skennison
10-27-2006, 01:56 PM
Jane Tabb is well-known and active in the farming community, as wife of Cam Tabb, and an advocate of farmland preservation. She can be likeable and is practical and conscientious. Her campaign brochure states: "My track record shows I do not represent a single point of view or advocacy group, but endeavor to evaluate all issues with an open mind."
I was, nevertheless, concerned that no where in the over 800 words of text in Ms Tabb's brochure is there mention of any single vote, motion or accomplishment of Ms Tabb's during her six years as a County Commissioner. Why? Is there something to hide? I became more curious when Ms Tabb, at a forum in Scrabble last September 17th, when asked, could not recall "the motion or vote you are most proud of." So I culled some research based on old newspapers and the County Commission web site that has all the minutes for County Commission meetings since Ms. Tabb became a commissioner.
On SCHOOLS: Ms. Tabb has voted at every opportunity against a full-cost impact fee for our pressed school system. She defends her votes as a way to allow for affordable housing. But nowhere is there a record that has Ms. Tabb brought proposals of her own to the Commission to create affordable housing.
On YOUTH SPORTS: Ms. Tabb was the only commissioner to vote against funding the construction of the Community Center at Sammy Michaels Farm that opened recently to the joy and relief of many, many people. She also was the only Commissioner this past month to vote against sending out a request for proposals from architects to build a needed indoor swimming pool for the county's residents.
On DEVELOPMENT: Ms. Tabb recently voted to recommend funding for two wastewater treatment plants. The two plants would cost over $40 million and the County only qualifies for loans from the state and federal governments now. So if the projects go sour, the cost will be made up in some degree by us the rate-paying residents. One plant, which she continues to support, (which the West Virginia Infrastructure's Council's relevant committee fortunately voted to not fund), was a plant that would run a sewer line through miles of prime, open land between Charles Town and the Shenandoah River. Ms. Tabb has gone on record since as supporting "infrastructure before density," which is a fancy way of saying she wants sewer lines to be sent into areas where there are few customers - at least not yet. What about the people here now who have real problems with water and sewer quality, quantity and cost who are being ignored?
On being NONPARTISAN: Ms. Tabb voted recently to appoint to the Planning Commission, former State Senator Herb Snyder, who has a water testing company active in the county, and who, as State Senator in 2001, was a prime sponsor for the annexation law which today allows towns to annex unlimited acres of undeveloped lands that may be miles from their corporate limits - making consistent land use planning by the County impossible. Last year Ms. Tabb voted twice for a person to be on the Planning Commission who is a representative of an educational, advocacy group composed of many members of the development community.
HISTORIC PRESERVATION: Ms. Tabb took a strong lead role in efforts to demolish the historic Old Jail in Charles town, which fortunately has been saved despite these efforts. At the County Commission on February 6, 2003, Ms. Tabb departed from her usual cautious, follow-the-pack style and made a three-part motion to lift all obstructions to the building's destruction. Ms. Tabb's intense lack of interest in historic matters was manifest again in the last October 13, 2005 Commission meeting, when she chose to be the only Commissioner to vote against even having a mere public hearing to discuss saving the perfectly preserved site of the Shepherdstown Battlefield of September 19-20, 1862.
On OPEN GOVERNMENT - Voting against a public hearing makes the point that Ms Tabb is not big on open government. Add to this her three votes since early, 2005 against the creation of a county television channel. Add to this her opposition to a motion by Commissioner Surkamp in 2005 regarding recusal for conflicts of interest. The state's Code of State Rules requires a county employee or appointee to announce a conflict of interest, to "state its nature" and leave the room of the meeting in question. Ms. Tabb opposed the eventually successful effort to have the "nature of the conflict" required in the meeting's minutes.
On SITTING ON MILLIONS: Ms. Tabb congratulated "my fellow Commissioners for holding the line on the budget" in May, 2006 when three Commissioners voted this year to allocate just $92,000 from the County video lottery funds for this fiscal year to seventeen social service community organizations.
($92,000 is the equivalent of about eight days in received video lottery funds to the County). Ms. Tabb has also opposed using funds from the County's accumulated $18 million in video lottery funds to replenish the shrinking funding sources for farmland preservation. Ms. Tabb also opposed on two occasions this year a request by the County's fire and EMS community to use these non-taxpayer funds to restore requested but denied funding. The Ambulance Authority said, in making their case, that being under-funded by the Commission placed two paramedics to serve emergencies around Shepherdstown ten miles away. Only though the persistence of the Fire/EMS community did the Commission relent. (The County Commission receives every day $12,000 more money from the video lottery, which does not come out of anyone's pocket).
