Pyles wins fifth term on BOS, but quartet falls short with loss in Wayne race
An effort by a group that ran on a platform raising issue with the handling of the 2009 Augusta County reassessment fell just short of taking a majority on the county Board of Supervisors.
Pastures District incumbent Tracy Pyles won a fifth term in Tuesday’s elections, and was joined by ticketmates Marshall Pattie in the North River District and David Karaffa in the Beverley Manor District. But the fourth member of the group, Kurt Michael, fell 125 votes short in his race against Jeff Moore in the Wayne District.
Moore, a Republican, received 53.2 percent of the vote in the race against Michael, a former Augusta County Republican Party chair.
Pyles, a Democrat, garnered 65.1 percent of the vote in his two-way race with Republican Jim Warren.
Karaffa, an indepedent and former candidate for the 20th House District GOP nomination, won by 46 votes over Republican incumbent Jeremy Shifflett. Karaffa received 51.1 percent of the vote in the race.
Pattie, a former Augusta County Democratic Party chair, received 64.6 percent of the vote in a three-way race with former Augusta Republican chair Larry Roller and independent Stephen Morris.
Larry Wills (Middle River), Michael Shull (Riverheads) and David Beyeler (South River) were all unopposed.
Candidate details county economic-development strategy
North River Supervisor candidate Marshall Pattie detailed on Thursday a change in economic-development strategy for Augusta County that would boost local small businesses.
“For the past two decades, the Board of Supervisors has followed the strategy of recruiting high-tech and manufacturing firms to the county with limited success. Rather than recruit outside firms, we should focus on growing our small businesses,” Pattie said.
The Pattie plan:
- Raise the materiality for tools and equipment to between $300 and $500. “We currently tax small businesses on every tool and piece of equipment that they own, right down to the last hammer,” Pattie said.
- Eliminate taxes on tools and equipment when the property has fully depreciated.
- Phase out taxes on inventory. “In slow times, inventory grows, and the county reduces the profits of these firms every year,” Pattie said.
- Offer incentives to local business and industry looking to expand. “We have vacant industrial parks that have been sitting there for years. If a firm from Pennsylvania, for example, wants to come here, we provide significant incentives for them to do so. However, we don’t do this for local firms. If a local business wants to expand and hire more Augusta County residents, then I would be willing to offer similar incentives that we offer to outsiders,” Pattie said.
AFP editor to serve as moderator for Tea Party-sponsored candidates forum
The Shenandoah Valley Tea Party Patriots are sponsoring a forum for candidates running for seats on the Augusta County Board of Supervisors and Augusta County constitutional offices.
The forum, moderated by AugustaFreePress.com editor Chris Graham, is set for Thursday, Sept. 15, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Augusta County Government Center in Verona.
Candidates for the Board of Supervisors, Commissioner of Revenue, Commonwealth’s Attorney, Sheriff and Treasurer offices will answer questions in the forum.
The forum is open to the public.
Eavers announces candidacy in Riverheads
Ella Eavers of Middlebrook announced her candidacy for the Riverheads Board of Supervisors position to be decided in the November election. Although she is seeking a slot on the ballot as a Republican, Eavers wants to represent all individuals of the Riverheads District, she said. Eavers, 48, has spent most of her life in the Riverheads District and in Augusta County.
“Conserving the rural nature of our county and continuing to preserve its beauty and economic vitality is a major focus of my campaign,” she said. “I support agribusiness, promoting the best educational system possible, creating small business growth in appropriate areas of our county in order to increase employment, and enhancing public security through the support of law enforcement, fire protection, and rescue services,” Eavers added.
“Economic times have been trying for all of us lately, and all of these issues are important to those of us living in Augusta County, especially under the present economic circumstances. I appreciate the opportunity to be able to help make a difference to all of us living in this beautiful place,” said Eavers.
“It is important that we take a look at our past and remember that the foundation of our county was based on agriculture. We already have great soil, prosperous family farms, and hard-working people who have make agriculture a part of this area’s history. We need to work hard to preserve that heritage,” Eavers said. “Farming benefits everyone by preserving our land, providing jobs, allowing us to enjoy local products, keeping our tax rates in check, and maintaining our rural areas,” she added.
