Opinion

Progressive Voice is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their organizations or ARLnow.com.

By Terry Savela

It is deeply disappointing when political leaders say one thing and do the opposite. That is why it was so troubling to see Tuesday’s County Board action violating the Board’s own public notice requirements – that Board Chair Libby Garvey had previously advocated for vigorously – in order to set in motion a review of “Strategic Priorities for Arlington.”

Acknowledging that Board members had discussed the proposal for months, she nevertheless initiated a wholesale review of County priorities by an unelected small group without providing any opportunity for comment by the public, Advisory Commissions, the School Board or Arlington’s many engaged community organizations. The draft Charge was not posted on the County’s website until the start of the Board’s Tuesday meeting where it was voted upon.

Whether or not one believes that the County’s priorities over recent years – schools, affordable housing, public safety, parks, environmental stewardship, and economic competitiveness – should be changed, this was not the way to do it.

The call for a six-member “Blue Ribbon” Panel – one member appointed by each County Board member and one appointed by the County Manager – will proceed without any selection by School Board members even though nearly half of our County’s budget goes to our excellent schools and we face a large and growing enrollment challenge.

The Panel’s Charge is to “provide an evaluation of the current policy goals and objectives for the County…and recommendations for a plan to reconcile and prioritize those goals.” Ms. Garvey talked at length about the need to “do things differently” and set priorities among all the service areas. Yet her repeated call to focus on “core” services suggests she has already decided which services she intends to downgrade. Those of us who take pride in services that reflect Arlington’s progressive values, including parks, trails, human services, arts, libraries and the environment, have reason to worry about service cuts.

In addition, it appears that the six Panel members will recommend which adopted County policies should be de-emphasized. I expect many Arlingtonians who labored on the Community Energy Plan, Affordable Housing Master Plan or Master Transportation Plan will be deeply concerned whether this small group will push to change or undo their recommendations.

By contrast, the well-received 2015 Community Facility Study resulted from a timely and efficient process involving more than 200 individuals and groups. The need for the Facility Study was identified in multiple campaigns and in both school and County advisory groups. The County and School Boards appointed a 23-member group that was a cross section of Arlingtonians – by age, geography, ethnicity, and leadership experience. And the charge mandated broad community involvement from interested Arlingtonians and organizations.

Perhaps, we shouldn’t be surprised by this contrast. It hearkens back to a failure by Ms. Garvey during her School Board tenure to engage our schools community in creating a long-term vision for addressing growing enrollment. The result has meant that every boundary change, proposed new school or programmatic adjustment stirs distrust from parents who care passionately about the education of their children. And she has shown little interest in acting on the widely-supported recommendations of the Community Facilities Study that would help address that earlier failure.

Perhaps the most telling moment of Tuesday’s discussion came when, addressing Jay Fisette’s comment about the importance of broad civic engagement in the development of Arlington’s plans, John Vihstadt noted that it would be up to the Board to decide in December whether the work of six Panel members would actually be used or might “end up in the proverbial circular file.”

So is the launch of the “Blue Ribbon” panel only the start of a longer process? Or is it meant to unwind community priorities that have evolved over a great deal of time and through broad-based discussions?

Is this the beginning of an effort to examine the Arlington County budget holistically and establish a common-sense approach for setting budget priorities? Or is it just a way to play favorites?

Whatever the motives, violating the Board’s own prior notice requirements and launching a wide-ranging review without input from residents, businesses or community groups is wrong. It certainly isn’t the Arlington Way.

Terry Savela has lived in Arlington since 1985 and served as a County Planning Commissioner, Transportation Commissioner, and as the vice chair of the Crystal City Task Force.

Progressive Voice is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their organizations or ARLnow.com.

By Lawrence Roberts

In the March 31 Progressive Voice column, I explored the impact of the Dillon Rule on Arlington County – how Arlington cannot exercise its governing will unless the governing authority has been provided by the Virginia General Assembly. Moreover, the General Assembly can pass laws preventing localities from addressing matters of concern to the locality.

Perhaps the most publicized recent action by a state to prevent a locality from acting was the passage in North Carolina of HB2 (called the “Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act”).

Much of the news coverage about HB2 focused on the requirement that people (including transgender individuals) use bathrooms that correspond to the gender on their birth certificates and the restrictions on the rights of LGBT individuals to sue in state court to address discrimination.

But the bill was passed in a rushed special session hurriedly called to invalidate an anti-discrimination ordinance recently adopted by City Council of Charlotte, the state’s largest city.

Not only did the state legislature reverse Charlotte’s expansion of LGBT rights, but it also banned North Carolina cities from raising the minimum wage.

North Carolina’s governor quickly signed HB2 into law, only to face backlash from a broad spectrum of interests including major businesses and academic institutions.

While the Governor has now taken steps to give state employees more nondiscrimination protections, the invalidation of Charlotte’s ordinance and ban on local minimum wage increases remain in place.

One difference between North Carolina and Virginia is that in North Carolina the same party controls both the state legislature and the Governor’s office. By contrast, in Virginia Republicans control the General Assembly while Governor McAuliffe is a Democrat.

In the March 31 column, I identified bills vetoed by Governor McAuliffe that would have limited local authority or expanded state control in ways contrary to the view of a large percentage of Arlingtonians.

Over the past two weeks, before the veto deadline, the Governor wielded his veto pen to stop other legislative initiatives that would either assert state authority or restrict local self-governance in ways that most Arlingtonians would consider inconsistent with their values.

Measures that would have become law but for the Governor’s veto (as those bills were described by the Governor) include:

1) HB481 and SB270 attempt to prohibit the release of individuals in custody if those individuals are suspected of violating U.S. immigration laws where the bills are intended to communicate a sense that non-citizens are to be feared and should be treated as more dangerous than other persons;

2) HB516 would interfere with local school board policies and have the state require schools to identify material that is “sexually explicit” contrary to the state’s long policy of entrusting curriculum management to local school boards;

3) HB518, HB389, and HB8SB would undercut local school boards’ constitutional authority to determin how to assign students to schools;

4) HB1234 would permit school security officers who are not employees of a local law enforcement agency to carry firearms in schools without ensuring adequate training; and

5) SB626 and HB766 would eliminate the application and training requirements before carrying a concealed handgun in ways that would encourage victims of domestic violence to introduce deadly weapons into an already dangerous situation.

In all, Governor McAuliffe vetoed 32 of 811 bills passed by the General Assembly – more than any Virginia Governor since Jim Gilmore in 1998.

The Governor’s vetoes will be considered by the General Assembly during a Reconvene Session to be held on April 20. Two-thirds votes of both the House of Delegates and State Senate are required to override the vetoes.

Arlingtonians will be left to consider how different the state and County would be if, as in North Carolina, a conservative legislature does not have to contend with a progressive Governor.

That will be the central question facing Arlington voters in 2017 when Virginia will elect a new Governor and the 100 House of Delegates seats are up for election.

Larry Roberts is a 30-year resident of Arlington and an attorney in private practice. He chaired two successful statewide campaigns and is a former Chair of the Arlington County Democratic Committee.