You tell me.
Here’s an interesting line item in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2007/2008 budget:
11010 ** BOARD OF SUPERVISORS **
011010-3600 ADVERTISING
For FY 2004/2005 (July 1, 2004 – June 30, 2005) Actual: $6,744
FY 05/06 (July 1, 2005 – June 30, 2006) Actual: $6,320 — -6.29%
FY 06/07 (July 1, 2006 – June 30, 2007) Actual: $12,720 — +101.27%
FY 2008:
- Budgeted: $2,000
- Actual on December 31, 2007: $16,387
- Projected [simply the first half multiplied by 2]: $32,774
So, what exactly was being advertised?
Am I the only one that finds a massive increase in “advertising” in an election year to be suspicious?
Would it be all those “constituent meetings” that were being held by the Board members (three of which had seats that were in the process of being challenged) were being advertised heavily by the county?
How exactly was there more than the whole previous year’s expenditures spent in just one half of a year? (And remember that FY 06/07 [which had a 101.27% increase over the previous year] would include the first half of 2007.)
Up next: The Board of Supervisors requests a pay raise (and has their request approved in the proposed budget by the County Administrator).
Nice work. I wonder when some in “authority” will actually look into these things?
http://www.governmentauditors.org/content/view/212/123/
TRUTH……………
http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&products_id=204728-1
“Better to fight when you have a small chance, than to wait until you have no chance at all.”
Winston Churchill on the NAZIS
Hah – have you seen their adds in the FLS? They’re HUGE – completely rediculous if you ask me. Wasn’t there some uproar last year when they tried to switch to ads like the city that said “meeting title/title/title, more information go to our website”. For that matter, didn’t I see a full page add for the budget public meeting? I also found out while researching some of the city ads, that the FLS charges extra for it to show up in the ‘online’ classifieds at fredericksburg.com (so the city stopped that service). My argument is that the city doesn’t post their planning commission agendas online, so if you miss it that 1 day in the print FLS, you’ve missed it entirely.
Hmph — I didn’t even know that Caroline County advertised in the The Free Lance—Star.
Spotsylvania County decided not to put the whole agenda in the paper this year:
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/012008/01102008/347268
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/012008/01242008/350871
I recall there being a correction to one of those stories but I can’t find it on their website.