Well, I alluded to it earlier and now it’s public. The weekend was spent working on getting a resolution together that would get things moving. I tore apart the next version of Manassas Next and used some of the pieces to come up with a Neighborhood Conservation Plan.
You can download the resolution here. It creates an immediate “foot patrol” for the greater GTS area of 3 officers. It re-funds some overtime pay for more enforcement details. It also creates a renewed focus for zoning and code enforcement for the same area. Further it directs the staff to study what they are seeing in the field and provide input to the Council for enhanced enforcement. Finally, it directs the Land Use committee to come up with longer-term goals and strategies. I’m aware that the last bit is a bit generic but that is what I could get together in 3 days and get passed by the Council. It is a thorny subject. Expect to see a serious discussion about police funding during the budget.
We will take what we learn here and apply it to the rest of the City.
The Council also passed a resolution endorsing Prince William County’s FOIA request of ICE to determine the disposition of the many cases forwarded to them by our joint 287g program.
I did spend a lot of time on all this but I want to convey that none of this is possible without my fellow Council members. I might have done a lot of legwork but there just isn’t a substitute to having 6 brains looking at things and providing great feedback. I would also point out that the staff provided great support and information and that the beer summit folks were great help.
It’s a start.
February 14, 2011 at 10:41 pm
Yes it is a start, and one that is badly overdue. It should not have taken the senseless killing of 4 people for the Council to understand the severity of the condition that has allowed our City to be run over by illegals and gang members.
Now is the time to cut school funding, which is bloated anyway, and use that money to give to the police. We need to eliminate as many hang ups as possible. Having money for the police is one of them.
February 14, 2011 at 10:55 pm
Good to see u tonight com. Thanks for coming out.
February 14, 2011 at 10:57 pm
Good job, Andy, Council Members, and Mayor Parrish. Thanks to your collective will we went from zero to sixty in less than one hundred yards. The plan looks like a really strong foundation. Now hold together and build upon it. Work as the team you can be.
February 14, 2011 at 11:37 pm
Andy,
Good to see you too, and thanks for your plan. I wish more people would have shown up, though, I’m pretty sure those of us that did, are not the only concerned residents.
February 15, 2011 at 5:23 am
I would like to say thanks to. We cannot let this city reach such a low point ever again and must keep vigilant.
I would hope that this council will not allocate the 450,000.00 extra for the sesquicentennial when our city is still recovering those that planned the events were already given money. It’s too bad they didn’t plan within their budget.
Public safety comes first and I want my tax dollars going toward that.
February 15, 2011 at 6:20 am
Excellent work on the resolution, Andy. I was ironing church robes and watching from home.
There’s a great case study for neighborhood revitalization — Ironically, its called Andy Street in Long Beach, CA, I’ll get you a copy.
Thanks for televising council meetings, and thanks for getting information out through your blog here.
February 15, 2011 at 6:24 am
Might have to rename a street if it works.
http://andystreetnews.org/pdf/AndyStMngtPlan.pdf
February 15, 2011 at 6:57 am
Saw the JM coverage this am. Were there any reporters actually there?
February 15, 2011 at 7:06 am
Even with a good start it is going to be tough going to remain focused and stay the course. The council will need to maintain a collective internal dynamic to avoid splinter issues that distract from the task at hand. In particular, as we “enter the political season” new office seekers will seek to grandstand and attack the council. They will do so for their own political gain. They will do this without regard for its effects on this new start. I hope the council avoids allowing those transparent self-motivated efforts to cause a single dissent among you. The 6-0 vote last night was impressive. Council members have a real opportunity to show individual strength by working together on this new start and brining it successfully to fruition.
February 15, 2011 at 8:16 am
L:
After 3 days of leading with 72pt headlines about a triple murder none of the local papers could be bothered to send a reporter. It isn’t even covered in the JM today. The WaPo probably isn’t aware we had a meeting and Patch was nowhere to be seen.
I believe that if the papers are going to cover the event that they should feel some responsibility to cover the response but I guess not.
A
February 15, 2011 at 8:53 am
Andy,
I know it will be a long road but as a constituent I really appreciate seeing my Council take action. Thank you
-Jessica
February 15, 2011 at 10:45 am
@Old Timer
Congrats you win the Mubarak award for lamest attempt to squash political debate within Manassas.
February 15, 2011 at 11:52 am
DB:
I don’t think that what he’s saying is out of line. It’s more or less “keep your eye on the ball” kinda stuff.
J:
Thanks! We’ll keep going…
February 15, 2011 at 12:10 pm
I agree the Council needs to keep their eye on the ball. But if the current members are not going to do it, then we need people on the Council that will. It’s time to put up or shut up.
Andy,
I’d like to invite you to respond on my blog to questions raised on how why we should expect City staff to respond to your plan as far as cleaning up GTS and looking out for violations if that’s not taking place now. It’s under my most recent post regarding the meeting last night. Thanks.
