KW Residents for Truth

02/26/2026

Good afternoon, everyone. Board Supervisor, Keith Fogg, has provided detailed numbers on extra expenses for the library. $65,000 worth of additional funds are required for the library.

Mr. Fogg also stated that it is anticipated that additional funds may be required for the library.

That’s not surprising considering decisions regarding the library were made by Lindsay Robinson, Ben Edwards, and Justin Catlett with absolutely zero consideration of King William’s finances.

Expect costs to rise…and to continue rising in the years to come; decisions have consequences, after all.

There is also finally a new Library Board member: Theresa Redd. We hope Ms. Redd will support the freedom to read and prevent further censorship efforts from being implemented in the library.

We also highly encourage you to follow Mr. Fogg’s page as he takes detailed notes during meetings and provides clarity behind decisions. And we encourage engagement with him as well if you feel concerns or have any questions.

02/16/2026

Thank you to Supervisor, Keith Fogg, for summarizing and continuing to keep constituents informed on county issues.

We look forward to the day when we can proudly say that all sitting members of the Board of Supervisors can be counted on to at least be as honest and transparent.

Since it is now obvious that the county will be paying more money for a library and have less resources besides, we suppose all we can look forward to now is that a physical building is available.

Maybe in a decade, after paying this private, for-profit company their due, we can once again have a library whose sole focus is expansion of resources.

Until then, we hope the financial damage can be somewhat improved with new Board members who actually have good intentions for the county and replace the 3 remaining members that got us in this mess to begin with.

01/07/2026

Good evening, everyone. We hope you all had a wonderful and safe holiday season.

A resident wrote to us a couple of weeks ago asking what King William County had reported to the Library of Virginia (LVA) as the library’s budget for this fiscal year.

In order to receive state aid, the County had to put together an application and send it to LVA for approval before June 2025 to receive state aid for this fiscal year.

A resident submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to LVA to find the numbers.

We expected it to show the number the County quoted in the County’s budget pertaining to the King William Library: $571,995.

This is the cost they are paying Library Systems and Services to operate the library…of course, this doesn’t include anything that used to be covered by Pamunkey Regional Library (PRL) that King William is now responsible for.

Those of us who have been researching this data since July 2024, when the Board of Supervisors made the decision to leave PRL, knew that this number was bogus.

Per the attached signed statement from Board Supervisors, Lindsay Robinson, Justin Catlett, Ben Edwards, and Mary Sue Bancroft, they believed that running their own county library was going to be cheaper than the $602,907 they paid PRL.

Again, based on our knowledge of how the regional system operates and basic common sense, we knew this would never be the case.

How in the world could 3 counties paying toward a resource be more expensive than 1 county doing it on their own? Especially when Hanover was footing 75% of the bill.

But the reason we expected them to report the $571,995 number to LVA is because we believed the Board of Supervisors had made an uninformed decision when choosing to leave PRL.

We believed they were simply clueless about the true costs of operating two libraries.

Of course, this is still highly concerning.

Stating that you are making the fiscally responsible choice without reviewing any numbers and ignoring every report and study that tells you it’s going to cost more is idiotic.

But as it turns out, even our belief that an uninformed decision was made was too kind.

We have attached the budget that was given to the Library of Virginia by King William County.

In it, they report that the FY26 budget for the new and “independent” King William County Library will be $803,445.

Even if IT costs, facilities, and maintenance costs are deducted, just the operation of the library is listed at $661,995.

We guess they decided to be honest with LVA to get as much state aid as possible.

If you go back and read the 2024 statement from the Supervisors, they believe that the request from PRL for $650,000 is too much.

And even that number is incorrect, because PRL’s director, Jaime Stoops, gave King William 5 different options to try and save county funds and maintain their partnership with PRL. https://savethekwlibrary.org

You wanna know what the most expensive option PRL gave was? $641,310.

