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 9^th, 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.