"The budget should be balanced. Public debt should be reduced. The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered, and assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt".
Marcus Tullius Cicero

August 16, 2008 Update:

Supervisor discussions and comments at their July 3, 2008 meeting about the Wellness Center proposed expansion indicate their willingness to increase our taxes in order to fund this project. This project, while an improvement to county recreation, is far from being critical when compared to teacher salaries, school renovations, water quality, and other services funded by county taxpayers. Approximately 3 cents could be added to our county real estate tax to fund this project. It is totally inconceivable to any person with a sense of fiscal responsibility that our supervisors would be in favor of this non-critical expenditure at this time.

 

Supervisor Gentry

Mr. Eric Gentry, Chairman/Eastern District Supervisor
540-626-3212

egentry@pemtel.net

April 14, 2008

Board Chairman Gentry Insulates Members From This Public Inquiry
 
It only took 3 months in his new role as chairman of the board of supervisors for Eric Gentry to succumb to the power of his new position. He has transitioned from initially offering positive hope that under his leadership the board would be more open with the public to a more typical board chairman who uses the power of his position to dictate how other board members can and cannot respond to the public. This is unfortunate for many reasons, not the least of which is the show of disrespect for citizens who take an active interest in county issues that come before this board. Mr. Gentry is breeding public contempt by way of his arrogance and separatist actions.
Allow me to share a recent example of his attitude toward this citizen of Giles County.
 
Douglas Turner sent the following communication to each supervisor and the county administrator:

April 14, 2008

I would like to make the following request independently to each supervisor, the county administrator, and the assistant county administrator.

Identify the five most significant of your personally conceived and initiated positive contributions to the citizens of Giles County. I ask that you provide sufficient details to make the explanation of these contributions easily understood by citizens who benefited from your ideas that made it to fruition.

I’ve tried to perform this task with each of you in mind and I’m unable to attribute even a few personal contributions to each of you, with one exception. I think Howard Spencer is the only supervisor who can honestly lay claim to at least five projects that have benefited county citizens and that he conceived, initiated, and worked to see them to fruition. I think it goes without saying that Cumberland Park isn’t one of the five projects that came to my mind. With that being the only exception of which I‘m aware, I think Howard stands alone as the only supervisor to truly work at conceiving five or more projects that have benefited the citizens of our county.

If you are presently unable to claim as many as five projects as yours, possibly you would be willing to share your vision of current or future projects that you intend to personally initiate and work to see them to fruition before completion of your current term as supervisor.

I ask that the county administrator and assistant county administrator each perform this same self-evaluation of personal accomplishments that have benefited the majority of county citizens.

I have no ulterior motives in asking for your participation in this request, other than to bring awareness to each of you that there are citizens in Giles County who care about such matters. It’s my intent to publish the information you provide on my web site. I’ve had significant feedback from Giles citizens about the content of my web site and I’m convinced that citizens want and need more detailed information about what their elected officials are doing, or not doing to represent their needs.

I respectfully request your participation.

Doug Turner

134 Cypress Lane

Pearisburg, Virginia 24134

540-599-1578

douglasjturner@earthlink.net

www.djtbos.org

Twenty minutes after sending the above email transmission, I received the following email response from Mr. Gentry:

Doug,
    thanks for your interest in the boards accomplishments. I am speaking for the Board to say that we are not going to respond to your request of breaking out individual projects to take credit for. This is not what this board is about. Each and every project takes all of us working in unison as a team for the good of the county. While alot of projects are the original idea of one board member it takes everyone else's cooperation and effort to make it happen. I can say that the current board has tried to be very active on new projects with keeping the budget in mind and the concerns of the citizens.

hope this is a sufficient response to your request.

thank you,

Eric
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When we vote to elect our county district supervisor and the two at large supervisors, we have certain expectations that we communicate to these supervisors. Is it too much to ask that they respond on an individual basis with specific accountability for their actions that were either promised or requested when they campaigned for election to their position? Is it typical for a board chairman to impose on all supervisors his will to maintain a less open local government than is necessary if the public is to be kept informed? How refreshing it would be for the citizens of Giles County to elect supervisors who would function in a totally open and transparent manner and actually work to keep their constituents informed about board issues.

Coincidental to the timing of the above communications, I was approached by a Pembroke citizen who initiated a dialogue with me about the board of supervisors. This citizen related several instances where Eric Gentry had been rude to him in a manner that showed his arrogance and disregard for this citizens opinion and concern about county issues.

I stress that I didn't initiate this dialogue and only listened to the complaints of this citizen. This citizen went on to say that he has numerous friends who feel they have been ignored by their supervisor, Eric Gentry, and they will never again vote for his reelection.

Friends, this is the only recourse any of us have when an elected supervisor, or any other elected official, wins the election and then forgets how they got there and who put them in office. In the case of Eric Gentry it's unfortunate that we have almost four more years before he comes up for reelection. In the November, 2007 election he did very little campaigning, apparently thinking he was a shoe-in and his opponent posed no threat to him. I imagine he was somewhat shocked when he realized he barely won reelection by a vote of 951 to 915. This is far from a mandate vote of confidence in Mr. Gentry.

It isn't too early for a caring citizen from the Eastern District to give serious consideration to challenging Mr. Gentry in the next election in November, 2011.

Giles County: Cadillac of the New River Valley

February 24, 2008

Giles County collected more money per capita ($2,437) than any other locality in the New River Valley for the tax year that ended June 30, 2007. The median for Virginia cities and counties was $2,701 and this includes northern and eastern Virginia, areas known for much higher taxes than we folks in southwest Virginia will ever see (I hope!).

This should concern every county taxpayer because it is a yardstick to measure what we get for what we spend. Do we have better than average roads? No. Do we have an abundance of sidewalks throughout the county? No. Do we pay our school teachers as much as teachers receive in northern and eastern Virginia? No. Do we fully fund a county fire department? No. As a matter of fact, exactly what county services do we receive other than garbage collection, water in some parts of the county, and sewer in some parts of the county? The county provides funding for libraries, public schools, some recreation, social services, and one heck of a lot of money to various New River Valley regional authorities, planning commissions, and of course that all important airport near Dublin (what would Giles County do without it?). Constitutional offices receive some county funding, probably, in some cases, more than what we get for our money.

Our county Treasurer is an example of taxpayer money well spent. Mr. Duncan performs numerous functions that go beyond that of his predecessors and he does it very efficiently and effectively. He should probably be the business manager for our county public schools and then we would see positive results in getting the most for the money spent on education within the county. As a matter of fact, Mr. Duncan would make an excellent county administrator because he has demonstrated his ability to operate frugally, efficiently, and effectively.

Giles County is in desperate need of positive change. If we can’t change our elected officials, can we somehow change other leaders in the county who continue to influence more county spending than we average taxpayers can afford?

The new hospital is receiving county subsidy for site development for the new hospital, the hospital ambulance service receives county subsidy to the tune of in excess of $160,000 per year, the Giles County Partnership For Excellence has received county financial assistance and we all know the dark side of this organization, county supervisors recently voted to approve bonus payments to Social Service workers, the county has approved untold millions of dollars for public education without requiring any accountability as to whether the schools are operating efficiently, and we probably don’t know where many other non-essential expenditures are going.

Accountability!

Where is it and why hasn’t it been insisted upon by our county supervisors?

 

 

 

School Efficiency Review

 
Mr. Gentry, are you going to require an efficiency review of county school operations in 2008 prior to approving additional funding for the school budget?