Sitting front and center in the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors chamber around 10:20 p.m. on Sept. 18, Scott York quickly glanced up in the direction of a clock 20 or so feet in front of him. He flashed something of a reserved grin.
York, the board chairman, had a point to make. He would make it carefully, yet deliberately.
“I wanna make comment, and I gotta do it in a very sensitive way, as to make sure I offend a blogger,” York said during the portion of the meeting reserved for supervisors’ business disclosures and general comments.
The chairman’s late-night opening quickly drew chuckles from a number of his colleagues at the dais.
Blogs can serve as a useful tools, York continued. For instance, a homeowner’s association can post essential information for its residents.
“But the unfortunate side and the dark side of the Internet is people who hide behind undisclosed names, and put out anything they want to. And don’t care about the accuracy … and downright lie,” York said.
He then went into a five-minute affront of an unnamed blog that questioned the board’s motivations in allocating $50,000 of county funds toward the Greater Loudoun Babe Ruth (GLBR) youth baseball organization.
“I’m not going to call out this blogger by name, nor their site, because they’re not worth the promotion; but I will say, if they’re listening, because they know who they are, shame on you,” he said.
When asked Sept. 23 what blog the chairman was referencing, York’s office didn’t provide an official comment.
Given York’s statement, however, he could well have been commenting on a Sept. 13 post on the anonymous blog Realloudoun.com titled, “There’s always 50 grand for our friends.”
The “50 grand” post implies the all-Republican Board of Supervisors pledged the funds more as a favor for former board chairwoman Dale Polen Myers than as a real investment in tourism.
York clearly wanted to dismiss any such notion. He publicly balked at the idea the board would be shelling out money primarily for the benefit of Myers. Although Myers and he were both Republicans when they served on the board in the late 1990’s, the two often bumped heads and rarely agreed on any issues facing the county.
“Now if anybody knows the history of Dale Polen Myers and Scott York,” York said, referencing himself in the third person, “one will know we’re not buddies. And that’s just plain fact, we never agreed politically. But I will say this about Dale Polen Myers: you cannot find a better advocate for children and sports in this community.
“She has done a wonderful job in providing a very useful service to the community.”
An excerpt of the Sept. 13 post on Realloudoun.com reads:
“Without batting a collective eye, our extremely businesslike all-Republican Loudoun Board of Supervisors last week voted 8-0 (Supervisor Suzanne Volpe AWOL) to hand 50,000 smackers of your tax dollars to Greater Loudoun Babe Ruth World Series, Inc.
“This extremely needy organization will be holding in Purcellville next year one of the multiple “world series” (very loose term) that the Babe Ruth Baseball League holds every year, and since the local hosting organization is required to hand over 50,000 smackers as a “fee” directly to Babe Ruth Baseball League to cover its vast administrative costs, it’s of course only reasonable that your local government should spring for it.
That, and the fact that the president of Greater Loudoun Babe Ruth, Inc., is none other than Dale Polen Myers, extremely well connected Republican machine puller ...”
While the blog labels Myers as president of the GLBR, the baseball organization’s official website does not list her as president or anywhere else in the contact list.
Realloudoun.com offers its readers no chance to comment or contact its blogger or bloggers. But, according to a WHOIS search – a utility used to look up information on domain names – Realloudoun.com is registered to Stephen Budiansky of Leesburg.
Budiansky, a veteran writer and author, did not respond to an email for comment as of 8 p.m. Sept. 25.
In his statement, York accused the blogger of lying simply because he or she has a grudge.
It’s unfortunate, the chairman said, that somebody has “some bug in their bonnet that they don’t like certain people and choose to lie about something on the blogs.”
For the $50,000 Loudoun County grants to the GLBR organization, York said the county realizes a more than $2 million return on investment from a tourism standpoint. He voiced his belief that the funding toward the tournament is one of the county’s most worthwhile expenditures.
“Luckily we have bloggers who expose this.”
And luckily, we have blogs that expose these lying bloggers for what they really are…desperate, attention hounds of figures without ANYTHING else redeeming going on in their in their lives.
Lots more “look at me” than news when you know the actual truth.
@Barbara, Yeah, we really believe any politician that claiims where the money came from and where it should go($50K only came from tourists). Does the Dulles Toll Road ring a bell????? We were told that would go away once it was paid for….
“I’m sorry to see it cost us taxpayers $50K to make this discovery”
mephisto, do you live in a motel? That’s the only way you’d have contributed tax revenue toward the funds used here, because it is TOT/Transient Occupancy Tax, levied ONLY on overnight stays in the county in hotels, motels, etc, which may ONLY be used to promote tourism/tourist related activity…for example, like the Babe Ruth Tournament.
This is precisely what is wrong with the “real”—they rely on inflaming the poorly informed or the uninformed with incomplete or outright incorrect information.
