Christmas in Virginia Beach:
Guess who got the coal mine and who got the shaft?

City employees have been told that for the first time, there'll be no bonuses for Christmas.  Not even a chunk of coal in their stockings.  They do get an extra 1.5 days off with pay instead of a bonus.  But Sears and other retailers said they were prohibited by company policy from accepting paid days off for washers, dryers, furniture, or even clothing.  

Christmas Poem without any cheer; Read it, weep and cry in your beer!

'Twas the time before Christmas and all through the city,
Jim Spore, the council, and their friends were giddy.

They smiled, giggled, and shouted with glee.
With the city as your partner, development money is like free!

You come in with a plan, walk out with the money,
And every week as the plans change, they call it a honey!

But we all know the dirty little secrets how they use our money, 
Spending it faster than the drum-beating little pink bunny.

The developers of the town center that nobody wanted,
Except the circus pitch men and their crowd of little elves.

With plans less stable than quicksand in a movie,
They asked for more garages and the council said, "Groovy."

For subsidized housing we'll all be town center slaves,
And next on Haddad's Xmas list we finance the Taliban caves.

Merry Christmas from Spore, et al!

So...Bah Humbug city employees.  You are no longer important.  In fact, the city thinks you are not worthy of any special compensation for your hard work, dedication, and loyalty.  Instead the money you would have gotten has been paid by the city to shore up deals with convicts, companies under investigation, and aid one guy who left two public jobs after sexual harassment allegations were made against him.  And every other fly-by-night scheme snake oil salesmen could get Jim Spore to look at.

For example, lest you forget.  The city sold one piece of public property to a company for $1.5 million $4.5 million less than the city had paid for it.   The company was supposed to build an office complex that would attract high paying jobs (don't they all say that?) starting in June.  No construction has started to date.  Forget that Christmas present.

The city has spend 10s of $1,000s of dollars to try to launch the development careers of two ex-convicts wanting to build a 4-star luxury Marriott Hotel at 31st Street.  Forget that Christmas present.  But wait?  Will Jim Spore get the council to use the employees retirement fund and taxpayer dollars in lieu of the franchise to launch the project?  Don't bet against Spore on this one.  He's in too deep to get out.

And watch out for the project at the so-called Town Center.  You won't believe how much money and how little benefit the citizens will get from this subsidized housing development.  Given without competitive bidding to a company acknowledged to be (maybe still is) under federal investigation, the plans seems to change quicker than the council can read the "Memorandums of Misunderstanding" which vary from week to week.  The concept of this project is less stable than quicksand.  Forget that Christmas present. 

In fact, forget all the Christmas presents if you are a city employee or law abiding citizen, Spore's Follies have seen to it, there's nothing in the stocking for you this year.

For a merrier Christmas next time:

Pass it on!  Email this to all your friends and anyone you know who works for the city.  Tell everyone you know. Report government fraud, waste and abuse to Virginia News Source.  

We will treat all communications confidentially.  We'll never tell anyone by whom we've been contacted.  

We may not be able to stop the fraud, waste, and abuse, but we will expose it and let the citizens have a shot at it on election day.  

Call 757-340-4686 or email deepthroat@virginianewssource.com

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