Author: Elena

Allow me to share my perspective living in this County.  On a regular basis, I find myself having to explain I am not a Christian and  it is always  very uncomfortable.

As I have shared in previous posts, having suddenly felt as though I was being “evangelized”, I made the  decision to leave my hairdresser because the owner of Tranquility chose to spread her faith in her Salon, Tranquility Day Spa.

Here is a story I did not share.  My kids had picked raspberries on our property and sold them on the corner of our property. Our street intersects a main road.  A very nice woman stopped and wanted to buy some berries.  I shared that a portion of the money the kids raised would go to the Wounded Warrior Project.  This very nice woman replied how wonderful  it was that the kids we donating a portion of their hard earned money to a charity.

She then continued on to share her church,  had recently done a fundraiser for Wounded Warrior also.  I told her I thought that was fantastic.  The conversation should have stopped there in my opinion.  It didn’t.  Let me interject, at this point in the story, that I  always wear my Star of David.  In this county, I almost feel like I have to in order to deflect the religious overtures I feel on a regular basis.  Anyway, I digress.

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You know what, Moon and I will stop obsessing about birth control and the Republican attack on women, when no longer have to read about insane legislation!

I am almost speechless, ALMOST, being the operative word.  Are we in the 21st century?

Since when do you have to tell your employers about your sex life?????!!!!!!!!!

In what WORLD do these Arizona Republicans believe it is ok to fire women because they use birth control for sex??!!  WHAT IN THE HELL is happening to my country?

Why would a woman get fired you may be asking, well, what if the sex police determine her affidavit was fudged?

This my friends, THIS legislation, is what intrusive government really looks like.

OMG, what an invasion of privacy.  I am disgusted.

 

Arizona Birth Control Bill Penalizes Women For Using Contraception For Non-Medical Reasons

Arizona legislators have advanced an unprecedented bill that would require women who wish to have their contraception covered by their health insurance plans to prove to their employers that they are taking it to treat medical conditions. The bill also makes it easier for Arizona employers to fire a woman for using birth control to prevent pregnancy despite the employer’s moral objection.

House of Representatives passed earlier this month and the Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed on Monday, repeals that law and allows any employer to refuse to cover contraception that will be used “for contraceptive, abortifacient, abortion or sterilization purposes.” If a woman wants the cost of her contraception covered, she has to “submit a claim” to her employer providing evidence of a medical condition, such as endometriosis or polycystic ovarian syndrome, that can be treated with birth control.

 

This is a wonderful opportunity to help those families in need!  Erick Finley is sponsoring this event.  Even if you can’t make it to bowl, any donation to SERVE is appreciated.

 

 

For many years now Finley Asphalt has sponsored the annual ”Strikes for SERVE”  Bowlathon to support the SERVE campus of the Northern Virginia Family Service. This year’s event will be held on Saturday March 10th at the Bowl America in Manassas.  In addition to Finley Asphalt’s sponsorship I will also be bowling with my wife Lisa and my two sons Jonathon and Nick. While my bowling skills are quite embarrassing, it is for a great cause and we have a lot of fun. I am reaching out to you to raise money for this event. Last year our team (“Team Finley”) was the top fundraiser for this annual event. Please assist me by donating as much as you can to do your part in “Striking” Out Hunger and Homelessness!  I realize that the economy has not been great for the past several years. We all wish that things would return to the boom days that we all experienced.  However, we are all still doing okay. There are many people out there who are far from okay.

 

Here are just a few things that SERVE provides to the community.

 

•   900 families each month are receiving food assistance

•   Over 65,000 meals were served to 400 people, including over 200 families, at our emergency shelter last year.

•   The need for emergency housing is so great that SERVE maintains a waiting list of 150 people who have no place else to stay.

