novatownhall blog

A friend of mine, and of this blog, has really taken a financial beating lately because the family breadwinner happens to be in one of the U.S. and Virginia governments’ most un-favored classes:

Citizen, carpenter.

If any of you need any work done that does not require high-ladder work, please respond in the comments and I will connect you with him. Even if it is a small job, it would make a difference. This is a family that does not want to ask for handouts but just wants a chance to do something useful and get paid for it. What a shame that that proposition has now become completely iffy in today’s pro-illegal environment.

As most of our readers know, American blue-collar tradespeople have been relegated to the dumpster by Virginia’s state government and the disastrous presidencies of Clinton, Bush and Obama. Companies using illegal workers have been undercutting the bids of those playing by the rules to such a degree that American workers have been completely shut out. Both Virginia and the federal government have winked at this and given tacit approval for years. Bob McDonnell gives absolutely no indication of wanting to balance the playing field for those who play by the rules, so we can assume that life is going to pretty much suck for any legal resident of Virginia who was unlucky enough to learn a trade.

I, frankly, welcome any opportunity to stick it to the man while supporting my fellow citizens, and therefore have made it a point to make sure that anyone doing work for us uses legal workers. It is not easy, actually, because it is like navigating a black market to find a company still in existence that actually plays by the rules.

Please note, the Bulletproof Monk has exactly one such company, and if you need work done, by all means contact that man.

But it would also be good if you were interested in contacting this American carpenter in Sterling who just wants a chance to do some work, and whose family is really in a lot of pain right now as a result of Virginia’s employment law enforcement which is entirely skewed toward companies that use illegal workers.

At least, give him and the Monk a shot at your job. Leave a note in the comments if you want a job quote. Thank you.

The new Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office substation on Frederick Avenue in Sterling opened on April 30 and tonight was the grand opening ceremony. We caught about 25 minutes of the event; here are a few photos.

Discussion of the substation began years ago – here is our write up of one of the public hearings back in 2006. Many of the same people in those photos were present tonight.

It’s good to see an event demonstrate such broad and bipartisan agreement. There were great comments by all of the elected officials present. Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio thanked the current and past boards of supervisors and school boards for making it happen. Supervisor Stevens Miller reminded the audience that although the deputies all dress the same, they are individuals so it’s ok to wave when they drive by and tell them if you think they are doing a good job.

I was especially impressed with Captain Ricky Frye, the substation commander. He made the point that the station is not the building but the personnel who work there. He also noted the fact that it was completed in less than two years – I forget the name of the contractor though I am certain it will be included in the news reports in the coming days.

In addition to those in the photos I saw Commonwealth Attorney Jim Plowman in the audience among hundreds of attendees – including, I am guessing, some of our readers. I know Eugene Delgaudio spent a lot of man hours in Sterling publicizing the event; don’t know what other publicity there was, but it really worked.

Nice job, everyone involved in bringing the substation to fruition. I will link to other media coverage as it becomes available.

Hundreds of residents, Sheriff's Office personnel and public officials attended the grand opening ceremony on June 9

Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio speaks during the Grand Opening Ceremony at the new Sterling Substation. Major Bob Buckman (seated at left) was master of ceremonies.

Captain Ricky Frye, Sterling Substation Commander

Deputies and other Sheriff's Office personnel at Grand Opening Ceremony

(more below the fold)
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by jacob
Monk, thanks for reminding me to sign my previous article. It was an oversight. I appreciate your pointing it out.

As for rattled, hardly. With Ken’s endorsement and the endorsements of hundreds of others, I see Mark running a strong race. Mark saw all the venom on the blogs directed toward him and Candace back in January. He also saw all the old wounds in the party getting opened up. In order to squelch all that he asked me not to post stuff about the campaign on this blog. The party does not need the venom. By the way, that is called leadership. Leadership is about knowing what is right, and not just giving in to ones baser instincts to hit back. This is what Ken did when a number of blogs were attacking him.

