Culpeper County, Virginia

From Sunshine Review

Budget Meetings Elected Officials Administrative Officials Permits, zoning Audits Contracts Lobbying Public records Local taxes

Culpeper County is one of 95 counties in Virginia. According to the 2000 Census, the population was 34,262.

[edit] Website evaluation

Main article: Evaluation of Virginia county websites

[edit] The good

• Names and contact information for county board members are posted.^[1]

• Names and contact information about county administrative officials are available on the individual departments' web pages.^[2]

• Budgets and audited annual financial reports are provided for current and previous years.^[3]

• Building inspections can be requested and their status checked online.^[4]

• Current solicitations for bids and a listing of awarded contracts are posted online.^[5]

• County taxes can be paid online.^[6]

• The website includes a link^[7] to the National Association of Counties, which lists the county as a member^[8].

[edit] The bad

• Term expiration dates are not listed for all county board members.

• County board meeting minutes^[9] and agendas^[10] for current and previous years are posted but appear incomplete.

• A form for FOIA requests^[11] is available, but there appears to be no record of the county's FOIA compliance.

• The website does not include a link to the Virginia Association of Counties, which lists the county as a member.^[12]

[edit] Lobbying

Main article: Virginia taxpayer-funded lobbying

In 2004, Culpeper County was hoping to build a local sports complex when it was approached by a representative of Alcalde and Fay, a Northern Virginia lobbying group, with a plan of gaining the necessary funds for the $3.5 million sports complex by tying it to a federal appropriation bills.^[13] The agreement between the county and the firm came at a total of $90,000 over an 18-month contract. This comes down to selling federal taxpayer money for just 2.6 cents on the dollar. ^[13]

[edit] External links

Culpeper County

• Culpeper County Website
• Culpeper County Chamber of Commerce
• Culpeper County Tourism Department
• Culpeper County on e-Reference
• Culpeper County on US Census

[edit] References

	v • d • e State of Virginia Richmond (capital)
Transparency	Freedom of Information Act | Transparency Checklist | Government corruption reports | Transparency Legislation | Open Records procedures | Transparency Advocates | Transparency blogs | State budget | Taxpayer-funded lobbying associations |
Divisions	State | List of Counties | List of Cities | List of Towns | List of School Districts | Evaluation of county websites | Evaluation of city websites | Evaluation of township websites | Evaluation of school district websites |
Government	Virginia State Constitution | Executive | House of Representatives | Senate |
Judiciary	Virginia Supreme Court | Court of Appeals | Circuit Court | Judicial nomination process | Judicial news | Judicial activist organizations |
Ballot Measures	Ballot measures | Amending the constitution | History of direct democracy | Campaign finance requirements |