Opinion

Peter’s Take: Lights Out

By Peter Rousselot

Peter’s Take is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.

Peter RousselotShould Arlington turn night into day in its residential neighborhoods?

Late last week, ARLnow reported on an issue that it described as second in controversy only to the streetcar: the installation of new LED streetlights in Arlington residential neighborhoods.

The controversy raises some complex technical issues relating to the brightness and color of the light emitted by alternative kinds of LED bulbs, and the standards governing how bright the light ought to be along entire streets in individual residential neighborhoods.

But, the overwhelming outcry against these lights from citizens in the neighborhoods in which they have been installed sends an unequivocal message similar to the message about the streetcar: it’s time for the County Board to suspend the installation of 5500K LED light bulbs and consider other options.

One of the options that must be open: replace the 5500K LED light bulbs already installed in residential neighborhoods with lower intensity, warmer LED light bulbs like the 3500K LED bulb.

A decision to replace the 5500K LED bulbs with a lower intensity, warmer LED bulb might be resisted for a variety of reasons, including the cost of doing so and the reluctance to admit that the decision to use the 5500K LED bulbs in residential neighborhoods was incorrect.  Neither of these reasons is a valid justification for rejecting this option.

A private sector analogy is appropriate. Suppose you were a member of the Board of Directors of a condo or a town house complex, and you had joined with other Board members in selecting a particular type of light bulb and light pole placement for the external lighting on the private land owned by the condo or complex. After the lighting system actually was installed, you found there was an outcry that the lighting was way too bright and intrusive. What would you do?

You could simply take refuge in the content-free argument that “after many community meetings, this issue has already been decided”. You could try to placate the condo or home owners with a cheap “fix” that doesn’t really address the core problem. Or, you could acknowledge that based on what we know now, a new light bulb or lighting system is the best choice, and that’s what we are going to install.

Let’s keep an open mind to all options.

Peter Rousselot is a former member of the Central Committee of the Democratic Party of Virginia and former chair of the Arlington County Democratic Committee.

The Right Note: You Can Ring My Bell

By Mark Kelly

The Right Note is a weekly opinion column published on Thursdays. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.

Mark Kelly

Last week, my counterpart on the left wrote at length about Ken Cuccinelli (R) un-ringing a bell.

As Peter should know, the gifts Cuccinelli received were legal under Virginia law — even if ill-advised. He also should know that Cuccinelli called for an immediate special session of the General Assembly to debate and pass new ethics rules on gifts. Cuccinelli’s position is we should address this issue now.

What is Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe’s (D) position on ethics reform? McAuliffe has said he supports a $100 gift cap, but he opposes a special session on ethics — calling it a “gimmick.”

It has been widely reported that McAuliffe’s former company, GreenTech Automotive, is under SEC investigation. One question mark is what happened to $45.5 million invested in what Virginia economic development officials under Gov. Kaine were concerned was a cash-for-visas scheme? If McAuliffe did not unduly benefit, why is he refusing to match Cuccinelli’s tax return disclosures?

And, what if we take a look at the gift disclosures of our other elected officials who served in Richmond and evaluate the gifts under the “Peter’s Take” lens?

For example, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) did not cut a refund check to the wealthy donor who gave him the use of a Caribbean vacation home for $15,000 in 2005 when he was running for governor. It is similar to the gifts Cuccinelli received. And, Kaine can afford it, right? Will Peter take on this gift in next week’s column?

One source of gift-giving to our local delegation also sticks out like a sore thumb. You may recall that the Signature Theater recently received a taxpayer-funded, $250,000 bailout for its unpaid taxes. All the while, Signature has been handing out free tickets to our local delegation in Richmond.

From 2008 to 2012, free theater tickets for the amounts indicated were given to the following local lawmakers:

  • Adam Ebbin (D): $1,523
  • Patrick Hope (D): $860 (3 years)
  • Bob Brink (D): $795
  • Barbara Favola (D): $367 (2 years)

Under the Peter’s Take standard, should these elected officials who received free theater tickets from Signature cut a refund check to the Treasurer’s Office in Arlington? It would certainly help offset the cost of the bailout by $3,545.

And, any member of the all-Democrat County Board should probably reimburse the treasury for any free tickets they received from Signature as well, right? They can afford it, right?

Hopefully Peter will take on Democrats on gifts and ethics as well.

Mark Kelly is a former Arlington GOP Chairman and two-time Republican candidate for Arlington County Board.

Morning Poll: Fall-Like Weather in August

By ARLnow.com

Sunny Sunday in Rosslyn (photo by Katie Pyzyk)You would be forgiven if you stepped outside this morning and thought it was late September.

The low temperature at Reagan National Airport this morning was a chilly 60 degrees. Despite lots of sunshine, we’ll be lucky to reach 80 degrees this afternoon.

