Supervisors angry over neighborhood strike-team squeeze

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Fairfax supervisors were outraged Monday that no new money would go to a “strike team” that targets neighborhood blight and overcrowding, a major county initiative bedeviled by lack of funding.

Of all the belt-tightening measures in County Executive Anthony Griffin’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year, the flat funding for the strike team was the only one to draw a broad backlash from the board, whose members argued the strike team’s expansion is essential. Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay, whose predecessor, Dana Kauffman fought hard for the strike team’s creation, said he would not support a budget that didn’t include new money for it. He pointed to the spike in foreclosures — which grew more than seven-fold in 2007 over the previous year — that will leave behind a rash of vacant and neglected property.

“The increase in foreclosures ties directly into what the strike team is doing,” he said. “We’re probably 10 to 15 years behind addressing this problem.”

As of late last week, the strike team had closed 61 cases of code violations and had sent 35 cases for criminal prosecution and 41 for civil action since its inception last year, according to information provided by the county. Supervisors began griping months ago that the team was understaffed and underfunded, but Griffin’s proposed budget offered nothing to remedy that problem in light of flat revenue and other budget pressures. Adding $1 million to the strike team would allow the county to add 10 staff members, Griffin said.

“In essence, we will have to give up something else in the budget to do that,” he said.

wflook@dcexaminer.com

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