Notice the difference. When Greg Stone posted an article or two about Candace, I did not call it a steaming pile. Or denigrate anyone. When I saw Tags endorsement of Candace, I did not lament it. I also did not frame it as a poor choice on Tag’s part, nor try to dilute Candace with some statement about Greg Stone calling Tag on her behalf. You have.

Like I said yesterday, this party separates the men from the boys on SUNDAY. Where will you be? This is why I am asking you and others in the party if you will support the winner from Saturday, on Sunday. I will be there from day one. That is the adult thing to do. Candace has called for it, this is also leadership. You support her — so what gives? A simple yes or no will suffice. We need unity, the stakes are too high.

This is not about ripping each others guts people. The party does not agree on who is the best choice. The remedy for this is tomorrow’s election. The remedy is not demonizing and denigrating one another. The two campaigns have kept to the high road. That is called leadership.

About 530 residents showed up at Park View High School in Sterling tonight for an ad hoc emergency public meeting to address the recent crime wave in the community.

The Loudoun County Government was represented by Sheriff Steve Simpson and Supervisors Susan Buckley, Andrea McGimsey, Eugene Delgaudio, Stevens Miller and Scott York. (Supervisors Lori Waters and Kelly Burk, whose districts don’t overlap with the “Sterling” area, were also present but not on the dais.)

Supervisor York did an excellent job moderating what was, undeniably, a harsh situation. He took some shots from an audience that was clearly on edge and often near combustible.

But Sheriff Simpson had to absorb more criticism than any other party and he handled it well, if perhaps too impassively. I think Simpson is a good guy and good sheriff but an incredibly tone deaf public official. In personal conversations Simpson has expressed to me he understands the problems we face in Sterling. He should do a much better job explaining how he “feels our pain” and is committed to doing more to solve our problems. Standing in a large auditorium full of people on the verge of rage over the crime problem here, he talked at length about how the Sheriff’s Office is doing all it can do and more than most people realize.

This was, to put it mildly, not the information the audience was seeking. Consequently Simpson was literally shouted down a couple times during his remarks by audience members demanding to know what more would be done, and York had to step in and restore order. At one point a gang task force deputy went to the podium to explain in more detail what was being done in the investigations that was not showing up in the news.

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The new category here is Sterling Crime Wave. Click on it frequently to see what is happening to our neighborhoods in eastern Loudoun County.

When the enlightened beings of the mainstream media declared Sterling Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio off-base several months ago for saying that our community was at risk of becoming a cesspool because of illegal immigration, local liberals parroted the politically correct line. They ridiculed Delgaudio.

What out-of-touch idiots they have been proven to be.

Sterling, Virginia is a suburban community which at first glance looks like every other suburb you have ever seen. But just beneath the surface lies a festering problem which becomes evident if you spend more than five minutes observing our neighborhoods.

Root of the problem? No zoning enforcement.

Our ineffectual Department of Building and Development allows illegal boarding houses for illegal aliens to operate without any threat of law enforcement whatsoever.

Lock and load, neighbors: the Loudoun County government has left us to fend for ourselves.

Following are the fruits of our feckless Department of Building and Development.

Here is last night’s headline:

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Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio just sent a notice that Sterling rape suspect Martin Jose Morales-Mancia is now in the custody of the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.

Looking forward to more info about this guy.

Outrage.

The Loudoun County government is screwed, and needs to be eviscerated, burned down, and replaced. Something happened in Sterling Thursday night which should make every resident of Loudoun County wonder what the hell is going on with our Sheriff’s Office and our zoning enforcement “team”.

I will tell you in the next paragraph what actually happened, from conversations with someone who happens to know the victim, and below the fold is what the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office deigns to reveal. Please notice the differences.

