A chastened Supervisor
E. Delgaudio listening to the public demanding his censure (photo J. Flannery)
Sterling Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio lost his
ever-present orange hat, his open smile, his false swagger and his law suit
when he tried to prevent the Board of Supervisor from having a hearing last
Wednesday on what Mr. Delgaudio did or did not do to abuse staff and misuse and
mingle County resources with his gay-bashing hate group and his campaign fund-raising
activities.
Mr. Delgaudio said he wanted to know before last
Wednesday’s meeting what the Board’s specific charges were.
The Board listed five charges, with the help of Board
Member, Mr. Shawn M. Williams, drawing principally upon the 8-page statement
filed by Ms. Donna Mateer, a former staffer (submitted last March)(that Mr.
Delgaudio has had ever since), and the recent critical grand jury report (June
24, 2013)(that didn’t indict but did plainly identify various kinds of official
misconduct by Mr. Delgaudio).
Mr. Delgaudio wanted an opportunity to respond.
Chairman Scott York called the Board into a
Committee of the Whole in public so that Mr. Delgaudio could.
When given the opportunity, Mr Delgaudio lost his
voice.
Mr. Delgaudio carped, sniveled and complained that
he needed more time.
Mr. Delgaudio said his attorney had written a
refutation of the grand jury report’s charges.
Ms. Volpe said, why wasn’t it submitted to the Board? Mr. Delgaudio gave an unresponsive statement
and that that it was on-line. Mr. Matthew
F. Letorneau went online during the hearing and found the statement that Mr.
Delgaudio’s counsel issued and said it was no “refutation” as characterized by
Mr. Delgaudio. Mr. Letorneau nevertheless
invited Mr. Delgaudio to read this statement into the record. Mr. Delgaudio declined.
Chairman Scott York responded in the most direct
fashion, saying, “Enough is enough.”
Before the formal hearing began, several members of
the public urged the Board not to let Mr. Delgaudio bully them.
One of Mr. Delgaudio’s die-hard partisans, Greg
Stone, suggested that the Board was missing “the clues,” how this was a
“political vendetta,” and he directed the Board to get its “poop in a group”
(sic), prompting an uncomfortable silence.
Patti Maslinoff, from Leesburg, told the Board she
had come from a “medical procedure,” exhausted, because she wanted to tell the
Board how important it is “to live in a County where the government maintains
high standards of ethics and expects our public officials to devote themselves to
the public good and not to their private interests.”
Matthew Gallelli, from the Blue Ridge District, sang
a country song for his two minutes, based on a Bonnie Raitti original, “Yes
baby, I’ve been fund raisin’, got some donations from unknown friends,” finishing
his performance with the phrase, “It takes a whole lotta money, darling, to
make believe that I’m somebody else.”
Mr. Delgaudio has surely been “making believe” he
was “somebody else,” manipulating his public trust to serve his private
interests.
Six members of the Board rightly concluded this was
no partisan problem, and they reviewed in some detail Mr. Delgaudio’s failures
as a public servant. Mr. Ken Reid asked
Mr. Delgaudio why he’d never showed any contrition. Mr. Delgaudio couldn’t find
his voice. Mr. Ralph Buona said he was tired
of seeing newspapers with Mr. Delgaudio’s name and picture on the front page detailing
his misconduct while Mr. Buona was working so hard to do right by the County. Several members said about the same thing.
Two members, Gerry Higgins and Janet Clarke, made
efforts to delay the proceedings, even to obstruct the discipline that the
Board ultimately imposed on Mr. Delgaudio.
In the end, the Board said in quite unambiguous
terms that Mr. Delgaudio should be censured, lose his committee assignments,
his staff aides, and budgetary control except for modest expenses. And that’s what the Board did, with Mr
Higgins and Ms. Clarke, the odd persons out on the final vote to take away Mr.
Delgaudio’s budget control, notwithstanding the findings of the grand jury he
had misapplied the County’s funds..
Chairman York said the Board afforded Mr. Delgaudio the
time to respond, and he refused to speak, threatening the Board instead, and serving
subpoenas on the Board members.
Mr. York told Mr. Delgaudio he had crossed the ethical
line, and had only himself to blame for the discipline he received.
What we can expect next is the citizens of Sterling to
file their petition with the Loudoun County Circuit Court to remove Mr. Delgaudio
from office.
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