ON SUPPORTING BUSINESSES: In the three years Ms. Tabb has been the liaision to the Economic Development authority, she supported the sale of the Bardane Business Park's controlled and owned Water System to Jefferson Utilities, a company that stated in its own proposal its intention to sell water from this system to named subdivisions, instead of providing the water at a rate controlled by the County to just the Business Park's tenants. Ms. Tabb has stated publicly in a recent debate that she wouldn't use any video lottery monies for providing sewer to the burr Park or for funding farmland protection. In the last year the county has had announced job loss of 1,000 jobs with the announced departures of Americast, Creo Manufacturing, the ABC Group, and Kidde.
She vigorously opposed in a half hour discussion in early, 2005 of Commissioners, Leslie Smith, Paul Raco and Lynn Welsh to increase the by right number of bedrooms required for a bed and breakfast from two to seven. She said: "I don't want to give competition to the ones who are already here." Surkamp, Morgan, and Corliss voted to increase it to seven.
LETTING HER FAVORITE PROGRAM GO DRY OF FUNDS - Though Ms Tabb speaks highly of her efforts to preserve farmland, the slightly more than 1,000 acres the program has preserved dwarfs against the 20,000 plus acres of county land that Ranson and Charles town have made illegal land use plans for. Ms Tabb refused to take any legal steps to discourage these brazen plans that will destroy the County's power to have consistent and meaningful land use policies in the county at large.
ON WANTING CONTROLLED HOMEBUILDING. Besides advocating a sewer line running through miles of open farmland, as mentioned, there has been roughly a new dwelling unit built in Jefferson County for every day Ms. Tabb has been a County Commissioner. (Ms. Tabb took her seat January, 2001. The U.S. Census reported not quite 17,000 dwellings in the county in April, 2000. That number has reached 20,000 now, the vast majority of it being in the county's jurisdiction.
The Charles Town Sewer and Water Plant prepared a report last month estimating that there are plans for 19,900 more structures in the county to be built - a doubling of what we have - All of these structures are homes that cost the taxpayer, not businesses.
Ms. Tabb also voted to fire Roger Hunter the County Planner in September, 2004, just a few days after after he submitted an eight-page critique of the county's ordinances, much of which has been vindicated by the initial findings of Kendig Keast, the presently contracted, award-winning planning consultant. She also supported not implementing the recommendations of the $40,000 Tustian Report in 2003, which stressed greater lot sizes to preserve water quality and quantity. In early, 2005, she sharply criticized a motion by Commissioner Surkamp to retire the County's Planning Director with a one years salary, calling the motion "outlandish." Ask any person if they have had difficulty getting approvals or timely help from the Planning Department - and use these comments to form your own opinion.
You are most welcome to check out and confirm these statements by going through the minutes of old meetings at this place on the web - http://www.jeffersoncountywv.org/jcc.html. Old newspapers are also available on microfilm at Shepherd University's library.
I was, nevertheless, concerned that no where in the over 800 words of text in Ms Tabb's brochure is there mention of any single vote, motion or accomplishment of Ms Tabb's during her six years as a County Commissioner. Why? Is there something to hide? I became more curious when Ms Tabb, at a forum in Scrabble last September 17th, when asked, could not recall "the motion or vote you are most proud of." So I culled some research based on old newspapers and the County Commission web site that has all the minutes for County Commission meetings since Ms. Tabb became a commissioner.
On SCHOOLS: Ms. Tabb has voted at every opportunity against a full-cost impact fee for our pressed school system. She defends her votes as a way to allow for affordable housing. But nowhere is there a record that has Ms. Tabb brought proposals of her own to the Commission to create affordable housing.
On YOUTH SPORTS: Ms. Tabb was the only commissioner to vote against funding the construction of the Community Center at Sammy Michaels Farm that opened recently to the joy and relief of many, many people. She also was the only Commissioner this past month to vote against sending out a request for proposals from architects to build a needed indoor swimming pool for the county's residents.
On DEVELOPMENT: Ms. Tabb recently voted to recommend funding for two wastewater treatment plants. The two plants would cost over $40 million and the County only qualifies for loans from the state and federal governments now. So if the projects go sour, the cost will be made up in some degree by us the rate-paying residents. One plant, which she continues to support, (which the West Virginia Infrastructure's Council's relevant committee fortunately voted to not fund), was a plant that would run a sewer line through miles of prime, open land between Charles Town and the Shenandoah River. Ms. Tabb has gone on record since as supporting "infrastructure before density," which is a fancy way of saying she wants sewer lines to be sent into areas where there are few customers - at least not yet. What about the people here now who have real problems with water and sewer quality, quantity and cost who are being ignored?
On being NONPARTISAN: Ms. Tabb voted recently to appoint to the Planning Commission, former State Senator Herb Snyder, who has a water testing company active in the county, and who, as State Senator in 2001, was a prime sponsor for the annexation law which today allows towns to annex unlimited acres of undeveloped lands that may be miles from their corporate limits - making consistent land use planning by the County impossible. Last year Ms. Tabb voted twice for a person to be on the Planning Commission who is a representative of an educational, advocacy group composed of many members of the development community.
