OPINION: Lighten Up, George! Things WILL Get Better

By ANNETTE HENNESSEY and STAN FENDLEY
Falls Church Times Staff

March 16, 2010

Our fellow Falls Church Times volunteer, George Southern, has written a series of “the sky is falling and we must cede to Arlington” posts in his Man About Town column.  This week’s was just downright depressing, perfect for a cold rainy Monday morning.  In Why Things Won’t Get Any Better, our school population has exploded and caused a budget crisis.  And on top of that, the City is broke.

Frankly, we think George is yanking our chains so that we will start thinking and talking about what’s going on with the City and its budget. Every community in the United States is facing hard economic times.  But going through hard times can be a good thing.  Now is the time that our community should identify what’s important, make decisions around those priorities, focus on why Falls Church City is a place people want to live.

We’re a long way from having to throw up our hands and give up our independent city status.  As the law stands today, if the City of Falls Church ceases to exist, we get folded back into Fairfax County, not Arlington.  A chat with a local realtor confirmed our suspicions that if the City of Falls Church becomes part of Fairfax County and its school system, property values in the city could fall by as much as a third.  So it benefits everyone, not just those with kids in City schools, to avoid George’s doomsday scenario.

We should be calling on the community—one that is filled with smart, dedicated citizens—to help find the solutions.   Already, hundreds of people are engaged in a discussion about the priorities of the City.  As the discussion continues, people will begin to identify what is important and how much they are willing to pay.

The May elections will continue the conversation, with the eight City Council candidates being asked to define their priorities and outline actions that the city can take in these tight budget years.  This year’s candidates bring a wealth of experience – both in public office and professionally – to the election.  And after all, aren’t elections the ultimate way for citizens to comment on the direction of public policy in their community?  If you believe in the electoral system, presumably Council members will be selected who want to go in the direction the majority of citizens prefer.

The school board has already held conversations about priorities.  The proposed school budget is 4.5 percent less than FY2010, and was created after a lengthy discussion with administrators, staff, and the public.  They looked at every line in their budget, and choosing to keep the cuts as far away from the classroom as possible, made some difficult decisions.

Now it’s time to examine the City budget for efficiencies and some out-of-the-box solutions to our current fiscal crisis.  And as the economy improves, the City should continue to identify its priorities and plan for the future with public input.

The fact that Falls Church City remains a place people want to live is a good thing.  The fact that our schools attract more students is a good problem to have.  Clearly, there are limits to the number of students the schools can serve, but better to live in a community where people are clamoring to get in than one where people want to leave.  Better to live in a community where people want to be part of the solution rather than give up and merge with another county.

MAN ABOUT TOWN: Why Things Won’t Get Any Better

By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Falls Church Times Columnist

March 15, 2010

Back when my business card read “International Economist,” I was painfully aware how much less I knew about the dismal science than such a lofty title implied. But it really didn’t matter if I was dumb as a stump, because when I made interventions at U.N. conferences, everything I said was pre-ordained by government policy. Not facts, not logic, not reality – just government policy. And so it is today in the Little City.

Politics is like religion – you have to have faith. “Fear not – believe only, and Falls Church will be saved.”  This is the dogma being preached on high – by City Council, the School Board, the “newspaper of record,” and pretty much everyone else who bothers to make their thoughts public. The argument goes like this:

– Falls Church is a special place to live, a wonderful place to raise a family, and a great place to send your kids to school.

– The recession is causing the City to raise taxes and cut services.

– When the recession is over, the City will again be “made whole.”

– Anyone who fails to “believe” obviously hates Falls Church.

That’s the dogma, and don’t let the facts get in the way. But what if we could look at the economics behind the City’s past, present, and future? What if dollars and demographics could be discussed dispassionately? What story would be told? Maybe something like this:

For the first 40 years of its existence (1948-88), things were pretty much the same in little Falls Church as in areas just across our borders. Then, sometime around 25 years ago, the effects of the great demographic shift began to be felt. Fomented by the economic collapse in Mexico, the Salvadoran civil war, and a local construction boom, Latino immigrants began pouring into the area, many settling inside the Beltway in 1950s apartment houses that no longer attracted native English speakers. The immigrants worked hard and supported large families, and the percentage of non-native-speaking students in the schools doubled, trebled, and quadrupled over time. Read more

COMMUNITY COMMENT: Economic Considerations Needed for Housing Project

By JOHANNAH BARRY

March 15, 2010

The term “Affordable Housing” is rich in meaning and encompasses key values important to Falls Church: diversity, justice, and inclusiveness.  These are overarching principles that are central to the character and nature of Falls Church and are woven into the decisions we make as a City.

