Social service cuts called into question

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. -- Of top concern to the speakers at Monday’s hour-long public hearing on the Prince William County proposed fiscal 2011 budget was across-the-board cuts to social service agencies, particularly SERVE and ACTS.

The agencies, which provide assistance for homeless and at-risk adults and juveniles, face 15 percent budget cuts for the upcoming year, the same as other departments within Prince William. On Monday night at the McCoart Administratoin Building, more than a dozen members of the public decried these proposed budget changes, however. Some were current and former residents of the transitional housing provided by SERVE; others were case workers, social service board members or otherwise affiliates of the departments.

“If you cut back the funding of the SERVE shelter, you cut back the hope and people’s dreams,” according to the written statement of one supporter of full funding, a 38-year-old shelter resident who faces dialysis treatments in the coming weeks.

One Woodbridge resident, meanwhile, criticized the Board of Supervisors for advertising a tax rate of $1.236 – which means the adopted rate can lawfully go no higher – solely because that level brings cuts upon social service agencies.

“Prince William County used to mean people who cared,” she said. “I think it’s terrible you advertised such a low rate. I don’t think it’s a badge of honor.”

By and large, the harshest comments came from two long-time county residents – Greg Reynolds, who claimed 27 prior budget addresses to the board, and on-again, off-again dying and homeless veteran Danny “J.D.” Glass.

Last year, Glass was on his death bed, due in part to years of alcoholism, and was being aided by friends in the social service network. But he’s been making steady recovery since June, he said, and now finds the board’s considered cuts to the housing shelter a societal wrong that demands righting.

“Congratulations on being the 14th wealthiest county in the United States,” Glass said, in reference to recent national rankings that were widely published. “[Former friend] Donnie would have been proud, but Donnie’s not here right now because Donnie’s dead. Donnie froze to death in his sleep on Christmas day in 1999. I know because he did it right in front of me.”

The county has no moral authority to cut social services when it’s ranked so high on the wealth scale, Glass said.

“Everybody’s going home to their fancy houses, families. More power to you,” he said. “There’re people out here dying around you. It’s time to get on the stick and do something. I’m holding you accountable for that.”

Reynolds, equally blunt, nonetheless saw politics rather than money as the driving force behind the county’s pressing budget cuts.

“You’re moving our community in the wrong direction,” he said, to the board. “Week after week, you pretend to listen to the invocation … and then [form policy based on] your selfish Republican agenda to try and motivate your base. Nothing is more dangerous than a politician abusing his or her office for personal gain.”

Reynolds, who said he was a 40-year resident of the county, also criticized the board for creating an atmosphere of unprecedented “divisiveness,” as well as bringing forth a “paltry budget” and passing “racist resolutions that made Prince William County ground zero for the foreclosure crisis that cost this community.”

An earlier speaker, on the other hand – George Kerr, a leading official with an adult literacy agency in the county -- had praised the board for implementing a “rule-of-law” policy that rooted out illegal immigrants in the community who were “hiding among legals and creating a ghetto environment,” he said.

Ostensibly, both Reynolds and Kerr were speaking of the county’s partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities, called the 287(g) program, to process and remove illegal aliens who commit crimes through the federal system.

Kerr’s comments came on the heels of his request for the county to continue to support adult literacy programs.

The board is due to vote on the fiscal 2011 plan on April 27. A second public hearing is scheduled for April 12 at 7:30 p.m., also at the McCoart building. Residents may watch the proceedings live and taped at the county’s government Web site, or on Comcast and Verizon cable.

Staff writer Cheryl Chumley can be reached at 703-530-3903.