Tag Archives: Shawn Williams

Jan 07 2014
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Shawn Williams: Up is down, down is up, and Republicans support the public schools

We’re still marveling over the unbelievable chutzpah that permits Supervisor Shawn Williams (R-Broad Run) to keep asserting (he said it again in his “news[sic]letter” the other day) that the all-Republican Loudoun Board of Supervisors has increased the school budget — when in fact they have repeatedly cut it, and are now looking at handing the schools an $80 million cut for next year.

Just to keep pace with rising enrollment (more than 2,000 new students added to the rolls per year) the school budget needs to grow by 3.5 percent a year. To keep pace with rising enrollment and increased fixed costs (i.e., no new programs, no new bells and whistles, no new nothing — just to prevent a deterioration of the present condition) the budget needs to grow by about 5 percent a year.

Here’s what your all-Republican Supervisors in fact have done the last couple of years, Continue reading →

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Nov 16 2012
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York and Williams shill for major campaign donor

More details on the traveling road show by Chairman Scott York (R) and Supervisor Shawn Williams (R-Broad Run) to try to sell very unhappy nearby residents on the wonders of “professional” baseball (i.e., a stadium for a team so minor it’s not even affiliated with any real baseball team):

Some 240 very unhappy local residents of age 55+ communities located as close as half a mile away from the suddenly new location of the proposed stadium showed up Wednesday night for a three-hour session at which they expressed their concerns to York and Williams. Continue reading →

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Nov 13 2012
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A funny thing happened on the way to the political payoff

It turns out that not everyone in Loudoun County is as gaga in love with the Loudoun Hounds (or even their irresistible mascot “Fetch”) as Major Campaign Bucks Recipients Scott York (R), Supervisor Shawn Williams (R-Broad Run), and the other grateful Republican officeholders who are rushing through an expedited special exception to allow the Hounds to change the location of their proposed very minor league stadium.

Among those distinctly unthrilled are the residents of five age-55+ communities within shouting distance of the new stadium location. They are so ticked off in fact, that they have organized a group called No Stadium on 7. Their website nostadiumon7.org has already posted some terrific information Continue reading →

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Jul 19 2012
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It’s just not Christmas without a high end marine grade PVC creche

Efficiently getting a mid-July start to their “August Recess,” our very businesslike all-Republican Loudoun Board of Supervisors went out with a bang this week at their Tuesday night business meeting, tying up all kinds of loose ends as they hurried out of town.

Loudoun County Government’s officially approved high end marine grade PVC creche

Actually, some of these hard-working public servants, notably Geary Higgins (R-Catoctin) and Chairman Scott York (R), haven’t been in town much lately anyway, judging by how many Board meetings they’ve missed. But when you have a 9–0 majority, showing up and voting just doesn’t seem that pressing a priority I suppose.

The big news Tuesday was the Board’s approval of the meticulously developed new holiday display design for the courthouse lawn. The Courthouse Grounds and Facilities Committee, charged with coming up with the design, helpfully provided the Board a sketch complete with exhaustively researched pictures torn from a religious wares mail-order catalog (example provided here directly from the official Board of Supervisors agenda packet from Tuesday night) showing the type of tasteful displays your government will be providing the taxpayers this year to make up for the tragic inability of citizens to celebrate the holidays on their own.

For a second during the discussion Supervisor Janet Clarke (R-Blue Ridge) threatened to make sense, questioning why the county government was wasting so much time and effort on debating “lawn decorations” and even seemed to be heading towards the suspiciously sensible view that government ought not to be sticking its oar into religious matters at all. But then she clarified that she was merely suggesting that county government ought not be sticking its oar in and that official government religious holiday displays ought to be left to town governments to erect on their property, thereby presumably solving any constitutional questions involved. Continue reading →

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Jul 16 2012
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Who needs museums when you have the Redskins, sort of

Without batting an eye, our unanimously fiscally highly responsible all-Republican Loudoun Board of Supervisors recently approved handing over $2 million of your tax dollars to the Washington Redskins football team — part of a larger $6.4 million payoff negotiated by highly fiscally responsible free-market champion Republican Governor Bob McDonnell.

Major Loudoun Tourist Attraction: A corporate office building

The deal, it was explained, will ensure that the Redskins keep their corporate HQ in Loudoun for at least a few more years. Supervisor Shawn Williams (R-Broad Run), a big fan, could hardly contain his excitement about what a coup this was for Loudoun . . . even though, just a minor detail, the team will still be abandoning its training camp in Loudoun next year. But Williams explained that the move of the training camp to Richmond was being made “for football related reasons” and, after all, who are we to question “football related reasons”: it’s not as if handing over a mere $2 million in free money to a large for-profit company entitles us to be that presumptuous.

The money by the way comes from the Transit and Occupancy Tax, and is required by state law to be spent “solely for tourism and travel, marketing of tourism, or initiatives” that increase overnight visitors staying in hotels and motels. Continue reading →

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