Vote yes on the referendum
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George Adamson
Published: October 27, 2008
My name is George Adamson. I am the elected treasurer of the City of Manassas Park and will be retiring on Dec. 1.
From my experience in the office, I realized that the interests of the citizens would be better served in the future with a different system of choosing a treasurer. I brought forth the referendum that will be
on the city ballot on Nov. 4.
As indicated, I am retiring. I have nothing personal or professional to gain from successful passage of the referendum except the knowledge that the office will retain its stability, efficiency and
effectiveness.
The treasurer is responsible for the collection, investment and accounting of all of the city funds — basically millions of dollars each year.
A person with a degree in economics, finance or accounting, plus experience with budgets, personnel management and computers, is a necessity for this position. Moreover, the person must have the
attention to detail and oversight mandated by managing millions of dollars.
In the five years prior to my election in 2004, the city had six treasurers. Since I have been treasurer, the office has become sufficiently staffed to do the job, responsive to the citizens and it treats all
customers with the same level of fairness.
Office functions have been upgraded and computerized. Bills have been sent in a timely fashion and collections of personal property tax and real estate tax now exceed the 97th percentage mark.
An elected treasurer is a constitutional officer and, as such, a state officer. The state though does not fully fund the treasurer’s office. In this present budget year, the commonwealth supplied 19 percent
of the treasurer’s office budget while Manassas Park funded 81 percent. We will get more bang for our buck with a city staff treasurer.
Locally, Prince William County, Fairfax County and the City of Alexandria have abolished the elected treasurer in their jurisdictions. I urge the voters of Manassas Park to vote yes for the referendum on
Election Day.
GEORGE ADAMSON
Manassas Park
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Posted by ( Posts as Pinko ) on October 28, 2008 at 9:08 am
Dmurphy, the League of Women Voters has distributed “What’s on the Ballot” and a Voters’ Guide which you can find here: http://www.lwv-va.org/pwc.html
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Posted by ( Dmurphy ) on October 28, 2008 at 6:03 am
It’s interesting that the outgoing City Treasurer would support a cdhange in the City Charter to eliminate the elected office he held and make it a city position, subject to the whims and desires of the City Council. What’s more interesting is that the City Council had to hire a temp agency to circulate this petition and still had to have the City Manager and a couple of City clerks solicit signatures while on the clock to get enough interest to have this referendum. I have asked several times why we need to replace a Constitutional Officer with a paid city employee and I keep getting told that the city doesn’t have a resident qualified for the job. Or that it is a matter of “best business practices”. I asked why a political message from the Treasurer could be posted on a tax supported City web site and was told that a change in the City Charter was not considered a “political” decision. Mind you, the people I was asking these questions of were members of the City Council and the Mayor.
If the State currently provides 18% of the Treasurers Office budget, where are you going to get it when the City has to pay all of it. Loose a Police Officer, Fireman, Teacher or two public works workers? Maybe you can just raises the taxes a penny more. How about floating another bond? Thanks to the current Mayor and City Council members this City is deep in debt now, we can’t afford any more.
One last thing, I would like to thank the Journal Messenger for all the investigative reports they have published on this issue. If you depended on this newpaper to hear anything about it, you wouldn’t even know it was on the ballot.
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