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.
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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.”
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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.
Candidate announces for Augusta BOS seat
News of an announcement from county resident David Karaffa regarding his intent to run for the Augusta County Board of Supervisors means the 2011 campaign season is officially under way in Augusta County.
Karaffa said in a news release on Wednesday that he will formally announce his candidacy for the Beverley Manor seat on the Board of Supervisors at a Saturday news conference at the Augusta County Government Center in Verona.
Karaffa is a cardiac intensive care nurse at Augusta Health in Fishersville. He and his wife, Katherine, have two children and live in Stuarts Draft.
Karaffa’s entree into the local political scene came in 2009 when he ran for the 20th House District Republican nomination after the retirement of State Del. Chris Saxman. Former Staunton City Council member Dickie Bell ultimately won the nomination and the general election that November.
Jeremy Shifflett is the incumbent supervisor representing the Beverley Manor District, which covers a wide area of the county surrounding the City of Staunton largely to the city’s south and east. Shifflett was elected by fellow Board members this week to a one-year term to serve as the Board’s chairman.
Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
