You heard it first on The Schilling Show Blog & News.

The Albemarle, VA police recently released red-light camera data for the Rio Road and Route 29 intersection that, according to Captain John Parrent, “…translates into improved traffic safety for all vehicles using that intersection….” Wait, not so fast, Captain Parrent.

Reporter Brandon Shulleeta’s January 11, 2011 story (“Rio-29 cameras cut number of red-light runners”) in The Daily Progress notes that the number of camera activations at the intersection decreased significantly from an initial period when only warnings were issued to a subsequent period of the same duration (27 days) when the police were mailing out penalties for violations.

During the initial “warning” period, the red-light cameras snapped 2040 vehicles, resulting in 464 warn- ings being issued. The subsequent “citation” period produced 412 tickets from 998 camera flashes. So, after motorists passing through the Rio-29 intersection had almost a month of exposure to photo enforcement, half as many triggered the cameras. Sounds good, but…

If traffic safety is the issue—and we should all be able to agree that it is—then measuring the impact of photo enforcement by the change in total camera activations misses the point. The Albemarle police should be providing true safety statistics, not activity-based data. How did the accident rates and the injury rates compare between the warning and penalty periods? Those data are the real indicators of how the intersection safety has been affected by the presence of the red-light cameras.

Actually, the absolute number of camera activations from one period to another is misleading in its own right. What were the traffic volumes in the respective time periods? Drivers have been known to reroute their usual routines to avoid the risk of being penalized at red-light camera intersections. The camera activation rate, the number of flashes per 1000 vehicles, for example, is the true measure of camera activity when comparing one period of time to another.

We hope the Albemarle police will release accident rate, injury rate and camera activation rate statistics for not only the “warning” and the “citation” periods at the Rio Road and Route 29 intersection, but also for a similar time span when there were no ticket cameras present. Let Albemarle residents and commuters evaluate the impact of the red-light cameras based on true safety metrics during actual “before and after” time periods.

Download the  editorial on NMA letterhead (.PDF).

Charlottesville’s downtown mall is fertile ground for nascent eco-socialists, aggressive progressives, citizen-collectivists and other like-minded political degenerates. At any given time, a panoply of leftists, young and old, convene there, “productively” whiling away the hours.

But, politically speaking, the evening of October 29 was superior to all previous nights on the mall. Fellow travelers Tom Perriello and Barack Obama were slated to appear at the Charlottesville Pavilion to rally the boy-congressman’s flailing re-election campaign. To the ends of the mall and beyond, comrades cued for the chance to witness progressive history.

Conservative activist group, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), seized upon this transcendent circumstance to gauge political sentiment among the assembled throng by conducting random video interviews. While attempting to distribute “Socialism Isn’t Cool” bumper stickers, AFP discovered that to many Obama-Perriello adherents, socialism was cool.

Amidst the admirers was Western Albemarle High School Spanish teacher, Dominique Anderson—a bald faced socialist. During her interview, Mrs. Anderson boldly exhorted the AFP inquirers to “convert” to socialism, vapidly proclaiming the political system (which is responsible for more than 80 million deaths) “totally good.”

When questioned as to why a socialist should be able to plunder the possessions of a capitalist, the bolshevist educator haughtily retorted, “That’s bullshit.”

Several of Dominique Anderson’s former and current students recognized their Spanish teacher in the originally released APF video footage (which was edited for profanity). None was particularly surprised at her avowed love for socialism, but all were solaced that her dreaded classroom antics now were laid bare. So relieved was one pupil, that he contributed this exclusive, telling narrative of his personal experiences inside Mrs. Anderson’s classroom:

She was my teacher in 11th grade. I could always tell she was very liberal, with that making sense now that she’s proclaimed she’s a socialist.

There would be plenty of classes where politics would sometimes come up, and if we wanted to keep from doing Spanish work, there was nothing easier than asking her about her political beliefs —we’d often get a rant that would take up some time.