As a newcomer to Falls Church politics, but an old-timer in the City, I have participated in, and/or observed Council deliberations sporadically over the last several years. In that time, I have heard many thoughtful public comments by concerned citizens and admire the dedication of the men and women on City Council and the tireless efforts of staff.

Last Monday night I was present for extended dialogue regarding “The Wilden” affordable housing project and was deeply disappointed at the inability of thoughtful citizens to hear each other.  Somehow, the term affordable housing has been transmuted from a guiding principle and core tenet of the City’s inclusive character to a divisive moral and political litmus test.  I did not sense that anyone in the room was “anti” affordable housing.  I did sense that some were appropriately hesitant due to the fragile economic underpinnings of the current project and its future projections for the City’s fiscal health.

To be clear, I cast my lot with the latter.  A decision to move this project forward at this time would do an economic disservice to the City and calls into question the true motivation of this set of actions.  Proponents of the Wilden project did not waver in their rhetoric, framing this issue as a moral imperative.  True dialogue would have acknowledged the economic implications of this decision.  To reduce this issue, and subsequent conversations and decisions about affordable housing, to a test of one’s moral compass is intellectually dishonest and is behavior not worthy of the citizens who engage in it.

The yearning for this project to finally come to fruition was palpable, and the potential for disappointment should it not was clearly evident.  I do not diminish the genuine passion, concern, and extraordinary work of those who have advocated tirelessly for affordable housing.  I am aware of the long history of this project.  But as Councilman Webb explained, as worthy as the notion is, and as critical as it is to the character of our City, times have changed.  The City is now in fiscal crisis.  Services and schools have felt the sting.  Every person in this City will feel the deeply unpleasant impact of increased taxes, and some people may have to leave this City because they simply can’t afford to live here.  One will appreciate the irony of people being driven out of the City because their housing has become unaffordable, due to the effort of creating affordable housing.

To approach this issue with the honor it deserves will require untangling the social goal from the economic driver.  It will require patience and discipline – commodities that are arguably hard to come by with the economic pressures on all sides of the issue.  Falls Church is worth our best efforts.

Johannah Barry is founder and President of Galapagos Conservancy, a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of  the Galapagos Islands.  She is a candidate for Falls Church City Council in the May 2010 election.

COMMUNITY COMMENTS are welcome on any subject relevant to the City of Falls Church. They may be submitted to contact@fallschurchtimes.com. Shorter submissions may be published as a Letter to the Editor.

MAN ABOUT TOWN: For Men and Boys Only

By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Falls Church Times Columnist

March 8, 2010

I expect the Man About Town’s readership to drop by half this week, because my subject is of little interest to the fairer sex. Even my dear departed mother, once my biggest fan, would struggle to get through today’s column.

That’s ironic, because the phenomenon I’m addressing is due entirely to mothers. It’s the mothers, you see, who, when their sons grow up and leave home, throw away their comic book collections. That’s why old comic books are rare – although millions were printed, millions of mothers threw them away.

And so, many a Citizen Kane, after making his first million or first billion, seeks his “Rosebud” – a link to the lost idyll of childhood. That’s why pristine issues of the first Superman and Batman comics recently sold for over $1 million. And while the buyers remained anonymous, we can be sure they were men.

Girls don’t experience the same emotional attachment to comics. Sure, my daughters read a lot of Archie comic books. But only Archie – never the superheros. I think it’s because Archie’s girlfriends, Betty and Veronica, and the high school dating themes provide a fascination for pre-teen girls that overcomes their natural lack of interest in comics.

At Victory Comics, which just opened in the old Dinettes and Stools store on Maple Avenue across from Pearson Square, owner Jeff Weaver estimates that out of 100 visitors, 95 are male (not counting mothers accompanying their sons).