It’s a continuation of yesterday’s fall-like weather, which tied for the 4th-coolest Aug. 14 in recorded D.C. history, according to the Capital Weather Gang.

Some may be cheering the mild temperatures, while others may be mourning what feels like an early end to summer. What do you think?
 

Morning Poll: Should Washington-Lee HS Be Renamed?

By ARLnow.com

Washington-Lee High SchoolA speaker at last week’s Arlington School Board meeting wants the school system to remove “Lee” from Washington-Lee High School.

Virginia Square resident John Schachter said Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general during the Civil War, deserves “no positive recognition for his appalling record [of] treason, racism, hatred and dishonor,” according to the Sun Gazette.

Despite his impassioned plea, School Board members seemed unmoved and even the head of the Arlington branch of the NAACP was “at best ambivalent” about the idea — preferring to stay “focused on dealing with current issues, not reopening old ones,” the Sun Gazette reported.

Do you think Lee’s name should be removed from the school?

 

The Right Note: Ten Things to Talk to Your County Board About in August

By Mark Kelly

The Right Note is a weekly opinion column published on Thursdays. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.

Mark KellyLike Congress, the Arlington County Board takes the month of August off from regular meetings. Members of Congress will be back in their districts, receiving an earful or two from constituents about big ticket items like immigration reform, the debt limit and the Affordable Care Act rollout (such as it is).

You may have some questions of your own, but here are ten suggested topics to talk to County Board Members about this month in anticipation of their final four meetings of the year:

1. Ask them to list three ways they could make doing business easier in Arlington and why they have not already done them.

2. Ask them to vote on a resolution requiring a public bond vote prior to any construction funds being allocated to the trolley. Yes, it is possible. No, it is not required. But, any project that will cost upwards of half a billion dollars deserves a public vote.

3. Ask them to freeze any further trolley-related spending until the $1 million super stop review is completed.

4. Ask them to give a line item account of the swelling cash on hand surplus: specifically, where the revenue came from, and what it is earmarked for.

5. Ask them to list their top five priorities for spending any excess revenue in the close-out process at the September meeting and provide an explanation of why that spending is more important than lowering tax rates.

6. Ask them to consider switching all new hires into a defined contribution rather than a defined benefit retirement system. See Detroit.

7. Ask them to vote to require all future County Managers live in Arlington.

8. Ask them to insert an exception in any backyard hen regulations to allow anyone living on a property adjoining a County Board Member to have chickens, regardless of the lot size.

9. Ask them to vote on a measure allowing any county employee, including Board Members, to voluntarily give up their current health care plan and trade it for the plan offered under the Affordable Care Act exchange. The Board has not been shy about making political statements on federal and state issues in the past. With all the bumps and bruises the President’s signature initiative is taking, a measure like this would be a strong show of support.

10. Ask them for their top three reasons to vote for Terry McAuliffe that do not include the name of his Republican opponent.

Mark Kelly is a former Arlington GOP Chairman and two-time Republican candidate for Arlington County Board.

Peter’s Take: Mr. Cuccinelli, Un-ring That Bell

By Peter Rousselot

Peter’s Take is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.

Peter RousselotVirginia Governor Bob McDonnell belatedly has promised to return gifts he received from a wealthy Virginia businessman — while arguing he did nothing illegal in accepting them.

By contrast, Governor wannabe Ken Cuccinelli insists he has no intention of returning any of the more than $18,000 in gifts he received from the same businessman. Cuccinelli’s “explanation”: the gifts he received (e.g., a catered Thanksgiving dinner, private jet trips, luxury vacation lodging) are the kinds of gifts that literally cannot be returned (unlike McDonnell’s Rolex watch). To quote Cuccinelli, “There are some bells you can’t un-ring”.

Mr. Cuccinelli, don’t insult our intelligence.

You can place a dollar value on every gift you received from businessman Jonnie Williams. You are perfectly capable of writing him a check for the total amount of all those gifts. Your refusal to do so is sending a message to the voters of Virginia about your personal ethical standards. As I have previously written, it’s a disappointing message — a message that says a lot of bad things about you.

Since it is so obvious that your refusal to return your gifts would be contrasted unfavorably with McDonnell’s agreement to return his, why have you taken this stand? Is it because you think you are tougher or smarter than our current Governor? If that’s not the explanation, what is?

Don’t expect us to accept your excuse that “there are some bells you can’t un-ring”. You are trying to sell yourself to Virginia’s voters as a savvy lawyer who knows his way around a courtroom, noting that this experience helps qualify you to be our Governor. For this reason, your striking misuse of the phrase, “there are some bells you can’t un-ring,” is an embarrassment to your candidacy.

That phrase is most appropriately used in a courtroom when information has been given to jurors that they are not supposed to have. After that happens, the judge frequently offers to instruct the jury to disregard the information, but the lawyer for the party that might be harmed if the jury relies on the information often moves for a mistrial on the grounds that “there are some bells you can’t un-ring”.