And as the County had already planned on moving the Upper King William Branch to the new building, that “most expensive option” would’ve actually totaled to $608,310, as $33,000 was purely the rent being paid for the old UKW Library that’s been closed since the fiscal year began.

They knew it.

They knew that going independent was not going to be cheaper.

They knew it would cost more.

It wasn’t a mistake or a misunderstanding.

While they were telling you to your face that it was going to be cheaper and calling anyone who doubted their words a liar, they were aware that there would be hidden costs associated with their choice.

And a resident also spoke with Interim County Administrator, Clarence Monday, via email to inquire as to whether he had been the one to put together that budget that was sent to LVA.

He said he had not been the one to put it together and those figures looked very similar to the ones left behind by previous County staff.

The only difference was that the number in his office had actually been higher: $839,445.

He did not specify who the “previous county staff” were or the names of the individual(s) who put this budget together, but former County Administrator, Stacey Davenport, had been working with the Finance Department to put together the overall budget and coordinating the contract for the new library.

Every time we feel we’ve hit rock bottom on the deception coming from the individuals elected to positions of trust in this county, we find out there’s only more and more lies.

And please keep in mind, costs will continue to increase for the library. It’s in LSS’ contract, and clearly, our economy isn’t headed in any kind of stellar direction, so it’s something that every business and agency can expect moving forward.

This is what we meant when we said the decision made by the Board of Supervisors was one that would haunt King William for years to come.

We share this with you in the hopes that you take this as proof that this page was never created with some secret political motive in mind.

Our goal was not to create any problems for the Supervisors.

All we wanted was for King William to have the best possible library resources for the least amount of money possible.

In fact, you can scroll to the very earliest posts and see that we begged the Supervisors to reconsider and wanted to give them every opportunity to do the right thing and reverse what we naively thought was just an uniformed decision on their part.

What this past year and a half has proven is that we were the idiots for thinking this was ever about facts, or numbers, or even rational decision making.

This was a selfish, irrational, arrogant, and very, very expensive decision that will continue to affect the County financially for who knows how long.

We hope that this new year will inspire honest people to run for office and rid our county of those who would lie to our faces and abuse their constituents’ trust.

We also wish the new Supervisors (Mr. Fogg and Mr. Bohannon) luck in their new seats and advise them that lying is neither in the County’s best interest nor their own because they will be found out eventually. Even if takes a year and a half.

Thank you to all of those who have followed this issue as we believe this highlights a much bigger problem than just the library.

12/15/2025

Good evening, everyone. Here is a recording of the Board of Supervisors meeting on Monday, December 8: https://kingwilliamcova.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1691/media

The Board of Supervisors approved the motion for library state aid ($173,516) to be used toward paying for new furniture at the new Upper King William Library.

This will be a mixture of furniture from the old UKW Library (thank you to Pamunkey Regional Library for providing these furnishings), and new furniture to be purchased from a Virginia-based vendor for new wood veneer shelving caps and panels. Total cost is estimated to be $172,689.

This number is a quote, so is subject to change, depending on the economy.

State aid is generally used by libraries to subsidize their collections so the funds go directly to the resources utilized by patrons. And the aid was initially touted as being available to offset payments to Library Systems and Services.

But, of course, like most of the promises made, this isn’t actually the way things panned out.

$571,995 was allocated to Library Systems and Services, with $65,000 set aside for the collection.

The Library Board believes $65,000 is an ample fund for books for this year.

Of course, we’ve only had access to one library and the UKW Branch is not set to open until April or May 2026, depending on when the furniture will be ready.

A reminder that with Pamunkey Regional Library last year, King William had access to an annual collection of $765,103 worth of materials.

But we suppose, paying more money overall to get access to a collection that’s not even a tenth of what we once had access to is a fantastic deal in someone’s mind.

After all, who amongst us doesn’t love paying more and getting less bang for their buck?

