Community Comment: Election Forecast – Crowded, Stormy with a Chance for Renaissance

By KIERAN SHARPE

February 18, 2010

Here’s an offer of information, and possibly assistance, to any potential but not yet declared candidates for School Board or City Council.  There’s still two weekends before petitions must be filed to get on the May ballot, and there are certainly sympathetic ears outside CBC, like myself, eager to assist talented and dedicated newcomers.  While the CBC is currently the only organized endorser of local candidates, and I certainly wish them great success in attracting a high turnout and selecting great slates for Board and Council, the Little City would really be a better city with a second nonpartisan organization.  Our city could enjoy a true Renaissance as the economy recovers, and a healthier governance structure is an important component for making that Renaissance a reality.

So my intent is not to destroy CBC. Quite the contrary.  A healthier governance structure, would involve two highly functioning, nonpartisan organizations, one of them CBC.  In democratic governance as in basketball, each team strengthens the other, and the experience improves for players and fans alike as the competing teams hone their skills and they become more evenly matched.  Indeed, the essence of the endeavor is lost when only one team is playing.

And this second organization, let’s call it Renaissance Falls Church (RFC) for now, should build upon our city’s strengths.  First and foremost, this means great schools.  Advanced learning in math, science and foreign languages, individual creativity and collaborative problem-solving, honesty and compassion, and a successful career path for every child – these should be hallmarks of the Renaissance for our students.  And teaching in small classes, providing personalized attention, and receiving the best pay and benefits should be available to our school staff.  Further, the most supportive of programs such as day care and the most extensive and accessible of community facilities (e.g., athletic, performing arts, and media) should be integral parts of our school and community infrastructure.

But economic development and care for the disadvantaged are critical to our success as well. In promoting economic development, the Renaissance should look like – well, like the Renaissance.  Creative and beautiful exteriors should provide spaces for the most innovative, nimble, green and responsive of businesses.  The scale should be walkable for many and accessible for all, whether traveling by train, bus, car, wheelchair or bicycle.  The efforts should capitalize on the fact that we have four business zones which traverse county lines and develop active business development organizations in each of those zones in cooperation with county agencies and business and neighborhood associations.

To those who would say that I’d like RFC or some other second organization to oppose affordable housing, curb diversity and cut social services, I say please remember a few things.  First, I founded Homestretch, the Falls Church-based nonprofit that has become Virginia’s largest transitional housing provider for homeless families.  Second, my wife and I were foster parents for more than 20 children, including those from African American, Hispanic and Asian backgrounds.  Third, I wrote the zoning change and found the first location for the city’s winter emergency shelter.  And please don’t equate spending the highest amount of local tax dollars with the best of social service programs.  Localities spent huge sums to put homeless families into motels with very little incentive for their economic recovery.  Homestretch gave each of these families a suitable house or apartment, plus training to get out of debt and into jobs with good pay – and did this at a lower cost.

By the way, please give your support to the shelter’s fundraising event this Saturday, just after the CBC convention, at the Spectrum, and to the Tinner Hill Foundation’s basketball event on Friday evening Feb. 26 at the Community Center.

To learn how you can become a candidate or join in organizing this Renaissance effort, please contact me at kjsharpe@starpower.net.

Kieran Sharpe has been a member of the Falls Church City School Board since 1998.  From 1994-1998, he served on the Falls Church City Council.

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.

COMMUNITY COMMENT: Save Cherry Hill Farmhouse Programs

BY MARY MADELINE KING

February 12, 2010

The Cherry Hill Board was informed a few days ago that the position of part-time coordinator for the historic Farmhouse and Barn is one of the options being considered for elimination under FY2011 budget scenarios.

Since the Council meeting on February 22 may be the last time residents can speak against this, we don’t have much time to organize supporters for this City landmark and its programs. If you want to help save this part time position, which organizes history camps, school tours, and other programs held at the barn or farmhouse, please email the City Council before February 18. Your email will be summarized and included in each council member’s packet on Friday.

You may also speak during the petition period, but must fill in a sign-up form and give it to the City Clerk before the meeting.

Please take the time to register your support for this important part of City history. If this part time position is eliminated, the house and barn will likely be closed.

COMMUNITY COMMENT: Affordable Housing More Important Than Schools, Services, or Jobs?

By IRA KAYLIN

January 16, 2010

On January 11, Falls Church City Council effectively approved the Senior Citizen Affordable Housing Project by agreeing, 6-1, that the Falls Church Housing Corporation and the developer could proceed to prepare a final project.

Technically, a “1st Reading” was approved — not the final approval which is to take place February 22. However, if past is prologue, given the FCHC/City Council’s tried and true technique of short deadlines and piecemeal approvals, it is unlikely that the majority of City Council will vote against the project when it comes up for 2nd Reading. The only wild card in the scenario is a potential lawsuit by the owner of the adjacent properties, who claims that both he and the City will suffer financial losses if the project proceeds as currently designed.

As regards protestations by some Council members that approval of 1st Reading does not preclude rejection of 2nd Reading — we’ll believe it when we see it. The City Council is performing a classic Kabuki Dance, with standard hand wringing and asking hard questions which are almost always dismissed in the end due to a higher “moral” calling and almost obligatory reluctant approval.

Before the citizens have had a chance to see any budget numbers, the City has made its first budget decision by supporting a $2 million “soft loan,” which is so heavily taxpayer subsidized that it is effectively a loan that will never be repaid.

Additional costs of the project result from foregoing potential tax revenues of over $120,000 per year if non tax-exempt firms were to use the proposed project site (which is adjacent to the proposed City Center project), a water hook-up waiver of $240,000, and a negative fiscal impact related to City-supported services of at least $40,000 per year.