Weaver’s mother was different from your mother and my mother: she never threw away his comic books. He kept collecting and now has two freight containers full. For years he traveled the weekend comic show circuit before finally deciding to throw over his day job on Capitol Hill (Chief of Staff for Sen. Bernie Sanders-VT) and go for the real thing. Comics are serious business.

Weaver, who resides on Lincoln Avenue in Falls Church, is on his way to having the biggest comic book store in the state. He’s got plenty of room for expansion, but right now most of his collection remains in his containers. I paid a visit over the weekend and didn’t come away empty-handed. When I got home I asked my wife (who declined to accompany me) to guess how much the most expensive comic book in the store cost.

“I have no idea,” came the disinterested reply.

“Six-fifty,” I informed her, and then showed her my purchase – a reprint of Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge, created by comic book genius Carl Barks. Leafing through the comic at the store, I realized that I remembered the story from reading it 45 years ago. Of course I had to have it, and paid $12 for it.

“Wait a minute – I thought you said the most expensive comic was six-fifty,” my wife responded.  So I had to explain — $650. That’s actually cheap: Weaver sold a poor-quality Superman #1 several years ago at a comics show. It was in such bad condition that it only brought $35,000. Collectors value quality. Read more

MAN ABOUT TOWN: 120 Days of Little City Predictions

By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Falls Church Times Staff

March 1, 2010

One of my jobs when stationed overseas was to analyze the political and economic situation in such-in-such a country and make predictions. Unable to break that habit, I submit the following predictions for the next 120 days in the “Little Republic of Falls Church.”

RED INK UPDATE: To keep this interesting, as each date passes I’ll mark in red ink what actually happened.

Tuesday, March 2: The School Board will vote a “Tier 2” proposed budget totaling $1.1 million ($2.1 million) less than last year’s. The Board will emphasize that the cuts are in spite of an estimated 41 additional students (costing $750,000) expected next year. But because of reductions in state and other non-city revenue, the $1.1 million ($2.1 million) reduction means only $735,000 ($1.3 million) relief to the City’s schools contribution.

Monday, March 8: City Manager Wyatt Shields will submit a proposed overall budget to the City Council recommending a 22 cent (20 cent, but advertise 23 cent) tax increase to the current $1.07, equaling $1.29 ($1.27, but advertise $1.30). Shields will declare that this is the absolute minimum increase the City can enact and still function as a municipality. The 22 cent (20 cent) increase will produce $6.6 million ($6 million) revenue to counteract the anticipated $8.9 million shortfall, leaving $2.3 million ($2.9 million) outstanding, which Shields will propose to divide evenly (not completely evenly) between the City fund and the Schools fund ($1.15 million reduction from each) ($1.3 million from Schools, as proposed by School Board, and remaining $1.6 million from City). This would entail an additional $415,000 reduction (no additional reduction, as School Board already proposed a larger reduction) of the Schools budget.

Shields will further note that the proposed new tax rate means that the “median homeowner” would pay an additional $1,000 ($976) property tax per year, or $2.75 ($2.67) a day. This will inevitably be compared with the cost of a large cup of Starbucks coffee ($2.29 including the 9 percent tax effective in City limits). Read more

OPINION: Stories I’d Like to See in the Falls Church Times

By DAVE WITZEL
Falls Church Times Staff

February 27, 2010

I’m really proud of the work the all-volunteer Falls Church Times team has done. What started out as a civic experiment has become a thriving, valuable enterprise. During the past two months our volunteers have been posting an average of four articles per day. Sometime this week someone on the team will prepare our 1,000th article. This is remarkable production.

That said, I can’t help but wish we were doing more. It would be great to have more volunteers and contributors to broaden and deepen our coverage.

Here’s a few examples of stories I would love to read in the Falls Church Times.

Business

Big Games in the Little City. We have at least three games/comics stores nearby (Compleat Strategist, Anime Pavilion, and the just-opened Victory Comics). This seems like a lot of comics per-capita. Are we #1 in the nation? Do Falls Churchers really like games?  Are we kind of Silicon Valley for gaming?