HISTORIC PRESERVATION: Ms. Tabb took a strong lead role in efforts to demolish the historic Old Jail in Charles town, which fortunately has been saved despite these efforts. At the County Commission on February 6, 2003, Ms. Tabb departed from her usual cautious, follow-the-pack style and made a three-part motion to lift all obstructions to the building's destruction. Ms. Tabb's intense lack of interest in historic matters was manifest again in the last October 13, 2005 Commission meeting, when she chose to be the only Commissioner to vote against even having a mere public hearing to discuss saving the perfectly preserved site of the Shepherdstown Battlefield of September 19-20, 1862.
On OPEN GOVERNMENT - Voting against a public hearing makes the point that Ms Tabb is not big on open government. Add to this her three votes since early, 2005 against the creation of a county television channel. Add to this her opposition to a motion by Commissioner Surkamp in 2005 regarding recusal for conflicts of interest. The state's Code of State Rules requires a county employee or appointee to announce a conflict of interest, to "state its nature" and leave the room of the meeting in question. Ms. Tabb opposed the eventually successful effort to have the "nature of the conflict" required in the meeting's minutes.
On SITTING ON MILLIONS: Ms. Tabb congratulated "my fellow Commissioners for holding the line on the budget" in May, 2006 when three Commissioners voted this year to allocate just $92,000 from the County video lottery funds for this fiscal year to seventeen social service community organizations.
($92,000 is the equivalent of about eight days in received video lottery funds to the County). Ms. Tabb has also opposed using funds from the County's accumulated $18 million in video lottery funds to replenish the shrinking funding sources for farmland preservation. Ms. Tabb also opposed on two occasions this year a request by the County's fire and EMS community to use these non-taxpayer funds to restore requested but denied funding. The Ambulance Authority said, in making their case, that being under-funded by the Commission placed two paramedics to serve emergencies around Shepherdstown ten miles away. Only though the persistence of the Fire/EMS community did the Commission relent. (The County Commission receives every day $12,000 more money from the video lottery, which does not come out of anyone's pocket).
ON SUPPORTING BUSINESSES: In the three years Ms. Tabb has been the liaision to the Economic Development authority, she supported the sale of the Bardane Business Park's controlled and owned Water System to Jefferson Utilities, a company that stated in its own proposal its intention to sell water from this system to named subdivisions, instead of providing the water at a rate controlled by the County to just the Business Park's tenants. Ms. Tabb has stated publicly in a recent debate that she wouldn't use any video lottery monies for providing sewer to the burr Park or for funding farmland protection. In the last year the county has had announced job loss of 1,000 jobs with the announced departures of Americast, Creo Manufacturing, the ABC Group, and Kidde.
She vigorously opposed in a half hour discussion in early, 2005 of Commissioners, Leslie Smith, Paul Raco and Lynn Welsh to increase the by right number of bedrooms required for a bed and breakfast from two to seven. She said: "I don't want to give competition to the ones who are already here." Surkamp, Morgan, and Corliss voted to increase it to seven.
LETTING HER FAVORITE PROGRAM GO DRY OF FUNDS - Though Ms Tabb speaks highly of her efforts to preserve farmland, the slightly more than 1,000 acres the program has preserved dwarfs against the 20,000 plus acres of county land that Ranson and Charles town have made illegal land use plans for. Ms Tabb refused to take any legal steps to discourage these brazen plans that will destroy the County's power to have consistent and meaningful land use policies in the county at large.
ON WANTING CONTROLLED HOMEBUILDING. Besides advocating a sewer line running through miles of open farmland, as mentioned, there has been roughly a new dwelling unit built in Jefferson County for every day Ms. Tabb has been a County Commissioner. (Ms. Tabb took her seat January, 2001. The U.S. Census reported not quite 17,000 dwellings in the county in April, 2000. That number has reached 20,000 now, the vast majority of it being in the county's jurisdiction.
The Charles Town Sewer and Water Plant prepared a report last month estimating that there are plans for 19,900 more structures in the county to be built - a doubling of what we have - All of these structures are homes that cost the taxpayer, not businesses.
Ms. Tabb also voted to fire Roger Hunter the County Planner in September, 2004, just a few days after after he submitted an eight-page critique of the county's ordinances, much of which has been vindicated by the initial findings of Kendig Keast, the presently contracted, award-winning planning consultant. She also supported not implementing the recommendations of the $40,000 Tustian Report in 2003, which stressed greater lot sizes to preserve water quality and quantity. In early, 2005, she sharply criticized a motion by Commissioner Surkamp to retire the County's Planning Director with a one years salary, calling the motion "outlandish." Ask any person if they have had difficulty getting approvals or timely help from the Planning Department - and use these comments to form your own opinion.
You are most welcome to check out and confirm these statements by going through the minutes of old meetings at this place on the web - http://www.jeffersoncountywv.org/jcc.html. Old newspapers are also available on microfilm at Shepherd University's library.