A new county administrator has been chosen: Derek Stamey from Cumberland County, where according to this article, he spent a couple years as administrator https://farmvilleherald.com/2022/03/new-county-administrator-hired/. He also previously worked for Goochland County https://www.cumberlandcounty.virginia.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=236

We wish him the best and hope he can help provide transparency and help establish trust in the county’s government.

However, the problem is that however competent Mr. Stamey may be, a county administrator works at the pleasure and direction of the Board of Supervisors.

If the Board makes a stupid decision, he or she must follow through with it regardless of what their own opinion on the decision might be.

Clearly, we’ve seen this play out in King William. The Board makes a dumb decision, it backfires, they throw the county administrator under the bus, fire them after they’ve blamed them, pay them severance, and the search begins for a new scapegoat for them.

What we hope to see is more of what we saw in November with Keith Fogg’s win in the 5th District.

Voters holding their elected officials responsible. Liars are not welcome in any position where public trust is concerned.

Our belief remains that King William can improve if honest and hardworking people are at the helm. This is the only way.

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season. Stay safe and warm ♥️

11/21/2025

Good afternoon, everyone. Here is a link to the recording of Monday’s Board of Supervisors meeting: https://kingwilliamcova.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1186/media

Here is a recording of Tuesday night’s Library Board meeting: https://kingwilliamcova.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1942/media

Updates on the library:

* Per Interim County Administrator, Clarence Monday, renovations have begun at the former Parks & Rec building to make way for the new Upper King William Library

* The UKW Library renovation will be complete in March 2026.

* Mr. Monday does not know whether the furniture will be ready by that time.

* Library Systems and Services (LSS) had brought in their own IT person to work at West Point Library because the County’s IT didn’t have the time to work on the library on top of his other responsibilities.

* The County has also added another IT person due to the extra workload that’s now been added to the county’s department.

* The library is working on getting an online Library Calendar that allows patrons to reserve meeting and study rooms online, like we had before under Pamunkey Regional Library (PRL)

* There is still a vacancy for District 1 (West Point) on the Library Board. Anyone in that district is welcome to apply. The application can be found here: https://www.kwc.gov/DocumentCenter/View/3421/Board-and-Commissions-Application202558Posted

The combination of these two meetings put the disarray of King William’s “governance” in full perspective once again.

We had mentioned on an earlier post that county resident, Chris Couch, had requested clarification from the Finance Department about the inconsistencies in financial data when it came to the budget.

At a previous meeting, Board Supervisor, Mary Sue Bancroft, stated that there was a total of “$4 million” worth of amendments that had been added to this year’s budget, and that Mr. Couch had proof.

At Monday’s meeting, Board Supervisor, Lindsay Robinson, stated that this information did not come from County staff and that it is false.

This is not true.

Chris Couch was in contact with the Finance Department over the discrepancies and made Julie Kaylor, the Interim Finance Director, aware of them.

Per the attached email, on October 21, 2025, Ms. Kaylor confirms that the total for the proposed amendments was “just over $4 million as of now.”

Mr. Couch was in contact with Ms. Bancroft (text attached) and specifically told her this number was subject to change.

That Ms. Bancroft shared incomplete information is no shock to any of us.

The proposed amendment totals have changed from $1.7m (8/25) to $4m (10/21) to $1.4m (10/27).

Why this number was as high as $4 million on October 21st and is now under $1.4 million is not altogether clear. Mr. Couch was still researching the reason for this.

The reality is that it was $4 million at one point. And Finance staff are the ones who provided this figure. It didn’t just materialize out of thin air.

We have seen this tactic before. When inconvenient information is shared publicly, the Supervisors immediately jump to attack the people/person who shared the information…rather than actually discussing the issue at hand.

It is all lies, apparently. Everything. In fact, the only people that you should listen to are the Board of Supervisors.

Despite voting to create it, they don’t engage with Citizens’ Budget Advisory Committee, and they don’t have open dialogues about the financial status of the county, other than to say, “We’re getting better.”

