'Stovepipes' Common and Expensive in Local Transportation Planning

Hey Yupette,

Thanks to County Board Candidate John Vihstadt for raising the issue of  'Stovepipes' during the special County Board election campaign. But 'Stovepipes' aren't just common between Arlington County Government and the Arlington School System. Every jurisdiction (Arlington, Alexandria, Falls Church, Fairfax County) gets to do it's own transportation planning inside the Virginia Beltway.

Why spend $300 million to $500 million on a streetcar system that will replace 10 buses on the Pike? Why are both a streetcar system and a bus rapid transit system being designed for Potomac Yards? Why does every jurisdiction get to design it's own multi-modal pedestrian and bicycle system? Why does every jurisdiction have its own local bus system which doesn't connect with other jurisdictions' local bus systems? Why is it difficult to walk from East Falls Church to Falls Church? From Arlington to Alexandria? From Arlington to Skyline? From Arlington to McLean? Why don't transportation planners from Arlington, Alexandria, Falls Church, and Fairfax County share transportation data (traffic counts) with each other?

Transportation is so expensive. And will be even more expensive. We should be eliminating 'Stovepipes' and 'Silos' whenever and wherever possible.

2100 too

Paygo and Advisory Commissions Budget Work Sessions - County Board to Tax, Borrow, Spend Every Penny Possible.

Hey, Yupette,

Yesterday afternoon and evening the County Board and County Manager held their third and fourth budget work sessions - Paygo and with the various Advisory Commissions.

No surprise about Paygo. The County Board wants to tax, borrow, and spend every penny of County revenue on new and expensive infrastructure projects, ranging from Information Technology to Metrorail.(which will cost the County $31 million in FY 15). Not only will extravagant new public infrastructure be funded but legacy infrastructure that was never maintained is going to be replaced, thanks to real estate assessment increases. County Board shrugged off the costs of constantly upgrading Information Technology infrastructure and the significant increase in the cost of replacing synthetic playing fields and will fund both the installation and replacement of several playing fields during FY 15. After years of not keeping up with street paving requirements the County will increase the street paving appropriation from $7.6 million if FY 14 to $11.3 million in FY 15.

County Board was happy that mid-year revenues are up significantly and county government and the school system will share another $15 million. There were no surprises from the Advisory Commissions last evening. As usual they want more money to support the status quo.

2100

County to Purchase, Demolish, Affordable Historic Douglas Park Home Adjacent to Park

Hi Yupette,

Another expensive item on this Saturday's County Board Consent Agenda. The County is buying a historic  affordable arts and crafts home on a lot adjacent to Douglas Park for $480,000 and demolishing it to add more space to the park, although Douglas Park is lightly used, apart from the playground. The home, located at 1700 South Quincy Street is between two larger homes and the intent is to purchase more homes adjacent to Douglas Park in the future. Many homes in this area are in need of basic upgrades, but the neighborhood is a primary source of affordable single family homes in South Arlington. I live a quarter mile from the Douglas Park neighborhood and I question whether an affordable home should be demolished to provide open space that would be a vacant lot between two existing homes. There's a huge lack of open space elsewhere in the county which should be addressed first. BTW, former County Board member Chris Zimmerman lives on South 16th Street, across from Douglas Park.

Pamela, Douglas Park

Better Financial Oversight Needed for County's Capital Projects

 Hey Yupette,

Another County Board Meeting, more supplemental appropriations to cover 'unforseen circumstances' and 'changes in scope of work'. This time an extra $61,000 for masonry repairs to the Fairlington Community Center and and extra $152,408.22 for  Potomac Interceptor wastewater improvement project. Stay tuned to see how much Wakefield HS synthetic field replacement is going to cost taxpayers.once the staff report is posted on-line. Also, there are couple of contracts for water main replacements with 20% as contingency cost increases. Agenda Items 10-14 on the March 15th Consent Agenda.

Why bother with bidding capital projects when the actual cost of the completed project is way over the lowest bid? Time for an Inspector General at 2100 Clarendon Blvd..

2100 too

Population Growth, Punitive Criminal Justice System, Creative Class Partying Strain Arlington's Public Service Agencies

Hey Yupette,

County Board's second budget work session was with Arlington's public service agencies yesterday - Police Department, Fire Department, Sheriffs Office, and Emergency Communications Center. Bottom line on their operations is that all are strained because of Arlington's population growth (variously estimated at between 14,000 and 21,000 since the 2010 Census), increased Creative Class partying, and a Criminal Justice System that is becoming more punitive.

