Dear Editor:
The Nov. 26 edition of the Post reported the awarding of “bonuses” up to $1,500 to county employees including the administrator and county attorney. Thank you for the exposé.
Given these challenging times for all Accomack County citizens, including faltering employment and inflation, would not one think that the $320,000 selectively awarded to county employees should be returned to all registered voting citizens of Accomack County? After all, most of that money came from federal COVID-19 compensation, and don’t we all pay taxes, to both the county and federal government?
Return of that money could be up to $30 or $40 per county family, and once made aware to all, there is NO reason for that collective sum to be targeted to simply county government employees who experienced no threat to their employment whatsoever, while the productive private sector has suffered. This, of course, being a local example of the cupidity of government nationally.
It seems our county supervisors who approved these “bonuses” to their familiar county servants think that money is their money. Just as in the Washington, D.C., “swamp,” our elected officials disregard, and even mistrust, the wider voting constituents for whom they supposedly work and subconsciously or otherwise award their everyday favorite.
Furthermore, a year or more previously, during the height of the pandemic theater, the same county supervisors voted a 5%(?) pay raise to county employees while their wider constituency endured. This for (government) employees with virtually no risk of income loss. With a number of other differences I do thank the Post for front-paging this misdirection of our local government; it behooves all of us in the county to constantly scrutinize the neglect and arrogance, conscious or not, of our elected officials.
John C. Schneider
New Church