I remember one class she said something about how awful the health care system in America was and just how Bush was so horrible and America needed to be more like Europe.  She was really trashing a country that I am so proud to come from, and I looked at one of my friends, and we were like, is she serious?  We both agreed that hey, if you don’t like it here in America, a country we would sacrifice so many things for, quit your ranting and get the hell out.  Go back to Europe where everything is ’so much better’ and just leave our country alone.

When we asked her about her political beliefs, she never wanted to tell us directly what she thought, but when she talked, it was very clear she leaned far left.  She seemed to like Obama very much (again, very understandable) and had nothing positive to say about anything conservative.

I wish I could say that she is an exception on the Western Albemarle teaching staff, but so many teachers there are very liberal (I believe some to be bordering on socialism), and even though they might try to not let it influence their teaching, after the first month or so you can always tell who believes what.

I honestly am disgusted by the bias and ill feelings towards conservatives in school.  For no reason what so ever should public taxes be funding some of the teachers’ rants at school or their biased influences, many of which clearly go against founding American documents and principles.  The sad thing is many people do not know enough to see the bias in front of them, and they come away with a twisted understanding of history, or they leave a Spanish classroom feeling insulted for being conservative, or with a taste of distain in their mouth for having to listen to a teacher during school hours rant about how awful the country is that we live in.

Not since the national exposure of Henley Middle School teacher Margie Shepherd and her anti-American, anti-Christian classroom displays has an Albemarle County government-school teacher so nakedly been revealed for her disdain of American foundational principles—and in this case, for the country, itself.

While all teachers are entitled to personal beliefs and opinions, parents of government-schooled children should be aware of potential anti-American classroom-based indoctrination. And avowed socialists—like Dominique Anderson—who cannot keep their leftist politics out of the classroom should remove themselves (or themselves be removed) from the mandated government-education system.

America, as conceived, will crumble when a majority of her citizens are predisposed to despise her. Thanks to the classroom contributions of leftist government-school instructors, we are well advanced on that path to destruction.

For the most part, young indoctrination-hostages (government-schooled students) subject to the Margie Shepherds and Dominique Andersons of America’s “public” education system cannot defend themselves from attempted anti-liberty brainwashing.  It is the public’s responsibility, once notified, to recognize and counter these ongoing subliminal (and sometimes overt) assaults—the nation’s future depends on it.

It was a marketing scheme at best, as O’Connell held tightly the city hall dossier, frequently depriving elected councilors of critical decision-making information that might lead to conclusions which O’Connell himself disfavored.

But if Charlottesville’s government transparency was relentlessly inadequate under O’Connell, currently, it has deteriorated to a state of atrocity unfathomed in previous years.

And now, in this veiled metropolis, the former City Manager’s retirement salary-and-benefits package has become a donnybrook—a secret shrouded in mystery and indomitably shielded by self-appointed government guardians.

As no official city disclosure was proffered, following O’Connell’s announced relinquishment, an inquiry was made of Charlottesville spokesman Ric Barrick regarding the soon-to-be-former City Manager’s retirement remuneration:

From: Rob Schilling
Date: February 21, 2010 07:45:47 PM EST
To: Ric Barrick <BARRICK@charlottesville.org>
Cc: Craig Brown <Brownc@charlottesville.org>
Subject: Information Request: City Manager

Hi Ric,

Can you please send me complete information on the City Manager’s retirement benefits upon his departure from city employment? In other words, a delineation of each benefit and the annual dollar value of that benefit.

A cone of silence immediately was erected as Barrick sought refuge in city’s legal department, which refused to divulge any detail of Gary’s golden parachute:

From: “Barrick, Ric” <BARRICK@charlottesville.org>
Date: March 1, 2010 09:35:16 AM EST
To: “Rob Schilling”
Cc: “Brown, Craig” <Brownc@charlottesville.org>
Subject: FW: Information Request: City Manager

In response to your request…from Human Resources (attached) and the City Attorney’s Office (below)

“Under FOIA we are required to produce an employee’s salary, his or her written contract of employment (if any), and any ordinances or City policies that describe employee retirement benefits.  In our opinion we are not required to disclose the specific dollar amount of an employee’s retirement benefits.” [Emphasis added.]