The FY 15 Budget will add only a few new full-time employees to the Arlington Police Department, Fire Department, Sheriff's Office, and Emergency Communications Center. All three agencies have resorted to overtime and flexible resource allocation to meet demands for service and maintain federal and state accreditation. The Sheriff's Office is experiencing an acute shortage of staff and is resorting to inmate lockdowns to reduce staff overtime. Emergency Communications Center has gone to 8 and 10 hour shifts and flexible scheduling to meet residents' calls for service. Creative Class evening and weekend partying in the Ballston-Rosslyn corridor has cut into the Police Department's budget for other services. The Fire Department is planning to offer enhanced medical services at incident and accident sites rather than transport persons with minor injuries to a hospital.

There was no interest by the County Board, ECC, Police Department, Sheriff's Office, or Fire Department in exploring ways to reduce their work load by decriminalizing behavior like marijuana use. Nor was there any discussion about effects of future population growth on public service agencies. The County Board (especially Chairman Fisette) was generally unsympathetic to requests for more full-time employees by Arlington's public service agency managers.

2100

Arlington's Democratic Leadership Creating Integrated Punitive Social Control Databases

 Hi Yupette,

Yesterday was the first day of the County Board's FY 15 budget work sessions and first up were the Clerk of the Circuit Court, Circuit Court, General District Court, and Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judges, Commonwealth's Attorney, County Treasurer, Commissioner of the Revenue, Magistrate's Office, and Voter Registrar. All are Democrats, like the County Board. And, like the County Board, they are major decision makers for the rest of us.

What have these folks been up to and what do they have planned for FY 15? Well, besides their usual activities, running the courts, collecting taxes, and so on, they're well on their way to creating huge integrated databases including everyone who has any transaction or interaction with the legal system whatsoever (parking tickets to unpaid taxes to felonies) and many who have had no interactions with Arlington's legal system at all but are engaging in non-conforming and otherwise suspicious behavior.

The Clerk of the Circuit Court will soon have all civil, criminal, and land records on-line. Circuit Court Judges (like Judge Bill Newman) are happy they're going to have more money to try more drug offenders (even though elsewhere marijuana possession is being decriminalized). General District Court Judges are happy that all traffic summonses will soon be on-line.

Commonwealth's Attorney Stamos is happy that putting massive amounts of parking ticket data online will help solve her perennial problems with bad parking tickets. She and the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judges are looking for much more use of "early intervention" whereby children, adolescents, and adults who violate some social norm (as one Commonweath's Attorney's employee joked, "They read books instead of participating in wholesome sports activities, like basketball") are tagged for "surveillance and intervention" by schools, police, and courts and their records of nonconforming behavior put into another social control database.

Last, but not least, County Treasurer O'Leary is expanding his "Special Collections Vehicle System" whereby retired Arlington police officers drive around Northern Virginia in vehicles equipped with license plate reader cameras to apprehend Arlington-resident vehicle owners who are shopping at places like Tysons and are in arrears in paying taxes, fines, and fees. Data from this operation are shared with the Commissioner of Revenue's Office where they will be integrated with income tax data in another big database.

Since Arlington County Democratic Committee members have been integrated into all county agencies for years - the Arlington Democratic Party IS County Government - the goal in the near-
term is to have ACDC activities seamlessly interact with County Government activities.

Needless to say, the County Board was quite pleased about the progress of ACDC-County Government's social control information system implementation agenda for FY 15.

2100

Vihstadt Wins CivFed County Board Candidate Debate

Hey Yupette,

John Vihstadt convincingly won tonight's CivFed debate against his more-of-the same Democratic opponent, Alan Howze, Independent Green Janet Murphy, and Independent Steve Holbrooke.

Vihstadt's specific agenda for reforming County Government (an end to extravagant legacy programs like the Pike Streetcar, funding an independent auditor at 2100 Clarendon Boulevard, and seeking to ameliorate 'stovepiping' between the County Board and School Board) contrasted to Howze's 'we can do better, based upon my experience at IBM'.

Janet Murphy's and Stephen Holbrooke's debate performances were outside mainstream Arlington politics, but both left the audience (which packed Hazel Auditorium) with valuable suggestions. Holbrooke, a forensic accountant who is retired from the FBI, repeatedly stated that Arlington Government needs a top-to-bottom audit and drastic controls on spending for programs like affordable housing. Murphy, who was employed as a realtor for over a decade and currently works in Arlington's hospitality industry believes that alternatives. like traditional boardinghouses, are needed to augment current homeless prevention programs in Arlington.

It's obvious to me that John Vihstadt's experience in community service over the past three decades has more than enabled him to be an effective County Board member. He has my vote.

Joan, 22207