Arlington’s top prosecutor is seeking more state and county funds this year — while trying to keep pace with an ongoing rollercoaster of federal funding decisions.
Before a now-rescinded memo on a federal spending freeze sent agencies around the country scrambling for answers this week, Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti was already lobbying for a boost in local funding for her office.
Top Arlington County Board priorities including housing affordability and public safety will likely hold steady following JD Spain, Sr.’s victory last week.
However, Spain is seeking to distinguish himself from the Board’s current approach to government oversight, engagement and transparency.
While Fairfax County recently rolled out a new prosecution dashboard with detailed breakdowns of the county’s criminal caseload, Arlington data tracking lags behind.
The new Case Overview Dashboard from the Office of the Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney contains a wealth of information on the county’s criminal cases, with data on the age, race and gender of defendants as well as stats on specific charges.
After a summer lull, politicking in Arlington is back in full swing.
For candidates, the first big stop on the campaign trail was an in-person and virtual forum hosted by the Arlington County Civic Federation, or CivFed, last night (Tuesday).
(Updated at 4:25 p.m.) After lockdowns, a fatal, apparent drug overdose, a racist threat of gun violence, and additional threats and gun-related incidents — all within the past few weeks — parents and teachers say they want more information from Arlington Public Schools.
But there’s a document floating around — outlining how School Board members should talk to the public, school staff, other board members and members of the media — that they say encourages the Board to be less transparent.
Arlington maintains a sizable network of traffic cameras, but a significant portion of those cameras have been “temporarily unavailable” in recent weeks.
It’s a problem that the county county is promising to fix.
A man accused of raping a teenager in Arlington 13 years ago will be going to trial later this month.
The two-year-long process to bring him to trial in what was once considered a cold case may be facing delays, however, after a mistrial was declared last week.
With a budget well over $1 billion, Arlington’s checkbook can feel a bit overwhelming to the average taxpayer — but the county is launching a new resource to help change that.
The county rolled out the first phase of “Arlington Wallet” yesterday (Tuesday), unveiling a new online tool to help Arlingtonians get a clearer look at how officials are spending money each year.
In recent weeks, Arlington County and its school system have sought to charge ARLnow hundreds of dollars to fulfill public records requests, or simply not responded to them — and others around the county have noticed similar issues accessing public documents.
The county has asked for more than $1,140 in all to provide records in response to three requests by ARLnow under the Freedom of Information Act, using accounting practices that raised eyebrows at one of Virginia’s open government watchdog groups. In another case, Arlington Public Schools has gone more than a month before providing any response to an ARLnow FOIA request, missing a state-mandated deadline by weeks.
(Updated at 2:50 p.m.) Arlington County’s independent auditor is soliciting suggestions for potential government audits from residents.
Chris Horton, who has been in the job since Nov. 2016 after his predecessor, Jessica Tucker, decamped for California, wants residents to chime in with ideas for transparency, efficiency, and effectiveness measures that should be undertaken. The goal is to uncover suggested audit topics for his 2018 work plan that result in “a broad community impact, a significant financial impact or both.”