Shortly after O’Connell’s final departure, a subsequent FOIA request was issued, seeking information on actual pension payouts that had been made since his retirement date:

From: Rob Schilling
Date: July 27, 2010 07:26:27 AM EDT
To: Craig Brown <Brownc@charlottesville.org>
Subject: Gary O’Connell Pension Payouts FOIA

Hi Craig,

Some time ago, I asked for information regarding the value of Gary’s retirement package. The City was not able to provide me with that information directly.

Can you please provide for me internal accounting records or any related records regarding any monthly payments or direct deposits Gary has received from the City of Charlottesville as a result of his previous employment there? The effective dates for this request would be from his final day on the job through the fulfillment date of this request.

Please let me know if you need further clarification.

Deputy City Attorney, Richard “the Protector” Harris, (who seemingly delights in “protecting” public eyes from viewing “sensitive” government information) responded coldly:

From: “Harris, Richard” <HARRISRM@charlottesville.org>
Date: August 2, 2010 05:56:12 PM EDT
To: “Rob Schilling” <schilling@allhookedup.com>
Subject: FOIA request dated July 27, 2010

Mr. Schilling:

This e-mail is sent in response to your Virginia Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request received by Craig Brown on July 27, 2010, seeking records regarding any monthly payments or direct deposits made to Gary O’Connell subsequent to his employment with the City of Charlottesville.  The documents that you seek are personnel records containing information concerning an identifiable individual.  As such, any responsive records are excluded from the provisions of the FOIA pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-3705.1(1).  Therefore, the records you have requested will not be provided to you.

For further information, I refer you to Article IV of the Charlottesville City Code (specifically section 19-96), as well as Gary O’Connell’s city employment contract, which were supplied to you in response to your previous FOIA request this past February.  I have attached copies of these documents to this e-mail.

If you require any further information, do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Richard M. Harris
Deputy City Attorney
605 East Main Street
P.O. Box 911
Charlottesville, Virginia 22902
Telephone: 434-970-3131
Facsimile:  434-970-3022
harrisrm@charlottesville.org

Q: So, what’s the big secret? Why won’t Charlottesville City Government release the dollar-value of former City Manager O’Connell’s taxpayer-funded retirement package?

A: Because in this post– Bell, California world it would be highly embarrassing—not only to the city, which negotiated and authorized the ginormous payout, but also to O’Connell himself, who left his city position in order to accept a $125,000 per year job with the Albemarle County Service Authority. Can you say double dipping? And, ultimately, because the arrogant Charlottesville City government doesn’t have to disclose—it won’t.

So much for “open and transparent” government…

But, the battle is not lost. In the spirit of WikiLeaks, The Schilling Show Blog and News has tapped clandestine sources deep inside the bowels of Charlottesville City Hall, and now, there’s a clear motive for the establishment’s attempted suppression: the annual outlay is simply astounding.

Institutional insiders reveal that—through masterful manipulation of the system, including the purchasing of “prior service” and naming himself the “Director of Public Safety,” among other chicanery—former Charlottesville City Manager Gary O’Connell has retired with a benefits package “in the range of” [sic] $145,000 per year.

If that figure is accurate, public servant O’Connell is milking (or perhaps more accurately, bleeding) Albemarle County and Charlottesville City taxpayers for a cumulative total of at least $270,000 annually. Nice work if you can get it!

True public service can be a wonderful calling. But there are too many instances where “service” has been perverted into a get-rich-quick scheme. Such is the case in Charlottesville, Virginia, where government has become “god,” and the public servant has become the public’s master.

