Thoughts on Linda Smith and Gerry Connolly

By: WAlcorn
Published On: 6/6/2007 4:35:52 PM

As I was mentioned in a recent letter to the editor published in the Fairfax Connection newspaper, I want to throw in my 2 cents on Linda Smyth and Gerry Connolly and their record of supporting citizen participation in local government.  For those of you who saw it there are a few ironies in her letter that are worth noting.

Irony number one is that there is no stronger citizen voice on the Board of Supervisors than that of Linda Smyth.  Longtime Providence District residents remember Linda?s many years of service as President of the Briarwood Citizen?s Association where she successfully fended off inappropriate claims of ?transit oriented development? from developers seeking higher densities far from where most residents would walk to the Vienna metro station.  She has continued the Providence Supervisor citizen-oriented tradition like her immediate predecessors Gerry Connolly, Kate Hanley and Jim Scott.  Long-time Fairfax residents will also remember Gerry Connolly as President of the Mantua Citizens Association and the Fairfax County Federation of Citizens Associations. 

Irony number two is that the Transit Oriented Development (TOD) planning initiative referenced positively in Deborah Reyher?s letter was formed by the Board of Supervisors upon a joint motion of Linda Smyth and Dana Kauffman.  Good local leadership depends on officials like Supervisor Smyth and Chairman Connolly who listen for good ideas and work to implement them no matter the political stripe of the requester, and has resulted in successful historic and ongoing community-focused, collaborative efforts undertaken in Providence District such as the Merrifield Task Force, the Tysons Task Force of the early 1990s and the new Tysons replanning effort now underway.

Irony number three is that the biggest recent advancement in engaging community involvement in Fairfax County?s land use review processes was initiated by Chairman Gerry Connolly?s motion at the Supervisors? meeting on January 23, 2006.  At this meeting the Board created a group to recommend how land planning and development information is currently made available to the public, to make recommendations for accessibility improvements, and to develop a high level plan of action (see details of this committee?s work here).  This motion catalyzed numerous improvements to make Fairfax County land use information more accessible and usable, and the Board adopted the group?s long range vision and recommendations on January 22, 2007.

These are not the actions of leaders who dismiss citizen input and participation.  Rather, these are leaders who cut their teeth as citizen activists themselves and continue the Fairfax County tradition of citizen leadership that has produced several generations of responsive elected officials. 

Comments



A little biased? (Lowell - 6/6/2007 5:20:46 PM)
"In December 2004, Commissioner Alcorn was reappointed by the Board of Supervisors on the motion of Chairman Connolly for an additional term that will expire in December 2008."

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Also, this is interesting (Lowell - 6/6/2007 5:22:37 PM)
Charlie was credited publicly by Planning Commissioner Walter Alcorn (At-large), along with FairGrowth co-founder Will Elliott, as being the catalyst for the Fairfax County Planning Commission?s Task Force on defining "Transit Oriented Development...

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Alcorn Does Not Want You To Read Orwell (Lee Diamond - 6/6/2007 11:38:08 PM)
This is so repeat it over and over till they believe it.  The traffic, McMansions, Boss (metaphorical) body slams on resisters to his vision of Gerryland, etc.


I Respect, but Disagree with, Commissioner Alcorn (Deborah Reyher - 6/7/2007 10:13:52 PM)
First of all, it takes guts to post in one's name, so thank you for that.  But on the substance of your comments I offer these three responses:

1.  Those of us on the receiving end of Linda's dismissive treatment of citizens as 'unsophisticated and ill-informed and spreading misinformation' will continue to take issue with perspectives from your side of the fence.  You do not see how she excludes citizens adverse to her views from meetings by cherry-picking who can participate and then saying the conference room is too small for others to attend.  You do not see how she simply fails to respond to letters or requests for meetings.  This happened to us many times at Wedderburn.  Actually, she did the same to the sponsors of the 5/31 Candidates' Forum, so there is a recent example also.

2. After about two years of citizen protest about proceeding with MetroWest as a claimed TOD project without a definition, and facing immense citizen pressure to postpone the March 2006 final hearing, the motion to convene a TOD Task Force was made in the first week of December 2005 to great fanfare.  Then there was silence.  I finally FOIA'd the County in February 2006 to find out what was going on.  Nothing.  Absolutely no action had been taken in three months.  I spoke to Fred Selden to confirm this.  And nothing did happen until well after MetroWest was safely approved, and of course Dunn Loring was scheduled to be done well before the TOD Task Force finished.  So now we do have a TOD policy, for which you publicly credited Charlie Hall and Will Elliott as pressing the initial idea, but it is largely too late to be very useful in Providence.

3.  January 2006 marked the kick-off of this election year.  You yourself said in my personal hearing at one of the TOD meetings that Gerry Connolly's marching orders were NO LAND-USE CONTROVERSY in 2007 due to the upcoming election (and we also heard this from many others so it was no revelation).  So the timing for convening this LONG LONG overdue effort -- which again was fundamentally catalyzed by citizen protest -- was just political posturing.

So, while you personally have my respect as a responsive and effective public servant, I cannot embrace any of your arguments.



How about a little love for Mr. Alcorn? (Sam the Man - 6/8/2007 8:20:31 AM)
Geez!  Ms. Reyher, have you no sense of decorum in the way eviscerate Mr. Alcorn?  First off it is totally unfair to place the facts in a chorological order that clearly shows what is going on in the Fairfax County Government.  Secondly, it is totally unfair to comment in a non passionate dialogue that is designed to simply and fairly show the citizens are just being handled in a business as usual way.
It would be much fairer if you would engage in a little hyperbole so the Connolly team could attempt to discredit you because of the tone or language of your message.  In that way they could deflect the facts of the message.  Let?s get on Board here.

Sam



OK, I'm a Bad Blogger..... (Deborah Reyher - 6/8/2007 8:35:04 AM)
That was a seriously funny post!  Especially because there is a lot of truth to it -- remember, we are all just "angry bickering bozos" to many of our elected officials (Walter Alcorn and several others clearly not included).

But Charlie takes the high road in marshaling the facts also, and again, his own words are the very best rebuttal to this diary.



I'll Be Politely Asking The Same Thing Over And Over Til' Tuesday (Lee Diamond - 6/8/2007 2:24:17 PM)
I'll be out trying to reach voters wherever they are this weekend.  The Fairfax pol song and dance is old for me.  I can't be bothered trying to break it down any more.  I can't spend my life throwing up.