February 15, 2011 at 1:30 pm
Andy,
We are all in this together.
February 15, 2011 at 2:08 pm
That’s right.
February 15, 2011 at 5:18 pm
A big issue materializing is the unbelievable high school dropout rate in GTS (has to be around 50%). This leaves a huge number of youth with nothing but time on their hands. Strict enforcement of even minor infractions may steer potentially bad young citizens straight, or at least away from the city. The GTS staff has done a good job with inspections, the place LOOKS better than I’ve seen it in 15 years. I guess they need more “teeth” to help with enforcement with the folks who ignore them. Littering at GTS is rampant, and can be controlled. Just need the will to do it.
February 15, 2011 at 10:02 pm
Rob, you make an excellent point – “just need the will to do it”.
There was a lady last night at Citizens Time (forget her name) who first spoke on the number of Staff in Community Development, then mentioned about cars sitting in people’s yards.
So where is the phone call to Zoning folks to report it and have it taken care of? I have a neighbor found of bringing home his construction trailer with ladders et.al. on it – and park that big ole thing in his driveway either overnight or over the weekend.
SInce the neighbor ignored my repeated comments he cannot park that thing in his driveway, one simple phone call to Carlos up in Zoning took care of it.
All it took was the will to do it.
February 15, 2011 at 10:25 pm
If GTS is your target for your plan, this problem isn’t new. The problems go back to the late 1970’s and the police department has been fighting the problems ever since. All the way back to Chief Ellis who dumped large amounts of manpower and resources into cleaning up GTS. While it worked for a short time other parts of the City needed police attention too. The MCPD has a community police program, but I hear its hard to maintain it with current staffing. Besides, this is not just a police problem. It’s a City problem and other City Department’s (zoning, inspections…) must be involved. Enforcement is one thing, but you can’t arrest your way out of this problem. It will take more to make a long term impact.
February 16, 2011 at 5:36 am
Old-
New York was cleaned up by arresting people for minor infractions. When people know there are no consequences for their actions they keep repeating them.
So you can arrest your way out of this but the police need to be there die the long term.
I believe this council will give the much needed resources to the Chief to accomplish this.
Ihave been pretty hard and loud in my admonishment of the council but I do want to let them know I appreciate what they have started.
Now we need to stay proactive and not be reactive.
February 16, 2011 at 5:38 am
Dang that should have been for not die
February 16, 2011 at 8:34 am
Andy,
Another issue the City Council needs to take up is asking the school system, why they felt it was fine to provide fliers promoting a housing and foreclosure workshop to students. The people behind the work group are not exactly middle of the road folks. I’ve got more about this on my blog.
February 16, 2011 at 8:44 am
Andy: I read the resolution but was not familiar with the term “mobile staff effort”. Can anyone explain that wording for us? Thanks
February 16, 2011 at 11:24 am
COM,
Because students are messengers to a place none of us will ever see, i.e., financial solvency as long as we have a school system that bleeds us dry.
Draft Flier to School Board:
Fire Central Office.
Empower Principles who will be held accountable.
Give solid, good teachers raises.
Ditch the School Board and hand over the keys of the school system to the City Council.
Thank you for your service.
(P.S. Ray B. you better come up with something quick, people might actually agree with me.)
February 16, 2011 at 12:47 pm
Doug,
All very true. It’s as plain as day.
February 16, 2011 at 5:19 pm
Maureen, that’s just a small part of what needs to be done. Yes, that will have an impact, but more needs to be done outside the law enforcement side.
Painting the house is nice, but you have to fix the broken windows also.
February 16, 2011 at 6:00 pm
Doug,
Don’t need to think quick 🙂 …already more than once said bring the School Board back to an appointed by Council one. We had one, switched to elected – ok, no workee…let’s get it on a ballot to return back for more control and accountability.
The Foreclosure Workshop does get me – nobody yet has explained why it is being held there. I have a query out on that to a reliable person, and should have a valid answer by tomorrow.
Now, if the wanted to do classes in Personal Financial Management, hey, I’m for that! Teach them in high school so when they get those credit cards in college, they don’t screw up and have those dang credit reports mucking with them forever.
Wow, what a frightening concept to some – a school teaching a valuable life skill!
February 16, 2011 at 7:28 pm
Ray,
Agree with each point you made.
As for the workshop, nothing against a community workshop on the subject I just don’t see why the school system feels the need to be a medium. Your kid’s backpack has enough surprises and alien like life forms spilling out of it, another distraction from the primary objective of the school is not welcomed and the ability of the school system to communicate with the parents should not be abused.
February 16, 2011 at 10:07 pm
Andy,
Where you able to get any answers regarding the house workshop flier?