This mindset allows them to control the narrative and be able to tell anyone whatever they want to hear, even if the truth is the complete opposite of what they are saying.

We want to make it clear: we don’t just automatically “believe” anyone.

We believe what can be proven to be true by documentation.

And Ms. Robinson, along with her fellow Supervisors, has been repeatedly caught saying things that can be demonstrably proven to be false for years now.

The truth is that a budget was barely passed in 2025 and it was haphazardly done. So since then, the Board of Supervisors has been passing amendment after amendment to pay for the things that surprise surprise are still required by county agencies.

This is increasing the budget and it’s no wonder the Finance Department is having trouble reconciling since they don’t even have a clear view of each department’s fiscal realities as they currently stand.

This budget cycle was executed completely by this Board’s hand-picked County Administrator (Stacey Davenport left and enjoyed her severance check courtesy of you, the taxpayer) and Finance Director (Dave Wilson, also now gone).

The Supervisors created this mess by choosing their unqualified insiders and putting them in those roles. Loyalty and favors being more important than actual skills.

This incompetence was further exacerbated when they forced Wilson and Davenport to work on finding a way to create a new library instead of focusing their attention on what actually matters: fixing the county’s financial problems.

Priorities, you see. An independent library was really, really, really important.

Let’s review the why. We’ve attached a press release from August 4, 2024, signed by Supervisors Mary Sue Bancroft, Lindsay Robinson, Justin Catlett, and Ben Edwards. Bill Hodges did not sign this.

It states a number of things that have been proven to be false, including that the County was working with the Library of Virginia (the same institution the Supervisors said were liars when they informed them that leaving PRL was not in the financial interest of the county) and that the blame for leaving PRL was the fault of the previous Board (one of their favorite excuses for…well, everything).

Dissecting each lie would take multiple posts.

But let’s focus on one: that their decision to leave PRL had absolutely nothing to do with appropriateness of books in the libraries.

For those who are unaware, a policy has been passed the gives the King William Library Board the power to censor material that they personally believe is inappropriate by moving it out of the teen section (attached here).

Supervisor, Ben Edwards, was present at the Library Board meeting on Tuesday as he is the Board representative for the library furniture committee.

During the Citizen Comment period, a King William resident spoke in opposition of the policy, as she sees it as a form of government overreach.

Mr. Edwards tried to interrupt her while she spoke and after Library Board Chair, Ashley Herndon, instructed her to continue, Mr. Edwards again stopped her when she finished her comment. He was upset that she criticized the Supervisors’ conduct, and said that, “if someone brought in a book to school explaining how to have le***an s*x, they’d be charged with a felony.”

He then also stated that the banned books will be held in a cupboard behind the library desk or a cabinet.

We are unsure whether he actually heard this was happening or if he’s revealing future plans for the libraries.

The sound quality of the recorded exchange is poor and we had to clean it up to hear what was said, but it takes places between minute 6:11-14:30.

We have also confirmed with the resident who spoke that this is what Mr. Edwards told her.

So, if the fact that:

* the County has absolutely no idea how much the library is going to cost either this year or 9 years from now

* The County lost resources and access to 7 other branch libraries

* The County now has to pay separate, additional fees for internet, mobile hotspots, and IT staff

* The County is paying for two libraries and only receiving a partial rebate for two positions at UKW, even though the second library won’t open until at least March (the fiscal year ends in June)

* County residents now have less transparency than with PRL because LSS has not committed to releasing all figures related to the funds they are given to operate the library; only agreeing to provide exact numbers on what is spent on library books.

…if ALL of that does not convince you that this decision to create an independent library was not made for financial reasons but precisely because the Board of Supervisors wanted to control the material in the collection, then allow Mr. Edwards’ comments on Tuesday to convince you.

Mr. Edwards’ feelings about any book or subject matter are entirely his business. He’s allowed to have them, just like everyone else. What he should not be allowed to do is restrict access to books simply because he doesn’t personally agree with the content.