Health Care Providers, patients, and others in the health care system agree that the system is broken.  The current Health Care Bill has many new features.  It offers unlimited benefits, access for all citizens and immigrants, legal or illegal, equal access regardless of preexisting conditions, non-refusal by insurance companies  for any cause, elimination of co pays and deductibles, and many other benefits. But there is no free lunch. Someone has to pay for these additional benefits. We will all have to pay. The bill will add  trillions to our deficit, placing a financial burden on our children and their  children for generations to come, and does not sufficiently address access to care.  The biggest issue is how to make health care available to all citizens, yet decrease cost, debt, and improve care. The following solutions were proposed to various members of Congress, but were ignored.  Implementation of these steps can accomplish these goals.

1. Tort reform- institute malpractice caps, malpractice panels, and have losers pay the cost of frivolous suits.  The result will be lower health care resource utilization.
2. Remove geographic restrictions to competition between commercial insurers and allow individuals to take their insurance with them, where ever they go. Competition traditionally drives down price.
3. 1% surcharge on all premiums to fund indigent patients.
4. 1% surcharge on premiums to fund clinical and basic health care research to improve care and decrease cost.
5. Decrease taxes on small businesses to foster expansion, hiring more staff and paying more healthcare premiums.
6. Incentives to businesses to pay insurance premiums for employees.
7. Decrease taxes with a percentage to go toward indigent patient premiums.
8. Insure only US citizens.
9. Simplify and cut administrative and regulatory work to half, that is, decrease administration to 20% from 40% and apply the savings to health care reform.
10. Allow physician panels and care givers with patients and uninvolved physicians to make medical decisions without the risk of lawsuits, not administrators and business people.
11. Require public service of those receiving discounted or free medical dollars to off set some of the societal costs.
12. Reward facilities and providers for better outcomes.
13. Reward patients for health promoting life styles with points leading to lower premiums or other rewards.
14. Develop Health Insurance accounts- leads to  individual patient “skin in the game” and attention to their own health care
15. Make access to healthcare insurance the same for everyone-the indigent, the employed and unemployed, congress, the Supreme Court, and the President.
16. Revise EMTALA legislation to correct expensive abuse of Emergency Services.
17. Train and utilize RNs and pharmacists, with nurse practitioners and physician assistants, under the direction of physicians broaden  focused health care, especially wellness and disease prevention.
18. Develop internet based limited self-care and patient empowerment with validated algorithms and protocols.
19. Increase the number of doctors by making available “Health Professional Student Loans” for interested students.
20. Risk stratify to recognize individual responsibility, just like auto and life insurance policies.
21. Implement fraud and abuse oversight to decrease cost.

These are solutions promulgated in the cold hard light of reality, without genuflection to attorneys or physicians, insurance companies, or the government. We can decrease cost, decrease the deficit, improve the quality of care, and provide health care for our citizens. To do so requires all of us to “think outside the box” and consider the essential elements of self control, individual responsibility, adherence to the law and the constitution, and abandonment of  political/party constraints.  Implementation of these steps can deliver to the American people the health care they want. But it will take new thinking, participation by all, and a type of flexibility across the aisle not seen for decades.

Many of us proponents of smaller government, whether Libertarian, Republican, “small L” libertarian, conservative, “constitutionalist,” independent or some other designation, have been very critical of the significant increases in spending and deficit borrowing enacted by the 111^th Congress and President Obama. Additionally, many of us were also critical of the spending and borrowing increases enacted during the administration of President George W. Bush. However, many Republicans assert that these examples of fiscal mismanagement are recent phenomena only.

From my analysis, the federal government has seen an explosion in both spending and borrowing over the last 30 years, dating back to the presidency of Ronald Reagan. As a study of the following table demonstrates, federal debt increased by 172% during the Bush administration (fiscal years ending 9/30001 through 9/30/08), but also by a whopping 260% during the Reagan administration (fye 9/30/81 through 9/30/88).

If we agree that the increased debt of the 2000s was an example of fiscal irresponsibility, should we offer the same criticism of the 1980s? I think so.

To be fair, we should adjust for the fact that, due to inflation, a dollar in 2008 did not have the same purchasing power as a dollar in 1988 (setting aside the observation that it is the policies of the Federal Reserve Bank system that inflates and therefore devalues the currency). The following graph depicts the federal debt from 1940 through 2008.

