Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Kerry Dougherty Botches It Yet Again

In her column today, Kerry Dougherty attacks the City of Virginia Beach for having cleared the Boardwalk of snow and ice while many city streets remained covered.

It's an apples and oranges argument. The additional services provided in the Resort Area are paid for through the Tourism Growth Investment Fund (TGIF). It's the same pool of cash that gets Resort Area sidewalks cleared each night overnight during the Summer. So while the crews and equipment could have been potentially used elsewhere afterwards, there were no funds to cover the costs.

Can someone stop Kerry from continuing to embarrass herself?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

That may be so, but you're missing a bigger point: when rare events (weather, riot, natural disaster, etc.) occur, it should be the job of city officials to pool resources from all areas. Consider: the school division had the parking lots of all its (closed for 2 days) schools cleared on Monday. Of course many of the street LEADING to the schools were not touched -- thus the need for schools to be closed Tuesday as well. It's that old "us" and "them" mentality. It's not the schools' trucks or the city's trucks but the TAXPAYERS' trucks and should be deployed accordingly

William Bailey said...

Denise: great post!

Avenging Archangel said...

Denise,

The problem is that - legally - all tax dollars are not the same. The Boardwalk clearing came from the TGIF. The school lots from the School Board budget. Local roads from the Department of Public Works. Cross those monies and you end up in jail.

Given that Kerry Dougherty's husband is a judge, it's implausible that she didn't know the legal consequences of what she advocated.

Wally Erb said...

Denise:

Mr. Avenging Angel would have you believe that city workers attribute their hours to a specific task. All they do is punch in and punch out.

They only municipal entity that charge hours to a job order are the city attorney staff. There is no accountability in VB city government to account for tasks performed as per a budget line item.

Mr. Avenging Angel is not an authority on this subject.

Avenging Archangel said...

Wally,

Not quite. If they are hourly employees who "punch in and punch out", those hours are paid out of a particular payroll account. Any materials they use would have been procured via a particular account.

Then, since Kerry Dougherty is nothing but a VBTA echo chamber, it should surprise no one that you defend her.

Anonymous said...

My point was that it is entirely possible for different components of the city structure to collaborate to solve problems with emergencies that affect the public welfare. They do it with site acquisitions for schools, for example. This should be anticipated and encouraged! I would be stunned if it even occurred to some of these people to collaborate on snow-removal. I mean, the schools' plows had to traverse the snow-covered roads to get to the school parking lots. Blades down would have been nice.

wally said...

According to Avenging Archangel explanation, since the Commonwealth didn't allocate enough VDOT money in the budget for snow removal, if it snows again we have to deal obstructed highways.

Budget items are planning initiatives. Then don't necessarily dictate how the funds are actually distributed.

All things do not absolutely play out to theory.

Anonymous said...

Denise
Nice try but you must see VB for what it is ...Podunk, USA.
Can you imagine what would happen in this tourist town if we had a real emergency?
The Council would be the first ones to get out of town..
Don't waste your words buy yourself a snow plow.

Anonymous said...

I love when those who criticize city spending complain that the city doesn't spend enough.