This policy change was done under the guise of “protecting children.” And according to the Library Board, it is not censorship.

With the exception of Joy Washington, who openly disagreed that the Library Board should have the power to do this and voted against the policy, the rest of the members believe that dictating what books are morally acceptable to be in the teen section is not a form of censorship.

Here is the Merriam-Webster definition of a censor: a person who supervises conduct and morals; an official who examines materials (such as publications or films) for objectionable matter. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/censoring

So yes, censorship includes moving a teen book out of the teen section because it contains “inappropriate words” in your personal opinion.

For exactly that reason; you have judged it to be inappropriate because it is your *personal* opinion that it is.

No censor believes themselves to be a censor.

And every single censor believes they are doing so to “protect” us. After all, who could disagree with the protection of children and teens?

That’s the favorite refrain of this national movement to censor materials in libraries.

Censoring books to “protect” children and teens, all while ignoring the actual abuse of children and teens.

Beyond the blatant hypocrisy of books being painted as the true danger in this world, we point to another fundamental problem: when you have given the government permission to censor one book, you have given them permission to censor any book.

You might agree with the censor today but disagree with them tomorrow; the problem is that you’ve already told them they have the right to decide on your behalf.

They count on you not noticing that exchange of power because after all, “What about the children???”

You’re so busy arguing with each other over what words are or aren’t allowed that you forget to ask the most important questions: why do these people even have the right to decide what is or isn’t acceptable? Who gave them that power?

And the answer to that is we all did. The minute we accepted this as the status quo.

And then before you know it, the number of subjects and words that are “out of line” expands, and then it’ll be “hey, what about those adult books?”

You give a censor an inch, and they will always take a mile.

Library Board Chair, Ashley Herndon, now only wants to have public meetings every other month.

Now that the censorship policy has been passed, we can understand why public meetings now might feel less urgent.

After all, the main goal has now been achieved.

Despite the fact that the true library work hasn’t even begun. Once the other branch opens, there will be more questions on how best to transfer materials and allocate prosper staff coverage, as well as the questions that remain over the lack of financial transparency from LSS.

The Library Board will discuss whether monthly meetings will continue to be held at a future meeting, as there is disagreement on what the proper frequency for meetings should be.

We remain disappointed at the destruction of a community resource to expand government control over decisions that belong to individuals.

Just like we remain perpetually disappointed at the sorry excuse for “governance” King William has at their disposal.

However, we also remain hopeful that the future includes more honest individuals running for office and making decisions.

And we remain forever committed to the American principles of freedom of speech and expression and the right of the people to access information, whether the government likes it or not.

Public libraries are institutions that promote free thinking. And that makes them dangerous places for individuals who wish to force their personal values on everyone else.

It also makes them institutions whose principles must be defended by those of us who still believe that everyone is entitled to their own values, whether we personally agree with them or not.

We hope you all have a great Thanksgiving.

11/18/2025

Good afternoon, everyone. The King William Library Board will meet tonight at 6:30 PM.

Here is a link to the livestream: https://kingwilliamcova.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1942/media

We’ve also attached the agenda for the night.

Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you.

11/17/2025

Good afternoon, everyone. The Board of Supervisors will be meeting tonight at 6:30 PM in the County Administration building.

Here is the link the livestream: https://kingwilliamcova.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1186/media

We have also attached the agenda for the night.

Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you.

10/31/2025

Good morning, everyone. Here is a link to the recording for Monday night’s Board meeting:
https://kingwilliamcova.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1688/media

Apologies for the late post, but we had to verify some information about comments that were made during the meeting.

Below is a summary of the highlights.

There are no new updates to provide for the library.

Interim County Administrator, Clarence Monday, provided the same updates that were given at the last Library Board meeting.

The contract for the new library renovation has been executed. Mr. Monday will meet with the contractor this week to give him the keys and determine when renovations will begin.

