Government: Warren County, Virginia
Body: Board of Supervisors
Date: April 14, 2026, 6:00 PM
Location: Warren County High School
Type: Public Comment
Timestamps: 00:17:14, 01:10:08
Durations: 01:11, 03:03
I hadn’t been inside the Warren County High School gymnasium before.
I’ve been to the cafeteria a few times for the Kiwanis pancake breakfast every first Saturday of December, but this was something different. Walking in, the scale of the place stood out immediately—wide, open hallways stretching two stories tall, with water fountains you couldn’t even use unless you had a cup. It felt less like a school and more like a venue preparing for something larger.
As I got closer, I passed a sheriff’s officer and mentioned I had heard his father was sick. I told him I’d be praying for him. Then I signed up for public comment for all of the hearings that evening.
Before entering the auditorium, there was a small room with a circular desk and the Deputy County Administrator standing in the center. Everyone passed through there. They were handing out new trifold brochures about the budget. I hadn’t seen those before. They had less detail than the public notice, but included a pie chart on the back. I found myself wondering whether the County printed and folded those in-house or had to send them out.
Then I stepped into the auditorium.
It was huge.
As I walked in, I realized the seating extended further behind me than I expected. People were spread out, mostly clustered near the main entrance area. I spoke with a few folks, joked with the Interim County Administrator that he needed to intend his puns—especially after the FY27 budget referenced using “rainy day funds, no pun intended” for roof repairs. He laughed and said at this point, it’s more like hurricane funds.
There were two microphones set up at the ends of the aisles near the stage. The first two rows were taped off, so I grabbed an aisle seat close to a mic to save myself the walk.
I saw Roger from the Royal Examiner taking photos and snapped one myself, joking that I was “reporting the reporting.” A camera with a deadcat mic was set up nearby, and the guy behind it looked familiar—turned out he was with Breitbart. Another reporter from the NV Daily sat just ahead of me.
Despite expectations of a large crowd, it didn’t feel packed. Maybe it was the size of the space, or maybe the change in venue.
The First Hearing: FY27 Budget
I almost didn’t go that night. I had other plans, but decided to attend anyway.
The first hearing focused on the FY27 budget itself.
The first speaker was John Lundberg, a member of the Warren County Finance/Audit Committee. He criticized the County for not completing the past two audits.
That caught my attention.
Given his role—and the fact that the Finance/Audit Committee is currently suspended until after the audit due to confusion about its purpose—that comment carried weight.
When I got up to speak, I focused on what had been bothering me for months:
We had multiple calls for forensic audits—not just from the public, but from the committee and its former chair. And now, just months later, we were discussing dipping into reserves… without a completed audit.
That didn’t sit right.
After I spoke, something interesting happened—more people began calling for forensic audits.
I had been taking notes in a small notebook throughout the hearing and reviewing the detailed budget on my laptop that I downloaded ahead of time, trying to keep everything straight as the discussion evolved.
Transcript
Hello Lewis Moten. Is this working? Um, my name is Lewis Moten from North River District. Basically I find it interesting and comments have been going around. We’re wanting to spend money from our reserves yet we don’t know what’s exactly in our reserves. We’re talking about a model of what was there before yet. I have sat in the finance audit committee meetings where they have called for a forensic audit and then the former chair comes to supervisors repeatedly asking for a forensic audit and suddenly we are proposing only a small tax hike and to dip in our reserves when we don’t know what is in our reserves. We need something we can’t just depend on our revenue alone. We need a little bit of a tax bump. I don’t know if 10% is good as a permanent thing. We do need something to get us over the edge before we start spending money that we don’t know if we have or not. It just is very irresponsible. Thank you.
The Second Hearing: Tax Increase
The second hearing focused on the proposed 10-cent tax increase.
In reality, it felt like a continuation of the first. The two were tightly connected—budget decisions and tax policy feeding into each other.
After hearing repeated calls for a forensic audit, I spoke again—this time adding more context.
The last time the County pursued a forensic audit, the cost ballooned to over a million dollars.
So I asked:
- Where does that million come from?
- What is the expected outcome?
I also pointed out that there are multiple types of audits—not just annual audits and forensic audits—and that jumping straight to a forensic audit involves significant cost and staff time, often tied to legal preparation.
From there, I raised a few additional concerns:
- Roughly $6 million decline in federal and state revenue
- Significant increases in Parks & Recreation supply costs
- The proposed 5-cent alternative, which suggested dipping into reserves before audits are complete
Transcript
Hello, my name is Lewis Moten from the North District. Some of the things I noticed I well I noticed there’s an actual proposal for a 5% tax rate as well.
And one of the things I noticed is that the budget had decreasing revenue from federal, state, and intergovernmental agencies since 2025. We have lost about $6 million, putting more pressure on the local taxpayers here. So, I would look into that and find out why is there federal and state institutions not helping out? What what’s going on there?
There’s also the, there’s this concern about pulling from a reserve funds, but when I looked at the budget that’s already earmarked based on the audits to pull for our school roofs and other building roofs. So I’m not sure about dipping into that just yet before we know what’s going on.
I would recommend looking into the budget with the high percentage increases. Like the big one I noticed was Parks & Rec has a lot of items for supplies that jump 600 to 2100%. So I’d try and focus more on line items and figure out is this really legitimate compared to prior year spending. Is this a one-off or is this continuing?
The other thing is I I feel like nobody seems to understand the impact of a forensic audit and what it is for where you are preparing for litigation with a chain of command. There’s a lot of pressure on our own staff here in the county in addition to what it cost and what the payoff is. And from my understanding, we stopped because it was a million dollars that it jumped up to.
So, where are we going to get this million dollars to start this forensic audit? Um, there are different levels of audits before you get to the forensic audit, not just the regular annual audit. There are different levels. And we are working through it. We we’re the county has turned around and they’re heavily focused on that at great cost, but there’s also a system that they’re purchasing.
So, that is my two cents.
I don’t like tax increases, but I don’t like spending money that we don’t know that we have or not. We see it in the bank, but it’s already spent from my understanding until we can get those checks figured out. I think there’s $14 million in checks that we’re still working through.
I’d like to hear more updates on that and what’s going on with our audit process.
By the end of the night, one thing stood out: There’s a real tension between urgency and certainty.
People want answers. They want action. They want accountability. But at the same time, we’re still working to answer a basic question: What do we actually have, and what has already been spent?
Until that’s clear, every decision—whether it’s taxes, reserves, or capital projects—carries more risk than it should.
