March to a Different Drummer

The Sheriff’s office pulls a bunch of inmates out of the county lockup and brings them over to the house of a relative of the Sheriff’s to clean up the yard and carry away loads of trash. Sound like something out of “The Dukes of Hazzard” or “Porky’s” ? Actually it was the fairly recent practice in Chesterfield County, or so alleges Perry DeMay, candidate for Sheriff of Chesterfield County. He alleges that. In violation of state law, On February 1, 2000, the Sheriff’s inmate work force performed work at Sheriff Clarence Guy Williams’ Jr. cousin’s house. 
 • A fallen tree was cutup and removed
 • Snow was cleared from entrances to the house. 
 • Salt was applied to walkways. 
 • Three loads of brush were taken to the county landfill
 • Sheriff’s Office trucks transported the brush This is a clear violation of the laws of our Commonwealth and the trust of the citizens of Chesterfield County. The Sheriff’s Office does not perform these services for all of their county taxpayer’s. There

Full Disclosure: I have challenged all 13 candidates for Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors to take an online test that can help inform county voters on 6 November as to where they fit on the political landscape. If you are a voter, I would challenge you to also take this test – here is the LINK . I don’t pretend that this should be determinative. But I do think it is informative, and that participation in this exercise will be informative in itself. Following is the message I sent to the candidates and if you are an eligible voter in the county, I suggest you encourage your local district candidates to participate. Results will be published here prior to the election. --- Hello, My name is Bill Garnett and I write a blog that, among other topics, often explores aspects of Chesterfield County politics. Recently I sent out a test questionnaire to the 13 candidates for the five board of supervisor positions up for grabs on 6 November – I only received back responses from four

Chesterfield County nestled in the bosom of the James River, bedroom community for Richmond City commuters, and a patchwork quilt of public soccer fields and shopping malls and . . . well, not really much else. It’s a sleepy contented sort of place, blighted to the east by the gradual crawl of lower class whites, blacks and Hispanics, that nudge their middle and upper class white neighbors to leap frog again and again further west into the once verdant county, and now leaping all the way into Amelia and Powhatan. This slow motion generational immigration west is prompted by the encroaching deterioration of neighborhoods, increased crime, and neglect of the schools, that even to a stalwart resident would omen the depreciation of his property’s value. No one expects anything better, the county has long been lulled by the mesmerizing tunes sung by their self perpetuating Protestant deacons and their inept and embarrassingly corrupt and ineffective politicians who feed at the trough of t