Late Thursday night, August 28 (early Friday morning, August 29) around midnight, a large, Spanish-speaking male knocked down the door at a house on Ironwood Road in Sterling, occupied by a woman in her early 70s. The man had a very large knife. He shouted at the woman “I am going to cut you to bits! I am going to cut you to bits!” He slashed her numerous times with the knife. He beat her, and forced her into a position where he was poised to rape her, but at the last moment suffered a “performance” problem and could not complete the act. He fled. The woman called 911, but by the time law enforcement showed up the attacker could not be found.

The neighborhood in which this incident occurred, in the area of Ironwood Road, Redwood Road, and Greenthorne Avenue, is one of the worst-hit in Sterling by illegal aliens. I have spent some time driving through the area over the past couple years and I can attest that it is terrible, with numerous residences displaying the signs of illegal flophouses, including screen doors propped open (signifies “rooms for rent”), lots of cars per residence, plenty of signs of MS-13 activity, and a generally crappy atmosphere. I am told by people familiar with zoning enforcement complaints that the area has been the subject of many overcrowding complaints sent to the completely non-functional Loudoun County Department of Building and Development (aka, the Black Hole), and, as we have established, it is apparently just another section designated for Loudoun County Government-sponsored blight.

From everything I have seen, submitting an overcrowding complaint from Sterling is pointless because Terry Wharton’s department gets paid to do absolutely nothing. Here’s an interesting question about Wharton’s “Department”: How much could we save if we just fire them all – and I mean all? Let’s have no “Department” and, on the rare occasion such a “Department” would actually need to do some work, we could hire subcontractors. It might not be perfect, but it also would not cost us any money to have sections of our neighborhood allowed to be cesspools. I mean, if cesspools are deemed necessary, then let’s not be paying the salaries of Loudoun County “zoning enforcement” staff. Not add insult to injury, as it were.

But while we can and should point fingers at Terry Wharton’s miserable farce of a government agency, and by extension we should ask what the hell our county supervisors and county administrator are doing by allowing the blight to fester here, and why the citizens have not yet marched with torches and pitchforks on all of the above, the biggest question of all is:

What is our Sheriff’s Office doing? Or rather, what are they NOT doing?

Or further: Who the hell is letting the LCSO get away with what they are getting away with?

I point you to below the fold – the “alert” helpfully provided by the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office. This is all the citizens have seen, and frankly the only citizens who have seen it are those who are on the e-mail list (I am not) and those who happen to read the report in whatever local paper happened to reprint the news release. It is a completely whitewashed version of the incident, which almost no one in Sterling will even get to read. It indicates the attacker “spoke with an accent.”

Hey, friends, that is a bit inaccurate. In fact, it attempts to erase from the incident report the basic fact the attacker was a Hispanic in an area where Hispanic criminals might well be considered a key problem in the neighborhood. It also tones down the severity of the attack.

Bottom line? In my view, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office is attempting to hide the facts of the incident.

In short, no one – no one official in Loudoun County – cares. What a fricking disgrace. Hey, friends: Maybe now you understand why we wanted Greg Ahlemann to be our Sheriff.

The neighborhood area beset by illegals, and a vicious sexual attack by a Hispanic male, are facts that are being swept under the rug. The LCSO is not doing ANY community outreach to warn the residents of Sterling Park. The local media are NOT investigating the incident – they never managed to get the info I have, which is hard to believe.

Why is the Loudoun County Government not conducting a major communications offensive to alert residents that they need to be on the watch for Hispanic males who may be trying to do home invasions? Why are the LCSO and “zoning enforcement” allowed to not do their jobs?

Our county government is broken. We need to fire all of them and start over again.
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Yes, my friends, just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water …

My supervisor speaks out:

Our town is outraged that they don’t get with the program.

What a great one-line summary of the problem in eastern Loudoun County.

Erica Garman spent the day wheeling around Sterling yesterday, read about it here.

In a singular demonstration of professional collegiality, Sterling District Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio and the woman he defeated for that office in the November 2007 election, Jeanne West, were the key spokespersons in the WUSA Channel 9 news report aired tonight at 11:00 pm. Both went on record to denounce zoning violations that have persisted in Sterling.