Mr. Cuccinelli, you don’t seem to be able to use your legal training very well.

Mr. Cuccinelli, get out your checkbook and un-ring that bell.

Peter Rousselot is a former member of the Central Committee of the Democratic Party of Virginia and former chair of the Arlington County Democratic Committee.

Peter’s Take: How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?

By ARLnow.com

Peter’s Take is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.

Peter RousselotPatti Page picked the right dog, but Arlington County did not.

As we learned late last Friday, the opening of the Clarendon dog park will be delayed yet again.

Arlington is touting the “good news” that the Clarendon dog park supposedly is still on budget at $1.6 million. These latest developments raise more questions than can be answered in one column. I will answer three today:

Should it have cost $1.6 million to build this dog park? Can the $1.6 million be justified because “this is more than just a dog park”? Does this dog park inspire confidence in the County’s decision making?

The answer to all three questions is: NO. So what should it have cost?

I often find myself on opposite sides of the political fence from Arlington civic activist Tim Wise. But in this case, Tim has prepared an excellent analysis of what it has cost in the past to build dog parks in Arlington. Tim concluded that the County spent over $700,000 more on the Clarendon dog park than was justified by the costs of earlier dog parks. Anyone can quibble with this or that detail, but I agree with Tim’s bottom line: Arlington spent hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars more on this dog park than it should have.

Was it worth the extra $700,000?

The key to arriving at the right answer to this question are the frames of reference with which one should answer it. Those frames of reference include recognizing the “new normal” of Arlington’s economy and adopting a “core services” approach to Arlington’s budget priorities. Within those frames, the extra elements Arlington included in this dog park never should have been included in the first place. Arlington could have built a very attractive replacement dog park on this site for $900,000.

Why did Arlington go wrong?

The County went wrong because it failed to recognize that:

  • The economy it enjoyed prior to the “Great Recession” is not coming back,
  • The $700,000 premium that it misspent on this project would have been better spent on core services like schools, fire, police, or road maintenance, and therefore
  • It has the wrong budget priorities in place.

It is bad news that Arlington spent $1.6 million on the Clarendon dog park.

Peter Rousselot is a former member of the Central Committee of the Democratic Party of Virginia and former chair of the Arlington County Democratic Committee.

The Right Note: Pulling Back the Curtain

By ARLnow.com

The Right Note is a weekly opinion column published on Thursdays. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.

Mark KellyLast week, Arlington’s Treasurer Frank O’Leary produced a chart which showed the swelling cash on hand coffers in the County. He was right to question why it was growing so much. He was also right to point out it very well could mean Arlingtonians could be paying less in taxes.

Having this issue brought to light seemed to be a good bit of common sense to me.

Then it got more interesting. This week O’Leary wrote a letter to the editor explaining that his commentary on paying lower taxes and questioning spending decisions by the Board was in his role as a private citizen and not as Treasurer.

We are left to wonder, what prompted O’Leary to feel compelled to backpedal so quickly? Did he receive one or more angry phone calls from a County Board member or members? Did they threaten to cut his office budget? Did they say they might just have to back a primary opponent against him in 2015?

Frank O’Leary is elected by the same Arlingtonians who elect the County Board. They entrust him with a critically important fiduciary duty. He is the guardian of the treasury funded by the taxpayers.

He had every right to bring this issue to our attention. And, he had every right to offer his commentary on it as the elected official who is safeguarding our money.

I have made the argument that our County Board and Manager underestimate revenue each year to give themselves two things: a “budget shortfall” excuse to raise taxes; and a slush fund to spend in the close-out process each year.

Maybe the Board feels like having to explain away our growing cash on hand surplus confirms my theory. Maybe they just do not appreciate having to explain themselves at all. Of course, the explanation by county staff did little to actually answer the underlying questions O’Leary raised. Regardless of how the Board and Manager feel, we deserve more transparency from our county government, and we should applaud Frank O’Leary for pulling back the curtain on this issue.

Here’s my challenge to Treasurer O’Leary going forward. Put the County’s check register online. Let citizens who care about fiscal responsibility monitor the cash flow every month. This will really hold the County Board accountable, and it sounds like it is well within your constitutional job duties.

Mark Kelly is a former Arlington GOP Chairman and two-time Republican candidate for Arlington County Board.

Morning Poll: Two Left Turn Lanes on Wilson in Rosslyn

By ARLnow.com

New traffic pattern on Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn New traffic pattern on Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn

Earlier this summer, county road crews reconfigured the eastbound (downhill) lanes on Wilson Blvd approaching N. Lynn Street in Rosslyn.

Instead of having one lefthand turn lane and two straight through lanes, the middle lane was converted to a second lefthand turn lane.

