Stop the Fighting. Start Leading.

To the Board of Supervisors:

I thought about the meeting last night, and as a citizen of this county, I made this observation: The Fire Department’s presentation was so good that you all had very little comment, a couple of questions about the Chester Gap Fire Department from Mrs. Cullers, but absolutely no questions on their budget numbers.

Sheriff Cline started her presentation, and Mrs. Cook interrupted the Sheriff with the first question within the first minute. Then, approximately every minute thereafter, it was a constant question. I understand that Mrs. Cook sometimes has a difficult time “getting my head wrapped around it,” but this is so much more.

Over the last 2 years she has held an attitude toward the Sheriff, she called it last night as “doing her job” but if you were doing your job, you would question Gerry or Chief as well. I would challenge you to watch the meeting back and view it from the citizens perspective, EVERYONE sees this behavior from Mrs. Cook every time The Sheriff does a presentation. This behavior from a Board Member is uncalled for and is close to harassment. I would ask that, as a board, you speak to Mrs. Cook about her behavior; now, if you’re one of those who say she does not, I challenge you to watch all the meetings back and make an accurate evaluation.

I would also like to comment on Mrs. Cook’s comments on “how we got here.”

We, as citizens, know and completely understand how we got here. What we don’t know is how you plan to fix it. We don’t know how you will fix it because you’re not addressing it. Mr. Jamieson presented a concept that will help.

Still, we have real issues: 400 + calls in the Fire Department could not be answered, and the Sheriff’s Department is losing Deputies to our town police department because they pay much more. Our Parks and Rec department needs vehicles, the IT department needs updated equipment, and the building department needs vehicles; this is just the tip of the iceberg; we don’t need a reminder of the past; we need a fix to the future, and quite frankly we have seen no evidence of a forward movement.

Instead, all we see is cut here, cut there, and work with less, which is fine temporarily. But there needs to be a light somewhere, something to be excited about, and we’re not getting it. We can’t live in the past. We can blame the past all we want, but it changes nothing; YOU have to make the change. YOUR departments are doing creative things to hang on, and some of them are getting grilled.

Mrs. Cook wanted the Sheriff to look into 2028 and asked if this would raise your budget. What an unrealistic question; it was an unfair question. Your departments are doing what you’re asking, but what are you doing to help the departments? What are you doing to give them hope that they may be able to do their jobs efficiently and not worry whether their vehicles will run today, will the system crash today, or will they have to turn down a 911 call? I remind you this is a potential lawsuit for the County.

It is so unfortunate that you don’t have a clue of how OUR employees feel about working for the county, you should take the time to talk to them, you’re very close to losing some very key employees, they are truly shopping for a new job, why? They see no future! They see you fighting with the citizens, fighting with the Library, fighting with the schools, and might I add that industrial and commercial businesses look at all this when looking for a location to set up shop.

We have the worst look we have ever seen, and other countries talk about us all the time. We have some of the most attractive industrial and commercial property, they should be knocking on the doors, and they are not, WHY? It has been my observation that typically, the citizens turn against the Board of Supervisors first, but in OUR case, you all turned on the citizens first. The fixation on the library is taking a toll on this county; you’re spending money on this, which a lot of the employees look at as money they could use to progress their department. The fight with the School Board same thing, you have image of turning against the citizens children.

In 2006, I built a house for Tom Sawner, owner of Educational Options out of Arlington, employed over 100 people, he set on the United States Chamber of Commerce Board, owned a business that did start-up business seminars, and was a keynote speaker all over the world.  I had the pleasure of sitting in one of his seminars on business startups. He repeated something about every 15 minutes for 8 hrs. and said it was one of the most important things to remember in a successful business, and that was, “Take care of your people, and they will take care of you.”

County staff, they are YOUR people. Citizens, they are YOUR people. Why don’t you start taking care of YOUR people by providing Solutions, Hope, and Excitement? Give us something to look forward to. Let us know you have OUR community at the forefront.

One last thing, did you ever make Dr. Daly an offer to stay?

George E. Cline Jr.
Cline Construction & Excavating
Warren County, VA

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