February 16, 2011 at 11:16 pm
Doug- agreed….anyone who attends School Board meetings can tell within 5 minutes that it’s the tail wagging the dog. VERY disfunctional.
February 17, 2011 at 8:52 am
COM:
Dr. Pope indicated that she felt the foreclosure workshop was a “community service” and elected to send home the document.
February 17, 2011 at 9:39 am
Dr. Pope,
Educating our kids was the community service you were hired for, frankly Dr. Pope as I have watched you thru the years in the community you seem more inclined towards PR rather than Ed.
Here’s a constructive criticism, and I will try to refrain from making it personal, your system is overly centralized. As someone who put together the briefing books for the first World Bank team that went into a collapsed USSR, I know a dysfunctional centralized system when I am dealing with it. Your management style is that of a Red Director who is trying to hide something. You and your staff are too intrusive in the daily lives and responsibilities of the principals and teachers. Let the principals manage at the school level and let teachers teach in the classroom. Decentralize your management style, you’ll free less stress and the staff throughout the system will free less stress and non-performers, poor performers will stand out in that system and that is who you manage. Because, right now, the person who stands out the most in an overly centralized, poorly performing system is ???
February 17, 2011 at 12:46 pm
Oh yeah, that would be “feel” rather than “free”, see you’re stressing us all out, Dr. Pope.
If you want to ‘do good’ in regard to the mortgage crisis, how about improving the schools so that our property values go up?
February 17, 2011 at 4:18 pm
Andy,
Did you ask why she thinks an event that is not sponsored by the local government, organized in part by a partisan group, is something that should be pushed onto our students? Nowhere on the flier is there made mention of our City, the County, yes, but not our City.
Next thing you know, she’ll be doing what the liberals are doing in Wisconsin, teachers will be using students as props to push their agenda. In fact, I’m pretty sure this is exactly what she had in mind in this case.
I think she needs to give more of a reason than just a one sentence reply.
February 17, 2011 at 4:21 pm
Doug,
Because Pope is not concerned about such matters. She’s only concerned with pushing her liberal agenda. The proof I have of that? Has she said one thing that leads us to believe she is concerned with the graduation rate and low test scores? Except of course that she needs more money?
February 18, 2011 at 9:34 am
COM,
The Workshop on the housing and foreclosure crisis will be held at the St. Thomas UMC Church 2/20/11 at 3:30 to 5pm and is sponsored by V.O.I.C.E.
I look forward to our kids’ bringing home the flyer for the 40 Days for Life community event which is about to begin, also supported by many of the same religious organizations and right near the St. Thomas UMC Church.
February 18, 2011 at 5:20 pm
Doug,
Me too, But I’m not holding my breath.
February 25, 2011 at 10:35 pm
I have just read through a few blogs here, and notice folks comsuming much energy to essentially say things like ‘ Hey Dr Pope, how bout teachin’ our kids and not sending home notices as a community service’ ; following that one up with ‘ Hey Andy did you ask Dr Pope about that one, huh, huh, didja?’ and ‘we need to give the schools less money, and ask them to graduate at higher rates’ and ‘we’re overrun with gangs’ 49% free and reduced lunch’ and our delegate’s war cry ‘ Illegals are good for nothing’ I can almost see the tounges stuck out and hear the ‘nanny nanny boo boo’ and I wonder, ‘where are these folks at council and board meetings? Are they standing up for real solutions? I mean is comparing the school leadership to communists helpful? At all? Andy, ever get a good idea from us rabble that actually turned into something?
I’ve recently been to three council meetings (including one town hall meeting) and two school board meetings. Except for one night when a string of teachers were there to ask for a raise, there haven’t been ten people there to ( in all these meetings combined) use citizens time. And none of them offered solutions to discuss. Our school board and city council are so starved for input from citizens that a council member who gets two people call him/her on the same issue has to treat it as a five alarm fire.
I agree that the school board lacks a leadership focus and some on the board are outright acolytes of the superintendent. Council is rightly moving to nudge the schools into doing something, ANYTHING, that both improves performance and gives us some decent PR. RUnning a school system by process is not going to work any longer. We need ideas, solid, run this up the flagpole ideas, and have council say yea or nea. Have the community at large say yea or nea, remember? This is a community, and If fifty people go to council and speak in support of something, (and say they”ll pay to support that something, ) it tends to get done. Look how quickly they were able to spend 100K to guarantee no more underwear stores open in old town. Boy I can sleep easier now. After all, the machete murders just happen to ‘them’. Keep fighting the good fight andy, and don’t waste your energy on nonsense.
I value all the opinions expressed to Andy’s blog, some are a whole lot more entertaining than others, but all the energy seems focused on ‘here, here’s the link that shows how effed up Manassas is, and ‘here’s what you should do’ but no one is lining up to speak at council meetings until KKs opens up. jeeez
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