These figures are already on top of the City’s budget shortfall, which has increased by a third due to the loss of the water suit against Fairfax County to an amount of approximately $10 million. The shortfall is clearly headed toward a $12 million figure, even if indirect costs are excluded.

It was already unclear, at the $10 million shortfall figure, how the City, try as it might, could avoid further reductions in schools funding and City services. There are no capital improvement projects left to cut or defer (which is another serious problem), and all the low-hanging and not-so-low-hanging fruit has already been picked. As a result, for those of us looking in from the outside, it appeared that further job reductions/furloughs would be inevitable.

The fallback argument of the supporters of the Affordable Housing Project is always that budget issues should not stand in the way of meeting our higher moral obligations. In more normal times, that is a compelling argument. However, as others have mentioned, and with which I fully concur, the City Council has no moral right to terminate/furlough its employees, including school staff — who have their own families to take care of and who may be supporting their own elderly relatives — by adding significantly to the City’s shortfall and by giving, as its first priority, funding of the Affordable Housing project. Where is the morality in that?

City Manager Wyatt Shields has stated that he wanted to meet with citizens to find out our views on community priorities before the final budget proposal is presented. Yet the first $2 million to be spent is already earmarked for Affordable Housing. How can there be a meaningful conversation with the community if the first major budget decision is presented as a fait accompli?

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 Editors.

COMMUNITY COMMENT: Move Elections to November, But Fix Budget First

By DAVID CHAVERN

January 6, 2010

I strongly believe that our local election date should be moved from May to November, and I am happy to explain why. However, I do want to note that I don’t think this is the most important issue facing the City.  In fact, it probably isn’t the 10th most important issue facing the City. The only issue worth talking about in local politics at the moment is the budget and, as I noted in last week’s News-Press , all voters should have extremely high expectations that our Council and School Board candidates will focus on that issue and come to their campaigns prepared with specific suggestions and a genuine point-of-view.  Any candidate who wants to talk more about election dates than the budget probably isn’t worth listening to at all.

That being said, I think the best argument for moving to a November election date is that a large number of eligible voters don’t — and won’t – vote in May and that is flatly a bad thing.  A May election date doesn’t meet people’s expectations about when elections occur and isn’t reinforced by the broader popular media.  History clearly shows that all of the yard signs, candidates visits, News-Press op-eds and eFocus articles in the world will not change the fact that a huge portion of eligible and otherwise engaged voters don’t vote in May.

All voting age adults in the City are subject to the taxing and legislative power of the Council.  A democratic government has an obligation to maximize the voice of those from whom it draws legitimacy — and having an oddball election date that only long-time residents really understand is fundamentally misguided.  Why not just have the election in someone’s basement at midnight on December 24th?  People in-the-know and thus “deserving” of a vote will have a voice — and the ignorant and undeserving will be left out in the cold.

We don’t have poll tests in Virginia anymore.  Length of residency and knowledge of issues are not prequalifications to vote.  Setting up an election date that appears designed to weed-out people with those characteristics is just wrong.

And I simply don’t believe the arguments that a November election will bury local issues — or lead to partisan elections.  If more than half of your electorate doesn’t vote then the local issues are already buried.  A May election date has simply not served to inform very many citizens about local issues.  Quite the opposite, I think it causes local issues to be discussed at a time when most people aren’t paying attention.

As to partisanship, I am against it.  First, I am a Republican, so it would be a loser for me.  Second, the City Council primarily deals with land use and local budget/service issues — neither of which lend themselves to partisan perspectives.  Partisanship would just lead to false divisions.  That being said, there are many localities in Virginia and other places that mix partisan and nonpartisan elections and I don’t see why it would be such a big deal for us.  Further, despite all of the conspiracy theories out there, I simply don’t believe that the Mayor or another member of Council has a goal of injecting partisanship into local elections.  (Interestingly, I do think that a May election date favors the CBC more than any other group, simply because they are good at turning out their long established base of voters.  The anti-CBC folks out there should think long and hard about fighting for status quo elections in May).

In sum, a lower voter turn-out is never a legitimate objective.  Let’s do the right thing – move the elections to November, involve more citizens, inform people when they are paying attention and actually practice popular democracy.  But let’s fix the budget first.

David Chavern is a former member of the Falls Church City Council and is an executive with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  He has lived in Falls Church with his wife and two children for 14 years.

Community Comments should be submitted to contact@fallschurchtimes.com. They may be on any subject relevant to our City. Writers should include their full name and city of residence. All submissions are subject to editing.

COMMUNITY COMMENT: Voters Will Support Hard Choices

BY DAVID CHAVERN

As many people know, I describe myself as a Republican although, as with all such labels, it covers a pretty wide area.  I am definitely from the libertarian, free enterprise, socially moderate (dare I say liberal) end of the spectrum.  Personal freedom tied with personal responsibility.  Limited but effective government, fiscal responsibility, etc.

Folks at this end of the spectrum are generally not in favor of higher taxes — but I have always been willing to pay for what I benefit from.  I also know a good deal when I see one.  All of my local taxes are spent within 2.2 square miles of my home, and I like the services they buy for me and my family.  Good schools, responsive police, rapid snow clearance, leaf mulch, the rec. center, etc.  The distance between my payments and my benefits is very small.  Further, as a former Falls Church City Council member, I have a good sense as to how the City government and schools operate — and I have generally been very impressed.  Despite all of the ill-informed protestations to the contrary, Read more

COMMUNITY COMMENT: ‘I Apologize for the Budget Crisis’

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COMMUNITY COMMENT: Hiring a Financial Consultant — The Horse Has Left the Barn

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Community Comment: City Center South Lacks What Makes Winter Hill Home

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