Flat Tax Discussion Turns into Personal Attacks at BOCS Meeting

What began as a discussion of the flat tax bill escalated during the Dec. 11 meeting of the Board of County Supervisors.

Supervisor Pete Candland (R-Gainesville) accused County Executive Melissa Peacor of presenting a “biased” interpretation of his tax bill, while Supervisor Maureen Caddigan (R-Potomac) condemned Candland's citizen budget committee as fiercely partisan, seeking to defame the supervisors.

During Supervisors’ Time, Gainesville Supervisor Pete Candland spoke out on what he called “absolute bias from the County Executive towards a flat tax proposal."

Candland condemned Peacor's interpretation of his plan and listed several errors in her analysis of his plan. They included impacts to the school budget, funding of BPOL, cuts to community partners, agency budget cuts and corrections or clarifications on several sections of the budget.

“Staff analysis was that my flat tax proposal would have cut county spending by thirty percent. In fact it would cut it by six percent,” said Candland, explaining that the inaccurate percentage was reported across the county during last year's budget sessions.

Candland said that in his profession he would be fired for presenting so many errors in a document. He further noted that any misinterpretations could have been cleared up, had  county staff contacted him with questions. Moreover, he complained that the supervisors were not given enough time to review the analysis documents before last week’s meeting.

Those grievances led Candland to say, “I have concluded that the County Executive is unable to prepare an honest analysis of my proposal.”

Supervisor Martin Nohe (R-Coles) defended Peacor, saying he had arrived at the same conclusions as the County Executive based on Candland’s recommendations, and suggested that Candland have should been clearer in his budget presentation. He also supported Peacor and her staff, saying they do an especially good job with the short amount of time they are generally given.

Supervisor John Jenkins (D- Neabsco) said airing grievances against county staff, during a public meeting was against procedure. He also told Candland he owed the County Executive an apology.

However, Candland found himself involved in another conflict on the dais, when Potomac District Supervisor Maureen Caddigan delivered an impromptu speech condemning Candland's citizen's committee.

“You talk about your budget committee,” said Caddigan. “They are the bloggers; many are associated with your office. These are the people who have crucified our county executive and defamed each member of this board. We do know them by name. We do know who they are, and it is disgraceful that they are going to twist our arms, get us out of office, so they can get people who can support Candland, so he can run for chairman. I don’t mean to be a small person here, but your budget committee is despicable, and I will not be listening to your budget committee.”

Citizens in the audience responded to Caddigan's remarks with applause.

Candland defended the citizens on his committee, who he described as volunteers doing a service to their county. He said that only one of them was a blogger, and several of them are outstanding citizens.

Chairman Corey Stewart called for Supervisors and citizens alike to take a step back and not let their tempers cloud their judgment.