The building permit is almost complete, and the furnishings committee will present the costs for furnishing the new library at the Nov 17th meeting.

All County Administrator candidates that the Board selected have agreed to be interviewed by the Board. Those interviews will begin in November.

The Supervisors approved a request by the Treasurer’s office for $2,250 for new credit card machines.

The county Commonwealth’s Attorney asked for $10,000 to bring the position of Records Management 'up to par' and additional $15,000 for the Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney position.

That position has been vacant since December 2024; she has received only 3 applicants and only 1 was qualified. The applicant that was qualified needed more money to accept the position.

She gave average salaries for different counties indicating KW is significantly below the average, leading to issues with recruiting and retention.

They decided to table this amendment until the Nov 17th meeting.

There were also updates regarding the overall county budget.

Mary Sue Bancroft asked about the balance in the Unassigned Fund. She said that what the Finance Director stated is different than what she was told by Mr. Monday.

Mr. Monday explained how he arrived at the figure of $7 million he gave her which was the balance as of the last complete audit.

Ms. Bancroft also stated the county is below the 20% threshold.

Interim Finance Director, Julie Kaylor, indicated the new Finance Director would start next week and she would be willing to help out in any way she can on an ‘as needed' basis.

For Airport Funding: Ms. Bancroft reviewed the contract and stated they could withdraw with 6 months notice, but then indicated that, in her research, she found that the contract was paid on October 1st with no approval from the Supervisors and wondered where those funds came from.

The Board members were confused and then ended up approving the funding after the fact, as a matter of record.

Ms. Bancroft also made a comment that county is millions over in expenditures.

Lindsay Robinson asked her where she got that information and she stated Chris Couch has documentation to support this.

Ms. Robinson indicated that she didn't like numbers being thrown around when the audit is not complete.

Here is the background for this exchange:

A recent independent review done by Chris Couch, who sits on the Citizens’ Budget Advisory Committee, found that King William County’s FY26 General Fund budget— approved by the Board on May 19, 2025—does not match the version later entered into the County’s General Ledger system that was approved in August 2025.

This study was done independently by Mr. Couch, as the Budget Advisory committee the Board of Supervisors created, has only met once informally.

From this informal meeting, they sent a list of requests to the county that was never answered, and they’ve also made repeated requests to schedule a formal meeting but those have also been ignored.

Though Mr. Couch’s study was initially waved off, he persevered and had a meeting on October 17, 2025, with Interim County Administrator, Clarence Monday, and Interim Finance Director, Julie Kaylor, and it turned out, he was correct that discrepancies existed.

**We will make a note here that actual numbers on how much KW is over on expenditures have continued to change in the last couple of months due to amendments and additions**

** The proposed amendment total went from $1.7m (8/25) to $4m (10/21) to $1.4m (10/27); Mr. Couch is still researching how these changes have occurred and what they can be attributed to. Research is ongoing**

It was soon determined what the root cause of the discrepancy in numbers was that the Board of Supervisors did not give county staff the original May 2025 spreadsheet they used to approve the FY26 budget.

Instead, staff received a Word document summarizing changes to the recycled FY25 budget, which lacked line-item financial data and revenue projection financials.

Both the May and the August versions were approved by the Board of Supervisors under the same Resolution 25-18, but with different votes and different numbers.

Historically, the County used separate resolutions for budget adoption and appropriation, providing greater transparency.

Using the same resolution number for two distinct versions of the FY26 budget created confusion regarding which version constitutes the official adopted document and Mr. Couch’s concern was that this would further complicate the County’s financial record and audit trail.

The reason there was a difference between the May and August version is because the Supervisors passed a budget and have since continued to pass amendments that increase this budget.

These monetary increases now cross the 1% threshold that requires a public hearing. This hearing will now be held on November 17.

