Prince William County chairman goes over budget

Prince William County, Va. - Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart was $7,500 over his office budget the past year.

According to Stewart, a change in benefits for one of his staffers, as well as a necessary salary increase for another, necessitated the increase in spending during the fiscal year. Stewart, who had a $230,556 budget in fiscal 2010, employs three staff aides -- one of whom received a $15,000 bump in salary.

When those changes occur mid-year, they have to be addressed during the recent carryover budget process or in the next year's budget cycle, stated Stewart in an e-mail Friday.

Although his budget is not the largest among supervisors, Stewart was the only supervisor who went over budget last year and the only one who employs three full-time staff aides.

The other seven employ two full-time aides. Last year, Maureen S. Caddigan, D-Dumfries, and John D. Jenkins, D-Neabsco, had the largest supervisor budgets with $247,470 and $245,431, respectively.

John T. Stirrup, Jr., R-Gainesville, had the smallest budget with $220,992.

There has been strong support from some of the board members in recent years for having a larger staff to deal with an increasing county population. During its meeting Aug. 3, the board voted 5 to 3 to add $712,000 of carryover money from the 2010 general fund into respective supervisors' budgets for 2011.

That breaks down to roughly $89,000 per office. This decision, which was done to eventually add a third position to each board member's staff, should have been included in the 2011 budget process this spring but was accidentally omitted by county staff, said county spokesman Jason Grant.

Because of his responsibility as chairman of the entire county, Stewart said there is a tremendous need for his office to have three full-time staffers. As chairman, Stewart said his workload has dramatically increased from the days when he was Occoquan District supervisor.

"My staff went from working regular work days to consistently working 12 hour days and some weekends," Stewart stated.

Stewart's staff consists of an office manager, a policy advisor/media coordinator and a staff assistant.

Stewart stated he also has to make due with the same amount of money for postage, office supplies and other expenditures "when we have many more citizens to serve."

"My staff must also handle citizens that are occasionally disgruntled with their district supervisor or feel that their needs have not been addressed," Stewart stated. "There may be an office or two that should consider beefing up their staff. At the end of the day, it really comes down to how each office chooses to use these funds."

Supervisor staffer's salaries range from $40,000 to $66,000 a year.

Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-530-3904.

Please include this list as a breakout box:

Below are the 2010 fiscal budgets for the Prince William Board of Supervisors:

Brentsville District $230,648

Coles District $235,309

Dumfries District $247,470

Gainesville District $220,992

Neabsco District $245,431

Occoquan District $222,964

Woodbridge District $240,831

Chairman $230,556