 

Please make all checks payable to “Strikes For SERVE” and mail to:

Finley Asphalt and Sealing, Inc.-Attention Erick

P.O. Box 1710

Manassas, VA  20108

 

I need to collect the donations prior to the march 10th event. My goal is to raise $5,000.00. Finley Asphalt will match all donations dollar for dollar up to $5,000.00.  A reminder e-mail will be sent out  one week prior to the event.

 

Thank you for your time and consideration.

 

So ,let me get this straight, in spite of the Planning Commission denial of the application and Staff’s recommendation that it be denied, the BOCS votes to approve the CPA Wolf Run development. The proverbial “Cherry” on the top is the subsequent two Supervisors, Stewart and Candland, who decry the approved “advertised” tax rate of 1.215 up from last years 1.204.

Let’s recap shall we. Corey approves the HUGE residential development of Avendale, Candland approves what SHOULD have been commercial zoning into residential with his Wolf Run vote, and they are complaining about having to increase taxes to pay for needed local resources like teachers and new police stations?

Stewart said one item that he thinks can be cut from Peacor’s proposed budget is the Central District Police Station, which has generated some neighborhood opposition. Stewart said it needs to be built at some point but could probably be pushed off to the future.

Peacor’s facility budget calls for a new station near Davis Ford Road and Prince William Parkway to maintain response times and relieve overcrowding of the area’s other police stations. The station would cost of $28.1 million over the next three fiscal years.

What world do some people live in? The BOARD is directly responsible to for ensuring the needs of the community are met. Who do they believe will ultimately pay for the new housing they themselves approve?

Here is a suggestion, all these Comp plan amendments that will come before you in the next month or so, all these developers (well, really, only two) who will ask for special allowances to build houses in areas zoned for commercial, just say one word…… “NO”!

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On its face, several large HOA’s joining forces to influence policy sounds good right?  I am not so sure.  One of its leaders, Mac Haddow, was/is a huge supporter of Peter Candland.  From the article, it sounds like there are several leaders in this group, I hope that their voices are not overshadowed by Mac Haddow. Unlike Maddow, the other members are not political donors to any specific elected local official, that is good news.

What makes Haddow particularly noteworthy is that he has experience as a Republican state legislator in Utah and as a lobbyist, meaning he understands how politics works on an in-depth level.

He also donated $1,000 last year to newly elected Gainesville District Supervisor Peter Candland (R) and serves as an informal adviser of sorts to Candland.

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Imagine how desperate developers must be to craft a bill that targets one little ole Planning Commissioner, Kim Hosen. Kim is the executive of the Prince William Conservation Alliance.

I will freely divulge that I am a friend of Kim’s and she is one of the most honest, selfless, decent human beings I have the privilege of knowing. She  has a policy of fairness for all, developer and citizen alike. As a planning commissioner she simply expects that everyone will follow the rules that are intended to be applied to development practices, and for that, she is clearly feared by the development community.

Corey Stewart appointed Austin Hayes who is a partner in Christopher Realty. Apparently for one of his very first cases before the Planning Commission he recused himself. So a Developer is perfectly fine as a Planning Commissioner but someone who has no direct monetary gain is NOT!

Citizens should be furious, I know I am. Kim has nothing to gain but ensuring that PWC citizens have access to clean water and air, she works hard to prevent PWC taxpayers from footing the bill for bad development proposals.

She is only one voice and yet, her voice must be very powerful to have scared so many.

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I was thinking, what would be the the best way to celebrate MLK and the civil rights struggle, and I found this old footage from the Oprah Show.  A nice young Jewish boy decides he wants to LIVE the black experience.  He read a book in high school “Black Like Me” and was ultimately inspired to experience what it means to be “black” in America.  This story is from 1995, I wonder, does anyone believe his experiment would have a different outcome in 2012?

I admire his bravery, both emotionally and physcially, to take this personal challenge of racial honesty.  Josh’s plan was to be “black” for 28 days, he lasted 7 days.   He felt like after 7 days, his personal journey was complete.  He now understood what his black friends had been telling him for so many years, it was a white world.  As a white male he had never been treated the way he was treated as a black man.

