Confused about the Falls Church Referendum on the May 6 Ballot?

Confused about the Referendum on the May 6 Ballot?

You’re not alone! Many citizens we’ve talked to feel the same way. They say the language of the Referendum proposal is so confusing, they can’t figure out what it’s asking them!

The Referendum language has drawn criticism from the very beginning… even the State Board of Elections (SBE) initially refused to certify the Referendum for the ballot due to “improper wording” and “confusing language”. Apparently, it was only after the proponents of the Referendum threatened to sue the SBE that they modified the language and cleared it for the May 6 ballot.

Certain candidates who have said they SUPPORT the Referendum, now seem to be distancing themselves from the Referendum. However, candidates Nader Baroukh, Margaret Housen and Ed Hillegass are on record as supporting the Referendum. They are running on a Pro-Referendum platform.

The CBC Candidates: Robin Gardner, Lindy Hockenberry and Lawrence Webb are all AGAINST the Referendum.

It seems that for many voters, this campaign is boiling down to a vote for or against the development direction the City is heading in. But this election is about so much more than that. It is also about the long, proud CBC tradition of service to building a strong community and strong schools vs. the opposition’s record of non-service, “no-shows” and non-support of the schools.

VOTE CBC. VOTE FALLS CHURCH. VOTE NO ON THE REFERENDUM.

Clear Divide Among Council Candidates on Referendum Question

3 of the 6 Candidates for City Council do NOT support the proposed Charter Change Referendum which will be on the ballot May 6th for City voters. The CBC Candidates: Robin Gardner, Lindy Hockenberry and Lawrence Webb are clearly against the Charter Change Referendum.

Nader Baroukh, Margaret Housen and Ed Hillegass have all declared they support the Charter Change Referendum.

Gardner, Hockenberry and Webb give reasons why they don't support the Charter Change:

• "The proposed Referendum would restrict the ability of City Council to seek and approve commercial developments (which ultimately places more of a tax burden on residential homeowners)."
• "It's bad government to start changing your City's Charter of Government; it should only be done for very compelling reasons and when there are no other governmental tools available, and that is not the case here."
• "The proposed Referendum would create a hostile climate towards developers seeking to build any commercial development in our City - and would actually drive projects away. Again, without the much needed commercial tax base, the tax burden of supporting our schools and city services would fall squarely on the backs of the residential homeowners."

Nader Baroukh finally gave a clear YES answer in support of the controversial Referendum when put on the spot by Mayor Gardner at the Chamber of Commerce's Candidate Debate Tuesday night at the Falls Church Community Center. Baroukh had formerly been vague on the Yes or No question of "Do you support the Referendum?", at both the Chamber debate and the League of Women Voter's Debate last week, by sidestepping actually saying Yes, he supports the referendumb.

Margaret Housen had already declared her support for the Referendum at the LWV Debate. Ed Hillegass, the perennial No-Show Candidate (he did not show up at either the Chamber or LWV Debates), declared his support for the Referendum in flyers which he handed out around town.

Patrice Lepcyzk stated she did NOT support the Referendum, for many of the reasons cited above (bad government, too restricting, would increase taxes, etc), at the LWV Candidate Debate as well.

Council Debate clips on You-Tube!

Please check out the NEW YOU-TUBE clips of the Candidates for City Council(http://www.youtube.com/dfccva) from the League of Women Voter's Debate last week. The clips were recorded and posted to You Tube by the Deliberation Falls Church organization, another great place to go if you're looking for information: http://www.dfccva.org/. Thanks to DFCCVA for this EXCELLENT opportunity to see the candidates in action (except for the one candidate who did not attend) and hear their positions on important issues such as the Charter Change Referendum!

Candidates who attended the LWV/VPIS Council Debate:
The CBC Candidates: Robin Gardner, Lindy Hockenberry, Lawrence Webb.
The Opposition Candidates: Nader Baroukh, Margaret Housen, Patrice Lepczyk.
No-Show: Ed Hillegass

Ed Hillegass a No-Show at League/VPIS Council Debate

Ed Hillegass was a no-show at the League of Women Voter/V.P.I.S.' City Council Candidate Debate last night in the Council chambers. The packed house was told just prior to the start of the debate that the League heard from Ed Hillegass yesterday that he would not be attending the debate. No word on why.

Ed Hillegass is apparently taking lessons from his mentor, Sam Mabry, regarding campaign "strategy". (Note to Hillegass: Not showing up at the League of Women Voter's Debate is NOT a great strategy - unless you think the "no-show" label is less harmful to you as a candidate than your possible performance at the debate if you had shown up?? That's what's on everyone's mind...)

At least Ed Hillegass called; Mr. Mabry didn't even make a courtesy phone call to the League when he was a no-show at their Council debate in 2002 (in fact he criticized THEM in the paper that year!).

Well, the public will have another chance to familiarize themselves with Ed Hillegass as a candidate for City Council at the Chamber of Commerce's Council Debate on April 22nd. Let's hope he shows up.

The citizens of Falls Church deserve the opportunity to know who they are being asked to vote for!

Letter to Falls Church - from Sharon Schoeller

Below is a Letter to the Editor of the Falls Church News-Press from Sharon Schoeller, a long time resident and highly regarded advocate of Falls Church schools. This is a shortened version for the News-Press. Click HERE for the original, full version.