The impacts of the reconfiguration are most noticeable at rush hour. Whereas a big traffic impediment was once drivers trying to merge from the middle lane into the single turn lane, now the single through lane is backed up, at points causing jams at intersections.

Some drivers cheered the move.

“Finally… a solution to the rush hour commute,” said local resident Eric Hagerstrom, in an email to ARLnow.com. Other drivers, however, complained about the new backups.

If you’ve driven through it, what do you think of the lane change?

 

The Right Note: First Gubernatorial Debate

By Mark Kelly

The Right Note is a weekly opinion column published on Thursdays. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.

Mark KellyIt seems pretty clear after the first clash between Ken Cuccinelli and Terry McAuliffe that the election for governor in Virginia will be decided by one simple question – who do you trust?

Cuccinelli says that McAuliffe cannot be trusted because his record as a partisan hack means he believes politics is nothing more than playing “let’s make a deal.” Cuccinelli argues McAuliffe’s theory of government puts special interests ahead of the interests of all Virginians.

McAuliffe says that Cuccinelli is a “trojan horse” who cannot be trusted to focus on jobs and the economy because he is too socially conservative. According to T-Mac, Cuccinelli would drive away potential investors in the Virginia economy with his backwards views.

So, it naturally follows to ask why McAuliffe made the decision to locate his car company in Mississippi instead of Virginia? Surely Mississippi is more progressive on social issues?

Mississippi has a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage just like Virginia. Mississippi has implemented stronger health care regulations on its abortion clinics just like Virginia. In fact, one could argue that Mississippi is equal to or more “socially conservative” than Virginia on each and every issue.

During the debate, McAuliffe was indeed asked why he decided to put GreenTech Automotive in Mississippi. His answer – it was an economic decision. Successful business leaders, he claims, must make business decisions that make sense for their bottom lines. Not only is it true, but McAuliffe has no choice but to say it. It is his only viable, if feeble for someone who wants to be governor of Virginia, line of defense for his decision.

It is always nice when candidates debunk their own lines of attack. McAuliffe succinctly explained it – businesses make business decisions. It is not a state’s stance on social issues which determines where a business will locate its jobs. If it were, Texas would be losing out to California instead of the other way around. And, McAuliffe almost certainly would have taken his business to Massachusetts or Maryland.

Unfortunately, just because McAuliffe contradicted himself, does not mean his campaign will stop using this line of attack. The same goes for the less-than-accurate claims McAuliffe made about his own involvement in the transportation plan and about the contents of the independent report on Cuccinelli’s gift disclosures. He firmly believes that if you repeat something long enough, people might just accept it as fact. It comes from years of cooking up political spin to get Democrats elected in Washington, DC.

The bottom line: if McAuliffe was trying to get away from the “fast-talking, deal making, political huckster who will say anything to get elected” tag in the first debate, he failed.

Mark Kelly is a former Arlington GOP Chairman and two-time Republican candidate for Arlington County Board.

Peter’s Take: Cuccinelli Reaffirms Hostility to Gay Virginians

By Peter Rousselot

Peter’s Take is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.

Peter RousselotIn his first formal debate with Terry McAuliffe on July 20, Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli re-affirmed his unremitting hostility to gay Virginians.

In last week’s debate, Cuccinelli was reminded by moderator Judy Woodruff of his remarks several years ago that “same sex acts are against nature and are harmful to society.” Given the opportunity to say that he has since moderated his views, Cuccinelli instead doubled down, confirming that his views “about the personal challenge of homosexuality haven’t changed.”

It would be hard to imagine a more offensive set of values for a person who is asking Virginia voters to give him the opportunity to lead a state of 8.5 million people in the 21st century.

Just what are the views Cuccinelli hasn’t changed?

Cuccinelli has:

  • Offered a bill that urged the U.S. Congress to propose a federal constitutional amendment to provide that (i) marriage shall consist only of the legal union between a man and a woman; and (ii) the uniting of persons of the same or opposite sex in a civil union, domestic partnership or other analogous relationship shall not be recognized in the United States.
  • Opposed a bill that would offer health benefits to same-sex partners because of his “desire not to encourage this type of behavior into law.”
  • Stated “when you look at the homosexual agenda, I cannot support something that I believe brings nothing but self-destruction, not only physically but of their soul.”
  • Urged Virginia colleges and universities to revoke their policies banning discrimination based on sexual orientation.
  • And as recently as February 15, 2013, reiterated his opposition to same-sex marriage in Virginia.

In earlier columns, I reviewed the two strikes against Cuccinelli based on his war on science and his war on women. Here, we have the third strike: his war on gays.

In politics, as in baseball, three strikes and you’re out.

Peter Rousselot is a former member of the Central Committee of the Democratic Party of Virginia and former chair of the Arlington County Democratic Committee.

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