The real kicker is when two black men “turn” white, it was a different reaction when they asked directions and tried to get into office buildings.  There was a sense of “white” priveledges that seems to be afforded based soley on skin color.

Is our world different today?

http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Race-on-The-Oprah-Show-A-25-Year-Look-Back/5

Peter Candland has now demonstrated his willingness to vote against measured development or whatever term he used while running for the seat that John Stirrup vacated.  I can’t tell you for sure how John would have voted, but I imagine, given his land use record in the two terms he served, he probably would have voted against Oaks III in the Occoquan District.

Supervisor Mike May gave a multitude of credible reasons why this rezoning should not move forward. The Mayor of Occoquan, Ernie Porta, also eloquently wrote about why this rezoning was bad government planning, and yet, although it shocked no one, Corey, Wally, Maureen, John J, and Peter Candland voted in favor of the Developer.

I wonder what the reaction will be of the Supervisors, who continually vote for bad development, when the EPA starts breathing down thenecks of the  BOCS about why this County is not compliant with the Chesapeake Bay clean up efforts.

More importantly though, this is a prime example of how citizens once again,  are completely ignored, for the benefit of the developer and campaign coffers.  The Major and the residents, many of whom fear their businesses will be adversely impacted,  ALL expressed valid quality of  life concerns relating to this rezoning, which include flooding and others on serious traffic impacts.  The “locals”  were ALL ignored and their concerns not addressed by the five Supervisors who voted for the Developer instead of the citizens who would be most impacted.  Shame on the BOCS.

I hope citizens are paying attention because at some point we will have to pony up our tax dollars to pay the non compliance fines levied by the EPA.  Maybe Corey figures by then he will have moved into the Governors mansion! As for Peter Candland, now he knows why he is NO Martha Hendley. I imagine he probably had little understanding of what was being discussed anyway.

Kudos to Mike May, Frank Principi, and Marty Nohe for making a stand against poor development practices. In the end though, the poor town of Occoquan will be the ones to directly “pay” for this debacle.

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So my goal today was to work on an article for the blog about a land use application happening in the Occoquan District. The Mayor,Ernie Porta, has written an extensive op-ed on the proposed development on Tanyard Hill Road. One of the major issues with this rezoning is that serious negative impacts of storm water run off to the town of Occoquan.

Although I have the article in PDF format, my understanding was that Mayor Porta had been published in the Journal Messenger. So, I go to search the newspaper, and what jewel do I find front page you might ask? An article titled “Cleaning the Chesapeake Bay Watershed“.

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. —

Prince William County is preparing to play its part in the cleanup of the
Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

The problem is, officials don’t know exactly
how to prepare due to a lack of guidance from the federal and state governments,
Prince William Watershed Management branch chief Marc Aveni said.

 

Really, PWC doesn’t know how to prepare?  How about starting with implementing proper development guidelines!  This impending rezoning in Occoquan is a fabulous opportunity to take charge and stop burying your “head” in the sand.  One way or another this county has to make a real effort to become compliant or ALL citizens will be covering the fines levied on PWC by the EPA.

The county is still factor­ing how much of the cost of stormwater management
will fall on the backs of its residents or businesses, Aveni said. Right now,
single-family homeown­ers pay $26.36 a year in fees through their monthly
mortgage bill, while residents of townhouses, condominiums and apart­ments pay
$19.78 a year. Businesses pay $12.80 per 1,000 square feet of impervious
area.

Here is a portion of the article written by Mayor Porta of Occoquan. I hope the BOCS heeds his warning and sets the example that PWC taxpayers will no longer be responsible for funding the substandard development practices that have previously been allowed to unfold.

PWC can no longer run from its watershed responsibilities, it simply costs too much and the long term consequences are too critical. We all need safe drinking water, it isn’t a choice.