2nd Hand Falls Church. We have a great set of used-stuff stores in town. We have used CDs (CD Cellar), books (Hole in the Wall Books), clothes (Second Chance, New to You, Rosalin’s Bridal Boutique), and bikes (Bike Club), not to mention antique stores including Falls Church Antique Annex and Olde Habits‎. What else should be on this list? Any particular treasures the community should know about? How can we make or save money (and waste less)?

Sports

Can GM Ladies Basketball Re-peat? The GM’s Girls Basketball team is in the regional play-offs. How are they doing? Who are they playing and when? And, most of all, can we get some action photos and video!

Falls Church Rec Basketball Celebrates XX Years. The Community Center’s annual recreational basketball leagues is one of the grand traditions of Falls Church. How many kids participate in it? How long has it been going on? Who are the personalities that keep it going?

City Hall

Budget, Budget, Budget. You may have heard that Falls Church is facing some budget difficulties. What’s more, this is a problem that won’t go away any time soon. We’ll be wrestling with budgets for years into the future. So what do we need to know to make intelligent choices about changing services, raising taxes, finding new revenue sources? Our budget has increased a lot over the last 5 years – where did we spend the money? How do other cities our size spend their money? Is our mix dramatically different? What tools should we have to do analysis and decision-making? Can the Falls Church Times help provide any of those tools?

Mass Transit Planning and Falls Church. Okay, while we don’t exactly have a metro stop in the city, we do have two of them named after us. And Metro and other area mass transit matters to us. So what’s going on? What’s going to happen to budgets and fares? What about traffic and business opportunities from the new lines that are planned? Do we have the right bus routes? Should we jump on Arlington’s trolley? What about walkability – are we good and how can we get better?

Around Town

There’s Music in the Air. I enjoyed this week’s focus on music in the Falls Church News Press including the article about Sunday’s Wammies. Falls Church has wonderful music venues including The State, Bangkok Blues, and Claire and Don’s. We host amazing events like the Wammies but also the Tinner Hill Blues Festival and the summer music series at Cherry Hill Park. We have delightful school and community groups. There are great shows in town regularly. But what’s coming up? What did we miss? Where’s the Falls Church Times music reviewer to complement our amazing food reviewer?

Falls Church Makes a Difference. One of the many exciting things about this town is its reach -people in this city have local focus and national and international impact. Opportunities to contribute range from supporting the schools and the library to helping in Haiti. What are they? What have we accomplished? Who is leading the charge?

That’s the beginning of my list. What stories do you want to read? Please make suggestions in the comments below.  Which ones are you willing to write? Would you contribute photos or video of events you are attending?  How about reporting sports scores and results?  If you’d like to pitch-in, please let me know.

OPINION: Sharing the Budget Pie

By ANNETTE HENNESSEY
Falls Church Times Staff

February 22, 2010

For the last 10 years, the schools’ part of the budget pie has hovered around 40%, give or take a percent or two (if you include debt service, the piece of pie grows to 44-48%).  With the projected budget shortfall at $9 million, to keep the schools at 40% of the pie would mean a $3.6 million reduction in the school budget.  What will that mean to Falls Church City Schools?

With no target budget given to the schools by City Hall this year, Dr. Lois Berlin, at the request of the School Board, outlined four tiers of budget cuts at the beginning of the budget process.  Her four budget reductions ranged from 1.8% (accounting for all the federal and state budget cuts) to 8.6% (accounting for the almost $9 million budget shortfall experienced by the city).  The Tier 4 reductions came close, but only equal $3.1 million, and the public outcry against such draconian measures included at this tier such as moving to half-day kindergarten; eliminating elementary-level art, music, and foreign language; and increasing class size by as many as five students has indicated the improbability of that scenario.

Let’s face it.  The economy is not going to rebound in one year.  Unless something drastic happens, we’ll be facing, at the very least, a flat budget for FY2012.  Can the schools withstand these cuts this year, and then even identify new budget cuts for a second year?

Most people engaged in the current budget debate seem to agree that strong schools add value to our Little City (except for those who feel the City School System is doomed, doomed, doomed and we should sell out – quick – to our friendly neighbors).  The debate should now be how much more of the pie we give the schools to maintain the quality of the education for our children and retain the staff the school system has worked hard over the last few years to recruit.

