Get Active Subscribe Support Us

BUDGET DEBATES OPENS; DARE CUTS AGAIN TARGETED

Leesburg District Supervisor Jim Clem ( R ) threatened to walk out of the board's first budget meeting Tuesday night after some supervisors proved to be more vocal than prepared.

Board members agreed that the session didn't get off to a good start, but remained confident that the revamped budget process designed to allow county leaders to weed out unneeded programs and keep a tighter rein on spending increases will work well.

"I am not going to sit through another budget process like we did last year," a visibly exacerbated Clem said.

His anger was aimed at Supervisors Eugene Delgaudio ( R-Sterling ) and Lori Waters ( R-Broad Run ), who started off the programmatic review meeting with the Loudoun Sheriff's Office asking questions that had very little or no fiscal impact on the budget.  Delgaudio was hammering Sheriff Stephen O.  Simpson ( R ) and his deputies on their handling of domestic violence calls for service, while Waters was trying to fiddle with the DARE program taught by police.  It was Clem's threat and a quick reminder by County Treasurer H.  Roger Zurn that helped the board get on track for the meeting.  More than one hour had already passed and nothing had been accomplished in the review of the 42 pages of programs.  The board had gotten to only page 4.

"We've got to double this schedule," County Chairman Scott K.  York ( I At Large ) said of the 11 budget meetings currently on the board's calendar to review all county departments.

Following a chaotic budget session last spring resulted in only a .25 cent cut in the real estate tax, supervisors in September, asked Zurn to help redefine the budget process.  Zurn, a former banker who served as chairman of the board's Finance committee before being elected to countywide office, proposed that supervisors review each departments' programs and make a decision whether to review any particular program in detail or leave it alone.  Zurn said during a break of the meeting that he explained the process to the supervisors last month and "they nodded their heads" that they understood.  However, the way the meeting started left many in the room concerned that they'd be facing another fiasco budget season for FY 2006.  Zurn said last year the board only did department-level reviews.

"This is meant to examine what various programs each department provides," Zurn said.

Vice Chairman Bruce E.  Tulloch ( R-Potomac ) called for a break in the meeting after Clem's statement.  Tulloch had a quick chat with Zurn and Budget Officer Ben Mays.  He then informed Sheriff Simpson that the board was going to decide, page by page, whether each program was going to be "put in the can" for review or left as is.  Some in the room couldn't help but chuckle at the debacle, realizing that County Administrator Kirby M.  Bowers gave those exact directions before the meeting had begun.

Once the meeting was called to order, the supervisors finally got on track and within an hour they skimmed through the pages and made suggestions.

Zurn said the board was just not focused for the meeting.  The morning after the meeting, Zurn said that he is confident the board will make progress in the upcoming 10 sessions.

"About midway through, things started to take shape the way I kind of thought or hoped they would," he said.

Even with the board getting on track, some county employees questioned the process, saying it gives the appearance that supervisors don't trust how department heads are spending county funds.  One person called the process "ludicrous."

The sheriff's office program that attracted the most attention was Drug Abuse Resistance Education ( DARE ).  Delgaudio made it clear that he thinks the program, which requires $56,000 in funding and six deputies at $443,000, is a waste of money.  He provided a thick binder of materials to all who attended the meeting that included statistics and articles on how the DARE program may not be helpful to students.  Waters suggested combining the school resource officer program with the DARE program and deleting some of the DARE positions.  Sheriff Simpson said Water's suggestion would "ruin" the DARE program.

"It sounds like you're proposing to get rid of the DARE program," Simpson said to Waters, who denied that was her agenda.

Water said her goal was to transfer the DARE duties to the school resource officers.  She wanted to delete four of the six DARE officer positions and add the remaining two in the school resource officer program, to teach DARE.  Last year, Waters asked if the county had ever done an evaluation of the DARE program's effectiveness and to date, she said, there has not been such a study.  When asked how the sheriff's deputies could measure the DARE program, she said they could survey students.

"There are DARE programs that work and there are DARE programs that don't work," she said.

A straw vote to review the DARE program in detail was turned down 4 3, with Waters, Supervisor Mick Staton ( R-Sugarland Run ) and Delgaudio voting for a review.

Three sheriff's office programs will be reviewed.  The board wants to review the Dulles Town Center Office program, in which the sheriff's office has five deputies stationed there to respond to complaints within the mall.  Tulloch said that former Deputy County Administrator John Wells allegedly told Lerner Corp.  that the county did not have enough money to wire and furnish a new substation within the mall.  The current space is too small, the sheriff said.  Tulloch said the issue was never brought before the board and he wants staff to open the books again and settle the issue.  It is estimated, according to Bowers, that it would cost about $70,000 to furnish and wire an new office at the mall.  Wells declined to comment on the issue.

The second program the board wants to review is applicant investigations, a department that reviews applications, conducts criminal histories, polygraph testing and scrutinizes personal references.  The board wants to see if these functions can be outsourced.  Currently, the program costs $106,000 to operate and there are five deputies who work in the department, at a cost of $327,000.  Eliminating the program could compromise the ability of the sheriff's office to hire competent and honest employees, the sheriff's office said.

The final program that will be reviewed is homeland security.  The board wanted more of a cost breakdown for the program.

On Wednesday, board members who were questioned said that the meeting ended up being beneficial.

"At the end of the meeting everyone agreed it was a great process once we got a handle on it," Tulloch said.  "The supervisors had to get comfortable with what role they played in a programmatic review.  I think that a certain supervisor thought this was budget-deliberation time.  That's not the mode he was supposed to be in."

Clem, who calls himself a no-nonsense type of guy when it comes to board meetings, said that the board did get to have a look at the various sheriff's office programs and he came out of the meeting feeling he had a philosophical difference with what community policing means.

"I think they can utilize the people better," Clem said about the sheriff's office.  "I think we need the paddywaggon concept."

Clem said that when a deputy arrests someone in Sterling the deputy has to travel to Leesburg to the magistrate's office.  Simpson said deputies can be out of service for up to three hours after they arrest someone.  Clem wants to see if magistrates could be stationed in the east and west so that the travel times are less.  But the paddywaggon concept, as he calls it, would entail one officer driving a bus to pick up arrested people and bring them to the magistrate, so the arresting officer can get back on the street.

"We need more men and women on the street than people sitting behind a desk," Clem said.

Both Waters and Tulloch said the meeting started off slow because it was the first time the board had committed to such a review process.  Waters said she is confident the future meetings will run much smoother, but she added that supervisors and staff will have to be patient because some questions need to be asked so that the board can better understand each department and its programs.

"You've got to crawl before you can walk and you've got to walk before you can run," Tulloch said.