OAKS III REZONING–BAD FOR PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY

On Tuesday, January 10, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) will vote on a rezoning application that is adamantly opposed by Occoquan Supervisor Mike May, the Town of Occoquan, and representatives from nearby communities. If approved, the rezoning would permit the construction of a 32,500 sq. ft. office building along Tanyard Hill Road, which we are convinced will significantly and negatively impact both storm water and traffic flows into and around Occoquan. But the implications of the rezoning’s approval extend beyond simply the Town of Occoquan and surrounding environs, for approval would also result in the BOCS rewarding the type of developer behavior the county should be actively discouraging, particularly when environmentally-challenging property is involved.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-state-of-nova/post/should-prince-william-board-have-discretionary-funds/2011/12/20/gIQAVb0YCP_blog.html

Tom Jackman from the Washington Post wrote an outstanding article on the uniqueness of our Discretionary funds in PWC compared to all other Northern Virginia Counties.

In Prince William County, the Board of Supervisors has access to a fund that no other Northern Virginia jurisdiction offers its governing body: a “discretionary fund,” which is really just the money left over after the expenses of running the district office are spent.

I believe my favorite quote was from  Jacqueline Byers, research director for the National Association of Counties.

Jacqueline Byers, research director for the National Association of Counties, said the number of counties with discretionary funds has dwindled greatly in recent years, because of “abuse. We did see occasionally a little too much discretion,” and that county officials sometimes traded approval of each other’s pet projects.

“The counties that decided to keep them, decided to put guidelines in that they could use,” Byers said. Jim Campbell, the executive director of the Virginia Association of Counties, said discretionary funds were “not a common practice” in Virginia.

Gee, ya think there is the likelihood for abuse?  That is what Wally seems incapable of admitting, that gving 100 grand of taxpayer money to your wife’s charity wreaks of impropriety.   My belief is that being in elected office should be a disadvantage not an advantage.  Haven’t we all heard of those “contests” where employees friends and family are ineligible for the winnings.  Why is government any different.  Family and friends should be ineligible for direct government donations to avoid even a hint of preferential treatment.

Even Corey admits this concern in the statement he gave the reporter.

Stewart, the current board chairman, said, “I personally don’t do it. I don’t know if I ever felt comfortable, even when I was a district supervisor, giving to charitable organizations from a government account. Even though it’s well-intentioned, it’s been controversial. For me, it’s not worth the controversy.”

Almost 1 million dollars has been collected from Supervisors in the past several years.  Does anyone else have a problem with this cause I sure do.  I hope citizens will continue to put pressure on the Board to change this practice.  Apparently Corey’s dismissive remark about citizen participation demonstrates his flippant attitude towards our concerns regarding fiscal responsibility.

Stewart said the issue of whether the supervisors should have discretionary funds “comes up like clockwork every three to four years. And then it goes away.”

 

Corey, I imagine you are hopeful that this will “go away”.    My hope instead is that he will  take a leadership role and address this backwards way of “doing business” in PWC.

 

 

UPDATE:  The article has been posted on www.ruralcrescent.org and can be read there.

PDF format

The election of Peter Candland might very well signify the death knell for the Rural Crescent.  For those who may not believe that Peter Candland could be the nail in the coffin for the Rural Crescent and sane land use for the entire county, think again. This article from the Washington Business Journal leave voters with no illusions.    I am going to urge everyone to put this article up on your facebook page, send it to your e-mail list, send it to friends who may have friends who vote in the Gainesville district. People must get out and vote for Ann Wheeler, not just because she signed the Rural Crescent Pledge, but because, overall, she is the more qualified candidate.

Post this thread on your facebook page, the message must get out that Peter Candland, like Corey, like Wally, is sure to be the next “Developers Candidate”. The Rural Crescent protected this County during the last out of control housing boom, now is the not the time to wonder about its fiscal value for all residents!

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