The City budget work sessions have been structured to identify citizens’ priorities.  But groups at recent meetings have been given a list of 68 “lines of service” to prioritize.  By focusing on such a large number of options, it’s easy to focus on pet projects and harder to identify the core functions of the Little City that citizens value most.

With such a dramatic budget reduction, hard choices will be need to be made.  The questions we should be asking are:  Where can we let things slide a year or two?  What are luxuries and what are necessities?  Where can cuts be made, and where do we have to meet legal or moral obligations?  By looking at the major themes, it may make it a little easier to identify those areas:

1. Community Outreach
2. Development
3. Education
4. Environmental
5. Human and Community Services
6. Library
7. Public Safety
8. Recreation and Parks
9. Transportation

And then we should ask the experts – the city staff who run these programs. Acknowledging that all decisions are difficult, where could there be cuts and how would those cuts realistically affect your program?  How easy would it be to rebound after suffering those cuts?  What would be your four tiers for reductions?

As Dr. Berlin constructed her four tiers of budget scenarios, she worked closely with the school administrators and staff to identify cuts and how those reductions would affect the education given to the city students, the staff, the infrastructure of the school system, etc.  The process was a painful one for staff and administrators alike.  Departments were pitted against department; staff continue to feel vulnerable and that many of these budget reductions rest on their backs.

Last week, School Board Chair Ron Peppe stated, “We want to keep any budget reductions as far removed from the classroom as possible,” and indicated that the School Board budget request to the City Manager would be in the neighborhood of a $1.1 million reduction.  Those cuts fall within the Tier 2 range, and the principals’ assessments on how those cuts will affect their schools are available online on the Falls Church City Schools budget page (http://www.fccps.org/board/budget/fy11/index.html).

I can only assume that the City Manager is going through the same process with his staff as he formulates the City’s FY2011 budget scheduled to be released on March 8^th.  Clearly a tax increase is in the Little City’s future.  The question now is how large and where will the increased revenue be spent?  Citizens will be more supportive if they know what the funds will be used for, and how City Hall and the School Board arrived at those priorities.  I am hopeful that the city budget presentation will be as transparent as the school budget debate has been. Read more

MAN ABOUT TOWN: Talking Trash

By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Falls Church Times Staff

February 22, 2010

I happened to be home when the garbage truck backed into my cul-de-sac last Wednesday – a welcome sight since we had gone two weeks without a pickup. The neighbors had all carried their trash to one pile – dozens upon dozens of plastic bags, including many little grocery sacks. Back in the day, garbage trucks had three men, with what I considered the “cushy” job being that of the driver. No longer. Perhaps because of the City’s hiring freeze, the trucks I see have only two men, so the driver has to get out and help. I watched while one man picked up bags from the snow bank and tossed them to the truck, where the other man threw them in. It took several minutes, and they were working pretty fast. Not a job I would want.

The psychologist B.F. Skinner suggested that in an ideal society, jobs would be differentiated according to their degree of unpleasantness. A window-washer, or a garbage man, might only have to work four hours a day because the job was so odious (or odorous).  Meanwhile, a musician (or a newspaper columnist?) would be expected to labor perhaps 10 hours a day, given how much fun s/he was having.

Although nobody paid any attention to Skinner’s proposal, one bit of fairness has developed over the years: Garbage men may have the worst job, but they tend to get decently compensated for it. Municipal garbage workers typically receive all the benefits of a government job, including health insurance, pension contribution, public holidays, sick leave, overtime, and job security. That’s the case in Falls Church (at least for the garbage workers – the recycling is contracted out to a private firm).

But – government jobs are expensive. People tend to stay in them forever (I speak from experience), earning a little more every year, accruing a larger pension and more annual leave. Of the five garbage workers currently working for the City, two have more than 20 years on the job. And experience, as always, counts for a lot. Everyone seems to agree that garbage service in the City is excellent.

But is it worth the price? The City administration says no, and wants to do what 6,000 other municipalities have done – contract out garbage pickup to a private service. The cost savings is claimed at $200,000 a year. Read more

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