On June 15th, Independent Candidate for County Board, Audrey Clement, e-mailed a press release to the local media regarding the secret deal the Zimmerman County Board made with developer Penzance to demolish Wilson School and trade County-owned parkland in Rosslyn for a fire station. Because the local media in Arlington have chosen to ignore Dr. Clement's campaign, we print her press release verbatim, in the interest of better government in Arlington. Cindy.
Audrey Clement Will Make Her County Board Appointments Calendar Public
It was recently revealed that Arlington County Board signed a secret deal with Washington-DC developer Penzance in 2013 to trade County owned parkland for a fire station to be financed by Penzance as part of a mixed-use and office development at the Western Rosslyn Area Planning Study (WRAPS) site.
The deal was outlined in a Letter of Intent in January 2013, the existence of which WRAPS itself had been ignorant until three months ago. By sacrificing parkland to private development, it also violates the County's Natural Resources Management Plan, which mandates "zero-loss of County-owned natural lands".
The Washington Business Journal reports a Rosslyn vacancy rate of 30.8 percent. "Keeping a deal secret that would add to Rosslyn's commercial vacancy rate is irrational and irresponsible," Dr. Clement stated.
"Consequently, when elected to County Board, I will make my appointments calendar public, with no redactions. Arlington residents deserve to know with whom the County Board meets in the County Board offices and the substance of their conversations. If confidential matters need to be discussed, that's what closed meetings are for."
The advertisement for WRAPS hearings concerning Rosslyn redevelopment was approved by County Board on June 16th.
41 comments:
What I want to see -- All newspaper editors annually make public their federal income tax forms.
Starting with Scott McCaffrey and Scott Brodbeck.
Forget about Jeff Bezos. He and Amazon and the Post don't pay federal taxes.
Was Audrey the only County Board candidate who attended the Pike Jazz festival yesterday? I was there awhile but didn't see the others.
About 2 years ago a few days before a county board meeting I sat in front of the county board meeting room for about 45 minutes reading the agenda items that are stored there for people who attend County Board meetings to peruse. That was while chris zimmerman was running the show. There was a steady stream of men in business suits getting on and off the elevators and heading to and from the county board offices. It's obvious there is a pre-approval process for major projects that are later approved by the county board after being approved by the advisory commissions.
The County Board can only say NO to anything when whatever it is they are asked to approve becomes very expansive or completely irrational. Happens rarely.
Expansive and expensive.
If the local media didn't act as de facto Democratic Party hacks Audrey Clement would have been elected to the School Board last year.
I agree with Audrey that special interest politics has got to stop.
Fast tracking of major projects without telling anyone? Forest City's site plans, including architectural drawings, for the Ballston Common makeover have been submitted to Zoning.
Only two candidates I saw Saturday at the Pike Jazz Festival were Alfonso Lopez and Audrey Clement.
Who are we? Sheeple taxpayers. People they listen to are their newest Guru of Gridlock, Victor Hoskins, and County Staff from Fairfax County.
Christian Dorsey showed up late at the Blues Festival.
County Board meetings are a big charade where they discuss done-deals before they approve them.
If you aren't willing to approve done deals, no matter what the future consequences, you won't be appointed to advisory commissions.
I'm just voting for Audrey Clement and no one else in November. The political process is terrible. Would-be candidates can't obtain 125 valid signatures to get on the ballot? Duh.
See how far they push the Ballston Commons makeover next month with the advisory commissions.
Why not just put everything on the Consent Agenda? That's where they're headed. Don't believe it? Read the Consent Agenda for the last County Board meeting.
I blame the media. Did you see what happened after the Post ran a lengthy article about the Reeves Farm farmhouse sale?
County Board can't even say NO to the scofflaw biketards.
Political process is a disaster in Arlington.
We have to have better on the County Board to replace Tejada and Hynes.
Mary Hynes has been a disaster on the WMATA Board. So much so I started driving to work in the District, rather than take MetroRail, earlier this year
How about the COMPLETELY CORRUPT Arlington Police Department?
Yeah, ACPD's three priorities are overtime, more overtime, and even more overtime for chaperoning weekend events like Rolling Thunder.
Anyone read the Post yesterday?
Car free diet? Me take Metro after what, 5 years of Mary Hynes on the WMATA Board?
Same Mary Hynes who is pushing for "fast tracking" every developer's project (No pun intended).
Dump the Democrats. Put all Independents on the County Board.
Remember the independent internal auditor? Was supposed to be starting work next week, right? Well the position hasn't been advertised yet!
Victor Hoskins is the new Chris Zimmerman.
County Board's Guru of Redevelopment Victor Hoskins has us in an urbanization race with DC aka Smart Growth on Steroids.
Can't say or do anything about the free range bikester bozos. Another special interest whose votes are bought with extravagant spending of tax dollars.
Transportation Guru Mary Hynes wants to clog our streets with bicycles, while approving more motor vehicles on our streets. I gotta believe she will join Zimmy at Smart Growth International in January.
What's worse than ART buses stuck behind streetcars at 11 mph? ART buses stuck behind bicyclists at 5 mph.
Meanwhile, two new Urban Village Idiots (Christian Dorsey and Katie Cristol) are preparing to take over from the two old Urban Village Idiots.
Mary Hynes is a complete Ninny.
Dorsey and Cristol will spend extravagantly on social services to benefit their good bud social services providers.
Whatever happened to the County's new homeless shelter and treatment facility which has been under construction for what, 2 years?
NO to Dorsey and Cristol. Dorsey's fellow unaffordable affordable housing for-profit non-profit providers would obtain huge windfalls if Dorsey were on the County Board and Cristol would go right along.
Agree...County Board would go from approving twenty $500,000 bus shelters to twenty thousand $500,000 "affordable" apartments...with at least 10% of the construction and operating costs being skimmed by poverty pimp Democrats.
Christian Dorsey is buying votes by promising taxpayer-funded low cost apartments for everyone who wants one.
Audrey Clement tried to consolidate the more-than-dozen "affordable" housing providers to save tenants hundreds of dollars in monthly rent that'a going to $100,000-and-up salaries to the housing for-profit non-profits.
Look at the deal approved on the Consent Agenda last County Board meeting to refinance the Ft. Henry Gardens Apartments at $120,000 per unit.
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