“Obviously, it is extremely important to allow business and industry to thrive in areas that are designated for growth by the comprehensive zoning plan as this will help us to stimulate our sluggish economy. However, it is equally important to continue encouraging agricultural vitality in appropriately zoned areas to conserve the rural aspect of what makes Augusta County so special. Smart, well-planned growth is key,” Eavers stated.
Eavers, a published author, business owner, state certified real estate appraiser, and entrepreneur, graduated from Riverheads High School and James Madison University where she earned her bachelor of science in psychology. She then earned her masters in teaching at Mary Baldwin College and taught school in Augusta County for several years before deciding to start her own property investment and management business.
Eavers has served on the Staunton City Downtown Development Committee, is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and is active in her community, teaching group fitness classes. She has organized several fund raising activities for breast cancer and animal rescue centers, is a member of Valley Landlords Association, has volunteered at the Commonwealth Center for Children for Adolescents, and has her pilot’s license.
Eavers, and her husband Chad, live near the village of Middlebrook on their farm with many animals including cats, border collies, parrots, peacocks, rabbits and goats, most of which were adopted from animal shelters.
She feels that Riverheads and Augusta County could benefit from having a well-rounded businesswoman on the board who has pledged to “work hard for what is best for our county.”
“In the coming years we will be faced with many complex issues due to difficult economic times. Therefore, it is crucial that our elected officials are well educated, well rounded, and capable of thinking outside the box. As a business owner, I have discovered how to work smarter, adjust to the economy, and be creative. These are very necessary attributes for today’s officials and we must be pro-active, not reactive. I think we all feel that we are approaching a time for divergent thinking and realize the necessity of conserving our rural areas,” she continued. “I want to put my knowledge and my experience to work as supervisor for the Riverheads District.”
Chris Graham: A new order in the offing in Augusta?
A changing of the guard is in order in Augusta County, where the incumbents on the Board of Supervisors have been dropping like flies of late.
At last count, four of the seven-member board have announced that they won’t be running for re-election, with Board Chair Jeremy Shifflett and Pastures Supervisor Tracy Pyles confirmed to be in the running and South River Supervisor David Beyeler either expected to announce his intention to run for another term (according to some) or join the parade of retirees (according to others).
The balance of power could be shifting in the direction of Pyles, a Democrat who has forged an interesting coalition with former Augusta County Republican Chairman Kurt Michael, former Augusta County Democratic Chairman Marshall Pattie and local Tea Party veteran David Karaffa.
Karaffa is the only member of the group who will face an incumbent, Shifflett, a Republican who narrowly won election in 2007 (by 16 votes over Democrat Lee Godfrey) in the Beverley Manor District. Pattie and Michael are both running for seats being vacated by incumbents (Pattie in North River, Michael in Wayne), and Pyles, while he has am opponent, has not seriously been challenged in his four election victories, which date back to 1995.
Pyles was the voice in the wilderness leading the charge against the controversial property reassessments in 2009 that the majority of the Board of Supervisors decided to handle by an equally controversial measure that gutted the county property-tax rate. Shifflett joined the Pyles crusade late in the game, maybe too late to sidestep criticism that he did so for political reasons. How he fares against a challenge from the right in the form of Karaffa will be one of the key storylines in the upcoming election cycle in Augusta County.
Number one on that list will be how the disparate coalition that Pyles has forged will be able to work as a team. The grouping has a better-than-even chance of forming a working majority on the Board of Supervisors come January. United as they are right now on fiscal issues, could there be room for their opponents to play a divide-and-conquer game by going all social issues on them?
Not if the quartet follows this piece of advice: Local elections, and local government, aren’t about abortion and gay marriage. To borrow from the campaign mantra that carried Bill Clinton through contentious elections in the 1990s, it’s the economy, stupid. Economic growth and balanced budgets – that’s what the voters want.
Candidates forum set for June 15
The first in an advertised series of town-hall meetings featuring four candidates for seats on the Augusta County Board of Supervisors is set for Wednesday, June 15, at the Augusta County Government Center in Verona.