Click here to watch the video on the WUSA site.

The backdrop for the story was this scene at the intersection of Johnson and Beech – which is right across the street from Jeanne’s house – where digging equipment and cable for the Verizon FIOS installation project have been illegally stored on a neighborhood street.

It was quite a surprise to see Eugene and Jeanne as the co-subjects of the news piece, but I think the profusion of zoning violations in Sterling has brought us to the point that everyone in the community needs to come together to seek a solution. Congrats, and THANK YOU, to the two of them for finding this common ground.

The news story did not touch on whether this was the same equipment that had been parked across the street from MY house several weeks ago. In fact, I am not sure if they even mentioned Verizon by name. But it’s a good start to bringing public awareness to this problem, which I definitely plan to continue pursuing.

The video is priceless and quite flattering to both of these esteemed public figures.

I just got word that local television station WUSA 9 is filming in the neighborhoods of Sterling right now, focusing on blighted houses and Verizon equipment parked on our streets. The report will likely be aired on the late news tonight.

UPDATE: Heh. Here is what Channel 9 was filming.

Apparently a group of residents from neighboring houses came out to see the camera crew, and told them that there were indeed people working on the Verizon FIOS project living here.

This is around the corner from my house, about 1/4 mile away from “House A.” I wonder, now that everyone got kicked out of House A, if some of them just moved around the corner. I’m going to go by in a little while and see if any of the same trucks show up. In any case, it looks like the tactic is to just move the equipment to another street and hope nobody notices.

Being on the street, this violation should be addressed by the Sheriff’s Office, and hopefully someone will call it in or maybe some deputy will see tonight’s report. Then, it will be moved into a driveway, and it will be the Loudoun County zoning enforcement team’s turn to shine.

Ahem.

For those who are not caught up, here are my reports from

June 23

July 2.

In addition, here is my letter in today’s Independent:

Enforce the Zoning

I read with interest your front page story on “eastern Loudoun initiatives” under consideration by our Board of Supervisors. For residents of Sterling who wonder why our zoning laws have been so flagrantly abused the past few years, with overcrowded houses allowed to persist and commercial enterprises allowed to operate out of neighborhood homes, I may have found part of the answer.

I recently did some research as a result of a “problem house” on our street which, once again, Loudoun County Zoning refused to do anything about. I wrote a story detailing this case on June 23 at novatownhall.com. It turns out that the only member of the Loudoun County zoning enforcement team who speaks Spanish – and therefore, for obvious reasons, the point person for inspections of overcrowding and other complaints in Sterling – told a college publication last summer that in addition to working for Loudoun County, she is “continuing to help immigrants though part-time work for an immigration law firm.”

Of course, there is no stigma whatsoever in advocating for “immigrants” and every American should have the freedom to take civic action on matters he or she feels strongly about. But there seems to be a blatant and unconscionable conflict of interest when the one person who is supposed to be Sterling’s chief enforcement officer is also doing legal work on behalf of those so often involved in the alleged violations here.

Most Sterling residents who have attempted to file zoning violation complaints are familiar with the excuses the county’s zoning personnel give us for doing nothing, such as “Virginia’s laws are not strong enough” to allow more rigorous enforcement. But think about this: In the neighboring town of Herndon, when the new mayor and town council first took office in July, 2006, the town had nearly 90 cases of unresolved zoning violations. As of a couple months ago, that number was hovering between five and ten, because Herndon hired additional Spanish-speaking zoning inspectors, some on a part-time basis, with the charge to get the problem fixed.

It appears what is really lacking in Loudoun County is the will to enforce the zoning laws and, at least in regard to Sterling, our county government does not really want to fix the problems.

Maybe Loudoun County Administrator Kirby Bowers should make a phone call to Herndon Mayor Steve DeBenedittis. I am certain “Mayor Steve” would furnish some references of zoning inspectors who could bring an attitude adjustment to our Department of Building and Development.

