Whether you live, work or are just passing through Northern Virginia, the 30-mile stretch of Route 1 that connects the Capital Beltway to Aquia Harbor is one of the nation’s most congested transportation arteries.
Portions of Route-1 carry an average of 231,000 vehicles per day and, even with improvements, vehicular traffic will only increase in the coming years.
Trust in government at all levels has been falling for years. And it isn’t particularly surprising. We hear almost daily about politicians on the take, breaking the public trust for their own personal or political gain. Unfortunately, we let it continue year after year not only by reelecting those guilty of such practices, but also by not demanding more transparency and accountability from our elected officials. But that doesn’t have to be the case in Prince William County.
In 2008, I was selected to serve as the lone, atlarge citizen of the County’s Board Audit Committee, a group charged with ensuring that staff are efficient and effective in complying with laws, policies and procedures. The board itself eliminated the citizen position from the audit committee before I had the opportunity to actually serve. This lack of government transparency is unacceptable. To date, the board consists only of the County Supervisors themselves with no input or participation from members of the community. This needs to change. If we as citizens are not invited to be part of processes such as this, and get the bad news along with the good, we lose the power to keep our public servants honest and focused on finding real solutions to the problems we face. As Chairman of the Board of County Supervisors, I will make it a top priority on my first day in office to restore citizen membership to the audit committee so that the public has direct access to compliance and efficiency audits.
In November of this year, we will be going to the polls to select our representatives to the House of Delegates. In the 31st District, the choice is between Scott Lingamfelter and Sara Townsend. If you feel our school system is incredibly well funded and your representatives in Richmond have consistently been investing in education to create a better future for your children you may wish to re-elect Scott Lingamfelter; however, if you are an educated voter, fully aware of the Delegate Lingamfelter’s voting record, you will cast your ballot for Sara Townsend.
The basis of a solid economy is a well-educated populace. After teaching in public and private schools for nearly 20 years, I finally had to leave the profession last year because of the constraints put on public schools by our House of Delegates. Despite mandated requirements put in place by our elected representatives, funding has been slashed at the state level thanks to representatives like Delegate Lingamfelter.
Well, the campaign season for the General Assembly Election in November is upon us. This will be increasingly evident as we endure a parade of negative attacks and falsehoods that will emerge in the weeks and months ahead. I wish it wasn’t so. People—voters—deserve the truth, not false and misleading rhetoric. That is why I am personally responding to the article penned by Jane Touchet, chairman of the Democratic Women of Lake Ridge, attacking me in support of my challenger, Sara Townsend.
Ms. Touchet, a partisan Democrat who doesn’t reside in the district that I serve, says “Mr. Lingamfelter has proven again and again that he is no friend of public education”. Really? Let’s review the facts.
Almost every elected official and candidate on the ballot this November will acknowledge crowding as a significant issue in Prince William County Schools.
While the School Board and Board of County Supervisors have made limited headway on this issue in recent years, it seems we continue to work around the edges of this problem. Until we have a plan with budget implications, we cannot have an open and honest debate about class size reduction.
Residents of the 31st House District of VA (which includes parts of Dumfries, Dale City, Woodbridge, and Triangle in Prince William County, and Catlett, Calverton, and Casanova in southern Fauquier County) have an opportunity this year to elect an educator to the House of Delegates. Since only eight of our current delegates have a teaching background, the election of Sara Townsend would provide the much-needed addition of someone who has teaching experience and an interest in education policy.
Sara Townsend, a resident of Fauquier County, is a former teacher who is currently pursuing a PhD in Education Policy at George Mason University. One of her strong motivations to challenge Delegate Scott Lingamfelter for this seat is her desire to speak up for students, teachers, and parents in the decision-making body of Virginia. She recognizes the importance of prioritizing education and the proper balance of students and teachers in the classroom if children are expected to do their best and learn.
Back in the late 1980’s, I was a young father of two children, living in the Mapledale community in Dale City where I grew up. I worked as a Branch Manager at a bank in Washington, DC. As a one-car family with one parent commuting to work and the other needing to travel locally, transportation could have been an issue for us. But we were fortunate. I was able to walk a very short distance to the bus stop and take an OmniRide bus to and from the city each day. It allowed my wife Jean and I to live without the added expense of a second car.
On July 9th, I attended a PRTC board meeting, during which their current budget shortfall and possible options for service reductions were discussed. As a long-time user of PRTC services, I believe that it is critical to our community that local leaders come together to solve this issue without further reductions to OmniRide and OmniLink services. Allowing PRTC services to be reduced will hurt Prince William families, particularly those similar to mine as a younger man.
One thing that I have learned in my professional career as a strong leader is that transparency and inclusion builds strong results within a community of committed team players, committees or organizations. I was so taken aback after reading that there was a closed door session to discuss prospective salary increases by the Prince William County Board of Supervisors. Well, that is lack of transparency and inclusion.
As an elected public official, the steward of community welfare, it is imperative that the community can trust and believe that the official’s leadership and integrity is solid. We need to know that our elected officials are focused on keeping their ears to the pulse of what the community needs, not what the official feels they are entitled to. The act of conducting a closed door session to discuss a salary increase for the Board of Supervisors was plainly and simply an act of entitlement. But, herein lies the question….is transparency, truth, and forthrightness disregarded when we make public decisions in a privately exclusive way?
This past week, the senior member of Virginia’s congressional delegation introduced legislation to remove the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ability to hold Virginia accountable for failing to clean up the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. People should be deeply disturbed. The Potomac provides drinking water to five million people.
The Potomac River was once a bountiful asset and source of employment. In 1604, Captain John Smith wrote of fish so plentiful he could spear them with his sword, oysters that “lay as thick as stones” and schools of fish so plentiful that his men attempted to catch them with frying pans.
The United States Navy just expanded their maternity leave because they are “continually looking for ways to recruit and retain the best people.” Prince William county Schools (PWCS) should follow their lead.
Nationally, over 75% of public school teachers are women. Not only will an attractive maternity leave policy show women the respect they deserve it will allow PWCS to draw a better candidate pool for open positions within the school system. The policy will, in part, help pay for itself by increasing teacher retention that reduces costs by having to hire fewer teachers every year.