Mr. Monday and Ms. Kaylor now have the correct information and Finance staff has worked diligently to correct as much as they can, but Mr. Couch still continues his review of financial information, as he still sees some mistakes that have yet to be explained.

First, we’d like to thank Mr. Couch for doing all this work on his own for no reason other than to try and ensure county finances are properly maintained.

He is not being paid for his work, and if it weren’t for his personal insistence, his valid concerns would be ignored.

The Board of Supervisors created this advisory committee to supposedly provide transparency and cooperation between the county and its citizens, but as usual, it appears this is just for show as the members’ requests have been ignored.

We would also like to thank county staff for the work they are putting into ensuring the correct information is being documented for the audit.

The problem is that staff can only do as they are directed and only have access to the information they are provided.

While we are sure the blame will be put on “the previous Board,” the truth is that all of these issues have occurred during the tenure of the current Board.

They have placed friends of friends in positions they had no business being in, which created unnecessary problems and have cost King William taxpayers in the form of severance paid when things don’t work out.

And instead of placing their focus on fixing the county’s finances, they’ve instead put their focus on creating problems where none have existed.

Imagine if they had actually spent their time wisely providing staff with support and asking detailed questions about the audit process the way Chris Couch has done for years now.

Instead, they spent their time trying to convince people a new, independent King William Library was what was necessary.

The last budget was rushed and the meetings leading up to its eventual adoption were full of comments from the Supervisors like, “I have no idea what we’re going to do,” and “Pray for us.”

How about taking the time to actually review the numbers and being honest about where the county is financially?

Supervisor, Bill Hodges, made a comment at a previous meeting that he was concerned that a budget was passed and in just a couple of meetings, more and more money was being allocated to continue to grow the budget that was agreed upon.

What’s the point of passing a budget if in the end, you’re just going to blow past it and keep spending?

If a certain amount of money was required by agencies and departments and there was no wiggle room, then put it in the budget and approve it.

Take accountability for the costs and funds you approve to be allocated.

Passing a smaller budget to make it look like you’re not spending as much and then passing increases on the sly hoping nobody notices so you can brag about how financially responsible you are to get elected is irresponsible to say the least.

The library is an excellent example of where the Supervisors perpetually fall short.

They allocated $571,995 to Library Systems and Services (LSS) to operate the library.

Less than it cost in 2024. That sounds great right??!!

Wrong. Because that number didn’t take into account things like internet, hotspot, or computer and copier contractual costs that used to be covered with Pamunkey Regional Library (PRL) that LSS wouldn’t be covering.

They signed a contract without knowing what costs they would be responsible for.

And that’s not even counting the money being spent on renovations and furniture costs for the new library building.

So, in truth, they have absolutely no idea how much the library is going to cost them this year because they didn’t really want to know the answer to that question.

Had they asked for a line-item budget prior to making that decision, they’d have to face the fact that their preference (leaving PRL) was not the fiscally responsible option.

How could it be? “We have no idea how much money the county has or how we’re going to pay for anything…I know! Let’s put even more stress on a bare-bones staff and start a completely new department from scratch that’s not necessary and see how much that winds up costing us down the line!”

And that’s one department. A department that doesn’t even constitute 2% of the total budget.

Who knows how many other amendments will have to be made and how much they’ll cost in the end.

And an already stressed and short-staffed Finance department is still working on completing this year’s budget and audit all while trying to work on preparing next year’s budget.

Thank you to the county and interim employees who are working as hard as they can to make this happen because it sounds like a nightmare.

We ask you to remember that they can only work with what they are given. And there’s no way staff can make idiotic decisions look like good ones by making a nice enough spreadsheet.

And thank you to the residents who continue to review the actions taken by the Board and the funds that have been allocated to ensure they’re properly documented.

Clearly, those actually being paid to “supervise” this situation have no interest in listening to their constituents or following through on anything themselves.

The next meeting of the Board of Supervisors will be held on Monday, November 17.

A link to the livestream will be posted the day of.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

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