Joe Budzinski
Sterling

[UPDATED BELOW]

Finally. Times reporter Jason Jacks provides a balanced treatment in this article.

The reporter for the Loudoun Times Mirror has a new report addressing the problems in Sterling – our community in the easternmost part of the county.

A Loudoun supervisor, known for being outspoken with respect to the issue of illegal immigration, is drawing criticism for comparing the district he represents to a sewage pit…

In the nearly eight years she’s lived in Sterling Park, Anne Lawver said her neighborhood has become dotted with boarding houses. Vandalism and litter are also common, she said, as are groups of Hispanic men who “hang about and shout at women driving or walking by.”

“Sadly, I have to agree with Mr. Delgaudio,” she said. “We still love Sterling but are deeply saddened to see it becoming a cesspool.”

Go read all of that.

Somehow they always seem to find an angle to criticize Eugene Delgaudio for what is wrong in Sterling, while also nailing him for SAYING what is wrong in Sterling. It puts our supervisor in sort of a no-win position.

What we need are more citizens speaking up about the situation in Sterling. Send an e-mail to the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors at the following e-mail address:

bos@loudoun.gov

… if you have an opinion on how to fix the problems in our community.

UPDATE: Well, the fecklessness of our Zoning Administration division and – apart from Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio – the Board of Supervisors’ failure to even recognize the problem, is indeed causing a brewing tempest in eastern Loudoun. Following on my June 23 post about a case in point, here is coverage in today’s Examiner.

The problem has been building for years, but up until recently the citizens of Sterling have been relatively mute. Now, I think enough people are realizing that something is seriously wrong, and our supervisor has been making public statements on the problem, picked up by local media, which are galvanizing public opinion, or providing a focal point for public opinion. Judging by the blithe, head-in-the-sand attitude of the other eight supervisors, however, I think it is going to take a mob with torches and pitchforks marching down Harrison Street before anything gets fixed. With the August break approaching, my prediction is they sweep this under the rug and hope we all shut up and go away by September.

UPDATE II: Un-frickin’-believable. ACTivist just informed us that Juanita Toriello – the zoning “inspector” I opined is a major reason zoning enforcement is nonexistent in Sterling – recently checked back in on one of the longstanding “problem houses” on my street (this would have been “House B” mentioned in the June 23 post), with a reported “apologetic tone” to one of our neighbors who filed the initial complaints long ago. This was a house where the owner moved to another part of the county and turned the residence into a boarding house, which at one time had a family upstairs and up to 23 people living in the downstairs, which also had a kitchen illegally installed. Originally, Juanita “inspected” and found no violations except the stove, which she reported would be removed (it never was). So now, perhaps as a result of recent public discussion, Zoning Administration decided to do an actual inspection and guess what: Everyone moved out.

If this indicates the beginning of a trend – namely, Zoning Administration doing its job in Sterling – it will make a HUGE difference. Now, let’s just consider what might have happened if Zoning had been doing its job all along. For starters, by having the laws on the books enforced the residents of Sterling would have enjoyed the quality of life the local government was supposed to be already facilitating. As I explained in the June 23 post, removing the flophouse piece of the illegal employment structure would have dealt a fatal blow to the whole house of cards. If the workers could not be boarded cheaply (and illegally) the corrupt businesses would have had to either start hiring legally or moved somewhere else or found another solution like building their own bunkhouses. I guarantee you Help Save Loudoun would have never been formed, the entire “illegal immigration” controversy of 2007 would not have arisen, and a whole bunch of people who moved out of Sterling Park would still be living here … all as a result of one county agency doing what it was supposed to have been doing.

Thus far this is hearsay and only one house, so we’ll have to wait before declaring any major problems solved, but if more Sterling residents realize how they have been getting the short end of the stick from the county government, it just may be torches-and-pitchforks time.