Incumbent Pastures District Supervisor Tracy Pyles will be joined by Beverley Manor candidate David Karaffa, North River candidate Marshall Pattie and Wayne candidate Kurt Michael at the 7 p.m. forum.
The public is invited to attend and ask questions.
Pattie throws hat into ring in North River
Marshall Pattie and his wife, Megan
Redoing the controversial 2009 Augusta County reassessment might not lead to a result that is embraced by everybody, “but it at least it would be a fair-market value,” said Marshall Pattie, a James Madison University business professor who this month announced his candidacy for the North River seat on the Augusta County Board of Supervisors.
“I think a lot of people feel that there wasn’t fair-market value when the reassessment was done,” said Pattie, 34, citing his own personal example of receiving a property assessment in 2009 that was 10 percent higher than what he had paid for his property a few months before the notice came in the mail.
County leaders compounded the problem by lowering the tax rate to compensate for the artificially high assessments. Declining state revenues based on a reworking of state funding formulas for the county in the wake of the reassessments will translate into a double-whammy for Augusta. “That may be substantial. It may be hundreds of thousands of dollars that we have to cut out of our budget due to that decision,” Pattie said.
A consultant to several Fortune 500 companies, Pattie was outspoken in his criticism of the Board of Supervisors in the ’09 reassessment discussions because he said what he witnessed in those discussions was “a process that didn’t make a lot of sense.”
“I saw a lot of supervisors making decisions that were based on their feelings, not on any facts or statistics,” Pattie said. “What I want to do is use my business background to help that process along, look at statistics, look at rational thought, look at some support in order to make decisions, as opposed to just going along with it unless people get upset with them.”
The incumbent supervisor in the North River District is Republican Larry Howdyshell, who hasn’t tipped his hand as to his plans for a possible run at re-election in November. Pattie, for his part, is running as an independent.
“Myself and many people in the area are fed up with political parties and taking out their battlegrounds with the rest of us. We really just want to work and focus on the issues that matter to us, not necessarily the issues that matter to people in California or New England or Alabama,” Pattie said.
Video
Story and video by Chris Graham
Wills announces candidacy for Middle River seat on County BOS
Former Augusta County School Board and Board of Supervisors member Larry Wills announced on Monday that he will run for the Middle River District seat on the Board of Supervisors.
Incumbent Middle River Supervisor Gerald Garber announced earlier this month that he will not be seeking re-election.
“I firmly believe that to be a good board member, you first have to understand the concept of being part of an elected board,” Wills said today. “You have to fight hard and be vocal about your position on important issues. After public input, board discussion, and a final vote, you have to then accept the results of the vote. Whether you agree with the final vote or not, a good board member then puts the battle behind him and unites with the rest of the board to implement the decision. At the very least, he does not try to undermine the final board decision.”
Addressing head on what promises to be a key issue in the 2011 election cycle, Wills said he supports a new review of the controversial reassessment process in the county.
“I do believe that four years is long enough time between reassessments,’ Wills said. “In normal economic times, four years still creates a large increase in most property values that is not understood by the general public. The five- or six-year span now allowed to Augusta County would only create larger increases in normal economic times.”
Wills is leaning toward supporting a move to stagger terms for members of the Board of Supervisors and the School Board to give county voters more opportunities to let their voices be heard. He also wants to see the county move to a zero-based budgeting approach to give board members “a clear insight into the cost of the operations of the county.”
Former GOP leader throws hat into ring for supervisor seat
Former Augusta County Republican Party chair Kurt Michael will announce his candidacy for the Wayne District seat on the Augusta County Board of Supervisors on Saturday.
Michael, 47, of Fishersville, is currently a teacher at the Shenandoah Valley Governor’s School. He and his wife, Pamela, and two children have lived in Augusta County since 2001.
Michael has undergraduate and graduate degrees from East Carolina University and a doctorate from Virginia Tech and was a commissioned officer with the U.S. Army Reserve Corps of Engineers.
The Wayne District seat is currently held by Wendell Coleman.
All seven seats on the Board of Supervisors are up for re-election in November.
AFP assists Augusta County on social-media project
Augusta County government is now on Facebook and Twitter – with an assist from Augusta Free Press LLC.
