My man Steve Randolph is an eternal optimist. He’s found the following quote about days past:

“City Proposes $1.70 Rate on Real Estate
Headline – Manassas Journal-Messenger
April 21, 1977

“Twenty residents attended the hearing which did not produce
protest or outcries about the proposed budget … Praise was
given the council …”

I love Steve but I don’t expect we’ll get much praise…:)

Good Council meeting last night.  We had a public hearing on the budget and 3 people showed up.  These are the first people at any of our budget meetings.

The Chief of Police released his 2008 complaint and commendation data and here’s an excerpt:

61,791 calls for service last year.   Before somebody points out there there are only 40k people in Manassas, I would offer that my understanding of “call for service” is that it is not always an actual call.  It’s just about anything the PD does in pursuit of its mission – if a patrol officer sees an unlocked door and checks it out, that counts.

16 complaints.  All were investigated and 9 were not sustained.  The other 7 “resulted in various forms of corrective action or discipline.”

The department recieved 68 written letters of commendation and many telephone calls of appreciation.

The PD made 2,228 criminal arrests, issued 5,441 traffic tickets and wrote 6,799 parking tickets.

I am pleased with the Chief’s committment to releasing this data to the public every year.  It contributes to the level of trust in the community and it illustrates that our department performs at a very high level.