Again, notice the sharp increase beginning in 1981 and continuing through the present.

To further put these numbers in context, let’s compare the federal debt to gross domestic product (GDP) for this time frame. As the following graph demonstrates, the debt was actually decreasing from an all time high in 1946 through 1981, when again the percentage began to climb.

Lastly, the following graph shows that the impetus for budget shortfalls has not been lack of revenue. Specifically, tax revenue has steadily increased from 1968 through 2007, except for some time after the terrorist attacks of 2001.

As these graphs demonstrate, the financial crisis (dare I say “bankruptcy?”) we are experiencing has been a product of the policies of Washington D.C. of the last 30 years, not only the last 8 or 9. There is also evidence that some hope exists, from analysis of the short departure from these trends in the late 1990s. This was the era of the “Republican Revolution” and subsequent Republican control of Congress. To be fair, this was also the age of the “dot com bubble” which created a rapid growth in GDP and tax revenues to coincide with the short period of fiscal restraint.

It is a shame that the era of fiscal responsibility was not replicated in 2001, when Republicans were in the White House and in the majority of both houses of Congress. If Republicans want to truly become a party of “smaller government” or “fiscal responsibility,” it is incumbent on their elected officials and candidates for office to take on a sincere effort to reduce the size of government, namely to reduce federal spending and increases in debt. We need to encourage Rob Bell and others of his generation to do a better job than their predecessors. It’s no longer good enough to be “better than Democrats” the time has come to be better than Republicans, to be good Americans.

Virginia real estate taxation is a sham.

Properties are “reassessed” by local government on a regular schedule, as mandated by state law, most often and historically leading to higher tax bills.

The practice of real estate taxation, generally, insures that no person ever truly owns his property (try not paying real estate taxes and see how long the property remains yours). However, landowners in the Commonwealth are particularly susceptible to fraudulent assessment policies and incompetent or sloppy assessors.

The City of Charlottesville is a prime example of both.

Over the years, allegations of collusion between the City Manager’s office and the Assessor’s office have arisen, and speculation abounds regarding the relationship between the City Manager’s annual stated financial resource “needs” and the historical annual rise in Charlottesville assessments.

In spite of experiencing one of the worst years in decades for local property values, miraculously, average Charlottesville assessments for existing residential property declined by only 2.19%—a figure hardly believable when looking at the dramatic value reductions of Central Virginia residential properties from 2008 to 2009 as indicated by sales statistics.

A report from the regional Multiple Listing Service (MLS) shows that in 2008, the median value of all sold residential properties in Charlottesville was $265,508.

For 2009, the MLS report indicates that the median value for Charlottesville’s sold residential properties fell to $246,500—a drop of 7.2% from the previous year. This number deviates from the Charlottesville Assessor’s figure (down 2.19%) by more than 325%!

How could the Assessor be so disconnected from market reality?

An analysis of selected Charlottesville residential properties (sold from the final quarter of 2009 and into early 2010) netted dozens with substantial over-assessments based on the sales price—two of which were assessed AND taxed at nearly 300% of their eventual sales price. See the chart below:

Mr. Curtis is Treasurer of the Jefferson Area Libertarians, and the 5th Congressional District Chair, Libertarian Party of Virginia.

Tenebrous projections for multi-million dollar City budget deficits abound, and Charlottesville City Schools, crying poor, are waiting for the ax to fall as state and local “cuts” loom large.

But despite the doom and gloom expounded by Charlottesville officials, times are good for City employees, whose threadbare stockings were filled with green gold this “holiday” (Christmas), in the form of an unexpected cash bonus!

After discovering that Charlottesville’s coffers again overfloweth, this time with a $5.3 million year-end surplus, City Manager Gary”Golden Parachute” O’Connell and Mayor Dave “Norris-Claus” Norris quickly conspired to rid themselves of the PR problems appurtenant to excess funds, in what is reputed to be a time of economic tribulation for our World Class City.