AFP assisted county staff in building presences on Facebook and Twitter for the county. The Augusta County Board of Supervisors voted in February to approve new policy guidelines for the dissemination of public information on the social-media portals.
Augusta Free Press LLC consulted with staff on the development of the policy guidelines and then worked with staff members to set up the new pages.
“We think this move by the county will encourage more participation in local government by county residents,” AFP owner Chris Graham said. “Many county residents are on Facebook, and as more and more ‘like’ the new county page on Facebook, they will see news and events related to county government in their news feeds. This will be a great tool for people to keep tabs on what their government is doing.”
Links
County leaders want your input on 2012 budget
The Augusta County Board of Supervisors will soon begin work on a county budget for fiscal-year 2012 – and the Board wants to get input from county residents on priorities for the coming budget year.
The Board has set up an online survey that includes priority lists and multiple-choice questions.
Access the survey at www.co.augusta.va.us.
Chris Graham: The County Quartet
Posted by afp on November 7, 2011 · 2 Comments
This is what the 2011 Board of Supervisor elections will come down to, in my view. Do you like the way things are going in county government? If so, you’ve got excellent candidates to choose from in the four contested races on the ballot on Tuesday, for starters in the race for Pyles’ Pastures District seat, where he is being challenged by Jim Warren, a well-spoken small businessman.
Jeremy Shifflett is the current chair of the board and running for re-election in the Beverley Manor District against David Karaffa, one of three challengers who have aligned with Pyles. The second of that group is Marshall Pattie, a James Madison University business professor running for the North River District seat against Larry Roller and Steve Morris. The other contested race pits Kurt Michael, an educator also aligned with Pyles, against School Board representative Jeff Moore in the Wayne District.
(The incumbent in North River, Larry Howdyshell, and the incumbent in the Wayne, Wendell Coleman, are not running for re-election this year.)
Ads run in the local media paid for and authorized by the local GOP committee will tell you that the proper vote choices in the races would be Warren, Shifflett, Roller and Moore. In going with recent history in local politics, though, the ’11 elections in the county are a lot more complicated than any party ad line could spell out for you.
Pyles has been elected four times in Pastures as a Democrat, and Pattie is a former Augusta County Democratic Committee chair. Their ticketmates, Michael and Karaffa, have histories on the other side of the aisle – Michael as a sometimes-controversial former Augusta County Republican Committee chair, and Karaffa as an activist in local Republican circles who made a bid for the 2009 20th House District GOP nomination.
The County Quartet, as I’m branding them, are staking their political fortunes to the groundswell of public disfavor with the handling of the most recent county reassessments, which pushed property values up significantly (and locked them in for four years) just after the real-estate market had begun to crater. The bad situation there was made worse, in their view, by the way the Board of Supervisors responded, with a move to cut the county property-tax rate nearly 20 percent, eroding county revenues at a time when, the Quartet says, the county stands to lose millions in state funding for education and other public services due to the faulty reassessments.
I’m in a minority of one among the local news-editor set in agreeing with the perspective on county policy advanced by Pyles and his group, which means I’m also in a minority of one wanting to see a change in leadership at the Government Center in Verona. I’m OK with that, because unlike the other news entities here locally, which have had to cut jobs and outsource operations to remain afloat, I’ve actually been able to grow my business and even create a few jobs in the past couple of years, and I see the Quartet pushing a similar agenda.
Let’s get county government running well first, with a stable source of government revenues, from local sources and from the state, and then let’s turn our attention to jobs. Not that long ago, we had the interest of a major auto manufacturer that wanted to locate here in the Valley. It’s hard to believe that we turned that opportunity down, and I don’t see a Pyles-led board doing so a second time. And in the meantime, we can give the county economic-development department more resources to market county locations, including the still-practically-empty industrial park in Verona.
The good news for county voters is that if you see things differently, if you like the way county government is being run, you’ve got some solid choices among candidates who can continue the status quo.
I really think Augusta County will be in good hands whatever happens on Nov. 8. I just happen to think it will be in better hands if Pyles, Karaffa, Pattie and Michael are victorious at the end of the day.
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