As York said, he would be the LAST person to give Dale money (as if that’s where it goes—shame on the clowns calling themselves “real”), and props to him to have the decency to acknowledge her years of volunteering for youth sports.
Real discussion from real people in Loudoun County? That’s why we we have Electorate.Me (www.Electorate.Me).
Thank you Scott York for alerting me to this excellent blog.
I’m sorry to see it cost us taxpayers $50K to make this discovery.
I know some say this is some sort of hush money payment (Scott and Dale go back to a time when selling out Loudoun to developers was kinda new) but I won’t believe that unless or until I see it in the particulars of a specific indictment.
Guess old Budiansky should have gotten his domain via hover.com (where whois privacy isn’t an extra charge).
RealLoudoun actually exposes the fraud of this BoS.
The Loudoun GOP on the Board of Supervisors appear to have a 10 year plan and we are in decade #2:
-Elect All GOP Board
-Let Developers run wild in County with plenty of kickbacks for the supervisors causing rapid growth with not enough money for schools to handle growth
-Cut School budget and blame budget shortfalls
-Supervisors get caught in their corruption
-Voters vote them out of office
-Next election, GOP tells voters the Democrats will tax too much. Voters have amnesia.
-Voters vote GOP back into power
-GOP/Developer Corruption and kickbacks continue
Luckily we have bloggers who expose this.
I think you meant ALLEDGEDLY abusing taxpayer dollars, CRETIN. Just like all of your other dreams that turn into YOUR reality (but have little to do with THE REST OF US’ reality) and you feel compelled to join situation A with situation F and just create a fictional short story on why they’re related.
Delgaudio didn’t do anything that every other politician doesn’t do. Dan Scandling for instance. He’s Wolf’s chief of staff and he runs the campaign. Does anyone think he’s not making fundraising appointments from the office? duh. There’s nothing illegal about that, just as Delgaudio did nothing illegal. Some little fired staffer is angry and the Post is more than happy to write about it, just before an election. Loudoun Insider is another little angry guy because he sees his source in York’s office drying up and blowing away. Boo hoo. Maybe now that there’s no source to protect he’ll be able to write something critical about the Chairman who forced metro on us. That scheme is costing over a BILLION, what Eugene did cost us nothing. Do the math and point the finger where it really belongs.
I bet Dick black was the blogger….Wow, a politician worried about what was written in a blog….Are you kidding me, Scott York. What about all the politicians that lie and are corrupt while in office. If you have problem with what someone wrote about you, feel free to step down. I’m sure the rest of Loudoun would sleep better without you as a BOS.
Not a peep from the LCRC bigwigs on Eugene Delgaudio abusing taxpayer dollars, but lots of griping about bloggers and free speech. Typical LCRC cretin behavior.
Scott York needs to look a little closer to home for who is feeding information to the bloggers in Loudoun who care the least about the truth, Loudoun Insider and his bff, Steve Budiansky. Chairman York, the fault lies not within the stars but within YOUR office. Ask around.
Well, now…. that chicken has come home to roost, after all.
The dirtier secret is who “real” Loudoun was designed to offer as a parachute once that blogger is homeless. It’s why he “pimps” it with such frequency.
Truth is, after the next blog presence fails, we’ll be done with both of these liars. Their latest story is always a grudge against someone….and has very little to do with the truth…..as much as they tout themselves as insiders.
York continues to show what an amatuer he is. It is a blog, get over it. Focus on something that matters.
Why do people continue to vote for these guys?
If York is having this much of an issue with an internet blogger, then I guess I can take comfort in knowing his polical carrer will never ascend past the Loudoun County Board.
Where is the story about Delgaudio and the lawsuit against him for using county funds to run his own private fund raising?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/for-loudoun-supervisor-eugene-delgaudio-blurred-lines-on-fundraising/2012/09/25/2ec1e206-eca7-11e1-a80b-9f898562d010_story.html
SinceTrevor Baratko did not bother to do so, I will give you the connection. Dale Polen Meyers is a past president of the Greater Loudoun Babe Ruth League. She was the Host President of the 2010 14 Year-Old Babe Ruth Baseball World Series here in Loudoun County.
Source: http://baberuthonline.com/home/worldseries/includes/locations/loudoun_county.html, s
“real"loudoun remains confused (and angry) about a lot of things, most notably use of TOT taxes, and their contiuing fiction that rolling back the extra restrictions placed on certain retail uses IN COMMERCIAL ZONING means WalMart can build by-right anywhere in the county, including RIGHT NEXT TO YOU!!!!!!
The current banner purports to say what is “really” going on in Loudoun—perhaps in that alternative universe known as “the reality based world”?—but the original one was much better: “crooks, liars and dirty politics”.
Pretty much covered the content, and the motivations, at least IMO.
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