has been horrible, and the county image is bad, is because Gerhart’s staff is so afraid of doing something that he won’t approve of that they simply say no to everyone and everything.
Hence, PWC is known as an unfriendly place to do business.
anon 2 said on 13 Sep 2008 at 10:08 pm:
Come on Bob, either you’re joking, intentionally trying to mislead people on this blog or Gerhart has suckered you too.
It’s time for Corey to reform our local government and expose the blantant abuse of power that has been going on in our local government for far too long.
anon2 Talk about being suckered Corey has you swollering the hook all the way to your stomach. NO one has abused or tried to intimidate the public as Stewart has. Stewart’s definition of reform is do as I tell you and do not think. The threat of Stewart is that he will make the world in his immage and only he is right. Stewart is pompus and lies to get what he wants.
I agree that the staff is out of control and they could care less if they lie or cheat anyone in the county. The other problem is that the public is afraid of the Staff and especialy the Zoneing Office which could care less what the laws are.
Stewart lied when he said the 800 million in new bonds would not cause a tax increse. In December of 07 When a white man wanted to rezone for 20 houses in Lake Ridge it passed with no problem but when a black man wanted to rezone for 18 condo units on family property he could not even get a vote at all. He was forced to not only reduce the number of units but he had to agree to sell one unit for 33% off the selling price rather then the $250.00 a unit the white man paid toward affordable housing.
You have the right to support what you want but I have no use for biggots or people who out right cheat the public as the BOCS support.
Stewart can not do this all alone for it takes at least a majority of the BOCS to accomplish this and no one on the Board wants to stand up for the public just for thier own self centered interest.
The reason the permitting process has been horrible, and the county image is bad, is because Gerhart’s staff is so afraid of doing something that he won’t approve of that they simply say no to everyone and everything.
Hence, PWC is known as an unfriendly place to do business.
You are completely correct in that PWC is a very unfriendly place to do business but the public keeps on electing the politicians who want it to be that way. It is the BOCS that does not want a change.
The problem predates Corey Stewart by years. He inherited this mess that Gerhart and crew have been concocting. Focusing on Corey misses the mark completely. I know that the relationship between Bob Wills and Corey Stewart is much akin to that between Captain Ahab and Moby Dick, but the rest of us need to deal with the real problems.
Gerhart is a political prostitute. His goal is bureaucratic empire-building, and he has forged alliances with the residential developers to serve his agenda. Gerhart realizes very astutely that most of the campaign financing in Prince William County comes from these developers and their money goes to candidates whom they believe will serve their masters well. The BOCS can fire Gerhart any Tuesday with five votes. Therefore, he serves those who control the money, and thus the votes.
Notice that recently Gerhart refused to push for impact fees citing the weakness in the local development industry. Weakness in the residential construction industry is exactly what Prince William County needs at the moment because home prices will not recover until the growth of supply stops or slows. Again, Gerhart aligns himself with the developers against the best interests of citizens and taxpayers.
The week before Thanksgiving (convenient timing to minimize public attention), the BOCS will vote on the Long Range Land Use Committee’s recommendations, including the disastrous “Centers of Community” proposal. See http://www.pwcgov.org/default.aspx?topic=040073001410004480
“Centers of Community” will dramatically increase density in Prince William County and increase the number of residential units (single-family, townhouses, etc.) by millions. This policy will be a developer’s dream, but a citizens’ and taxpayers’ nightmare.
Gerhart is facilitating these schemes and has hired convenient stooges in the form of the Planning Director Steve Griffin and Long-Range Planning Chief Ray Utz. They talk in terms of “Smart Growth” but are pushing hard to get BOCS approval of “Centers of Community,” which could not be more far removed from Smart Growth.
Forget about Corey Stewart. Corey could resign tomorrow and the real problems would still be with us. Craig Gerhart and Melissa Peacor are bureaucratic empire-builders aligned with interests contrary to those of the citizens and taxpayers of Prince William County. They retaliate swiftly and harshly against County employees whom they consider not on their “team.” Both have the political acumen to forge alliances that are in their best interests, even when diametrically opposed to doing “the right thing,” to borrow one Gerhart’s own phrases.