County Board Chairman Jay Fisette did not mince words when responding to a public comment about the proposed change in Arlington’s form of government at Saturday’s board meeting.
“It is certainly my view that this would be a step backwards for Arlington,” he said of the proposal. “I think the message is, if you’re asked to sign that petition, please decline to do so.”
Brown and his wife warmly greeted a long procession of well-wishers. The line was more than 25 deep at one point, snaking all the way back to the tables set up with cheese, crackers and other snacks for the occasion.
Among the people in attendance were county employees, heads of business associations, county board members and other local business leaders and civic-minded folks, including:
Board Chairman Jay Fisette kicked off the meeting by welcoming Brown to Arlington.
“Thank you Mr. Chairman, it’s great to be here,” Brown reciprocated later in the nearly five hour meeting.
The $104.6 million project was fast-tracked by the school system and the county board in order to take advantage of more favorable bids from construction companies hurt by the recession. Originally, the county’s 2008 Capital Improvement Plan called for the school’s bond referendum to take place in 2012.
“By moving the project forward we will realize significant savings through reduced construction costs,” board Chairman Jay Fisette said in a statement.
The Hagerstown incident caused a “public outcry” that forced the city to ease up on enforcement, the Associated Press reported at the time. A photo of the elderly couple in Frederick, which ran in a local newspaper, is a classic study in bad PR.
Arlington is now considering a snow removal ordinance similar to the statutes in place in Hagerstown and Frederick. The proposed ordinance has garnered headlines like “Arlington Proposes Criminal Charges for Unneighborly Snow Shovelers” and “Arlington Says Clear Your Sidewalks or Pay Up.” Clearly, history risks repeating itself.
In a Washington Post Op-Ed titled “The sky really is falling at Metro,” Zimmerman warns of dire consequences if the agency doesn’t get the full $11.4 billion it needs for infrastructure projects over the next decade. That “massive infusion of infrastructure investment” will only be possible if state and local leaders from D.C., Maryland and Virginia increase Metro’s funding, he writes.
Zimmerman proposes that localities, at minimum, maintain current funding levels while working to implement a new regional tax to fund Metro. Zimmerman also calls for the federal government to begin making annual payments to the agency.
Together with fee increases totaling about $71 a year, the tax burden on the average household will increase by about $346 per year.
Arlington’s residential property tax burden will now total $0.958 cents per $100 of assessed value, which is still lower than most neighboring jurisdictions.
A group of civic activists has formed the “Coalition for Arlington Good Government” (CAGG) to push back against an effort to change Arlington’s form of government.
The group’s goal is “to inform Arlington residents about the negative impacts of the proposal behind the petition drive.”
The committee just issued a strongly-worded statement (below) and pointed us to a memo from Ron Carlee, the previous county manager, which talks about the limitations of the County Manager Plan of government currently in place in Arlington.
Here’s the full statement:
In a memo to county board members, MacIsaac says the change would transfer some of the county government’s current powers to the state and would “compromise and even eliminate the County’s ability to achieve long established goals.”
The change-of-government proposal is sponsored by the Committee For a Better Arlington, which is endorsed by the Arlington Green Party, the Arlington County Republican Committee and the police and fire unions. The committee is currently trying to collect the 14,350 signatures necessary to put the proposal to a voter referendum.
The park is being built just north of Crystal City, adjacent to Old Jefferson Davis Highway, on perhaps the largest open, undeveloped parcel of land left in Arlington County.
Speaking before the ceremonial shoveling were Arlington County board chairman Jay Fisette, park Design Advisory Committee chairman Toby Smith, and acting county manager Barbara Donnellan. State delegates Bob Brink, Patrick Hope and Adam Ebbin were in attendance, along with Arlington board members, county staffers, and park planners.
A group of German students from Arlington’s sister city of Aachen, Germany has managed to fluster members of two Arlington governing bodies nearly simultaneously.
The group of nearly two dozen students attended last night’s county board tax rate hearing. They were acknowledged by board chairman Jay Fisette at the beginning of the session. Fisette assumed they were going to stick around to watch American democracy in action. Instead, seven minutes into the hearing, they all suddenly got up and left en masse, which caused some board members fits of laughter (see video below).