At the December 7, 2009 Charlottesville City Council meeting, millions of superfluous dollars were quietly and unanimously disposed of by Norris-Claus and his holiday elves under the moniker, “FY 2009 End of Year Adjustments.”Among other items:

• $1 million in surplus was shuffled into “Capital Projects”
• $50 thousand was dumped into City Council’s play-money slush fund aka”Priority Initiatives”
• $70 thousand was bestowed to Community Attention for the purchase of two vehicles and some fingerprinting equipment
• $250 thousand was hidden in a so-called “City Reserve”

And the list goes on…

Disregarding the fact that these “surplus” funds were unjustly derived from taxpayers’ labor and justly should be returned to their pockets, insultingly, the City fathers will not reinstate a single cent to its rightful owner.

But perhaps the most egregious affront to Charlottesville taxpayers was this hidden gem (proposed expenditure) tucked away in a November 19, 2009 Memo to City Council from Finance Director, Bernard Wray, and Director of Budget and Performance Management, Leslie Beauregard:

Employee Compensation and Benefits – $625,000 These funds will be used to fund a one-time $750 payment to City Employees who have been employed for at least a year as of November 1, 2009. There are also funds included in this amount to transfer to those other funds that can not cover the bonus payments out of existing funds. Those funds will only be transferred as deemed necessary by the Budget Director and will be automatically deemed appropriated in those funds receiving the transfer. [sic]

Although not delineated in publicly distributed agenda materials, Charlottesville City spokesman, Ric Barrick further annotated the disposal of $625 thousand taxpayer dollars in a communication to NBC 29′s Henry Graff:

EMPLOYEE APPRECIATION PAYMENTS

A TOTAL OF 904 EMPLOYEES RECEIVED THE EMPLOYEE APPRECIATION PAYMENTS BASED ON WHEN THEY WERE HIRED THE FOLLOWING GROSS AMOUNTS WERE PAID.

EMPLOYED 1 YEAR AS OF 11-1-09
$750.00

EMPLOYED BETWEEN NOV. 1, 2008 – FEB. 28, 2009
$562.50

EMPLOYED BETWEEN MARCH 1, 2009 – JUNE 30, 2009
$375.00

EMPLOYED BETWEEN JULY 1, 2009- OCT. 31, 2009
$187.50

PERMANENT PART TIME EMPLOYEES RECEIVED REDUCED AMOUNTS FOR LESS THAN 40 HOURS A WEEK EMPLOYMENT.

THE PAYMENTS WERE MADE BY DIRECT DEPOSIT ON DECEMBER 11, 2009.

EMPLOYEES HIRED AFTER OCT. 31, 2009 did not receive appreciation payments.

In this purportedly worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Charlottesville City employees—with secure employment, overly generous benefits and extraordinary compensation (in relation to the private sector)—are not hurting. Yet, their future votes and ongoing political loyalties are being assured by the “generosity” of the Mayor and the City Manager—albeit using other people’s money (OPM).

Charlottesville City taxpayers, however, toil under ever escalating financial duress after years of over-taxation at the hands of a reprehensibly and unabashedly socialist government. News of this exclusive “appreciation bonus” is delivered to and received by hard working Charlottesville taxpayers as another “kick in the pants” from the Democrat City Hall machine.

With five-year accumulated surplus taxpayer dollars exceeding $20 million, O’Connell, Norris, and the City Hall Cabal continue to crow about their prudent fiscal management of Charlottesville’s budget.

Don’t buy the big lie.

Purile political payoffs to already well-compensated government employees at the expense of a struggling private sector do not a well-run city make. And untold millions of surplus budget dollars do not indicate Governmental fiscal prudence—but rather that City government has fleeced taxpayers for far more than what truly was needed to run Charlottesville.

The next time you hear Mayor Norris-Claus complaining about a lack of funds to educate our children, to remove snow from City streets, or to “help” the “poor,” remember his $625 thousand taxpayer-funded City employee payoff. And remember that things were supposed to be “bad” in Charlottesville.

See Rob’s comments in the NBC 29 report video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3y4hW9bPyQ