Dear Editor,
As a 29-year resident of Falls Church and a past president of PTAs at every level of our schools, I’m concerned about some of the candidates running for City Council and their “plans” for our City. Our schools are among the best in the nation and we want to keep them that way. To keep our schools competitive, we need funds to support them.
For decades, Falls Church tried with little success to attract significant commercial development. Then a number of expert studies showed that a key factor in attracting business is incorporating high-end, mixed-use development - because new residents in the mix add the buying power needed to draw businesses.
Recent Councils have successfully increased our tax base through mixed-use development, so much so that we will pay lower taxes this coming year, while we fully fund the School Board’s budget request.
New development has replaced blighted sites with high-end buildings, new shops and restaurants (e.g., The Broadway replaced the long abandoned AdCom building and The Spectrum replaced an overgrown lot vacant more than two decades).
Some candidates say the new development “overcrowds” our schools. This is not the case. Buildings such as the Broadway and Byron house very few school children. These kinds of mixed-use projects generate substantial new revenue for the City, and put little load on our schools. They also mean more customers for our local businesses, helping them prosper and generate more sales tax revenue, further enhancing school funding.
Thanks to diligent planning by recent School Boards & Councils, and strong community support for construction of our new middle school and expansion of Mt. Daniel, our schools have ample capacity. As the current School Board chair stated in a letter Feb. 24th, “we can handle the anticipated influx of students in our current buildings and classroom space in the upcoming years.”
I plan to vote for Robin Gardner, Lindy Hockenberry and Lawrence Webb for Council because they support reasonable mixed-use development as part of an overall strategy to attract business, citizens and tax dollars to Falls Church to support our excellent services and schools.

Sharon Schoeller
Falls Church

Information on the proposed REFERENDUM to change the City Charter

Check out this article by Bob Burnett - he interviews a former Mayor of Seattle for information on referendums in general and specifically on the Charter Change referendum which Falls Church voters will face when they go to the polls on Tuesday, May 6th. Click on the title above, or here: Link

What's the deal with CBC candidates?

Q: Why do they run a "joint campaign"? Are they all the same?

A: No, they're not all the same. They are independent, non-partisan candidates who came to the CBC Nominating Convention and asked for the CBC endorsement. Once they won the CBC Convention's endorsement, they became the CBC candidates.

Q: Then why run as a team?

A: Because it works! :-) No, seriously, it does work - the experience of campaigning together, working together towards a common goal in the weeks leading up to the election prepares the candidates for the job of serving on council or school board together.

It builds consensus. It builds a team - and many CBC-elected officials credit the arduous task of campaigning together for establishing the teamwork that GETS THINGS DONE once they are in office!

They just don't get it..

Nader Baroukh, supporter of the Charter Change Referendum and fierce opponent of the City Center, decided to run for Council only after the current Council's unanimous vote to approve the City Center project... and it is clearly his mission to oppose any meaningful mixed-use commercial development.

What Nader Baroukh doesn't get is that the City's current and pending mixed-use projects are actually relieving the tax burden on the homeowners. While our neighboring jurisdictions' tax rates are sky-rocketing, Falls Church is projecting a modest 3 cent increase which, when combined with this year's lower assessments, will actually lower the average Falls Church homeowner's tax bill!

Nader Baroukh has also criticized our City schools, stating "it will be very difficult" for the City to "fund new facilities and staff". Nader Baroukh also said "the City Council needs to have more oversight over the School Board". Doesn't take a rocket scientist to know where he's going with that train of thought. What Nader Baroukh doesn’t get is that our schools are the City’s crown jewel…and the reason we exist.

Supporting our schools has been Job 1 for CBC candidates for almost 50 years, since the inception of the CBC! And, sorry Nader, but nobody does it better!

Nader Baroukh also wrongly states that mixed-use development is a "direct threat to our city schools", which is just plain not true. If he checked the facts on the numbers of new students from already built mixed-use developments in the City, he would know that the Broadway was initially projected to generate 15 new students, and it had 1. And the Byron was projected to have 13.5 new students and it has 6. The anti-development crowd's argument that mixed-use buildings are going to "flood our schools" with new students has been proven wrong over and over. Check your facts, Mr. Baroukh and Mr. Hillegass....

Ed Hillegass handed out a flyer this past weekend which criticizes the schools, the CBC, the Council, the City Attorney, the City Center Plan, and mixed-use development. He also clearly aligns himself with Sam Mabry's controversial charter change referendum and asks people to visit Mabry's website, and to vote FOR the referendum, which would stop the City Council's ability to approve any mixed-use commercial development in the City. However, he gives no indications of how he would fix any of the so-called problems he lists.

Ed Hillegass ad in the News-Press this past week goes even further in his criticisms – he criticizes the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce - calling them a “special interest” group – well, um, yeah, if you consider our Falls Church businesses “special interests". Again, he utterly fails to say how he would fix any of the problems he perceives.

As for the other candidates, Margaret Housen and Patrice Lepcyzk, no one has been able to find them since they filed to run. They haven't been seen at any City events (such as the Affordable Housing seminar, FirstFriday events, etc) or Council meetings, Budget meetings, work sessions, etc - and as far as anyone knows, neither has a website and there's no way to figure out what they stand for. Maybe they will make an appearance at the League of Women Voter's Debate and we can find out more about them then.

In the meantime, check the facts about ALL the candidates. Ask them face-to-face how they would fix the problems they say our City has.

Falls Church & Surrounding Jurisdictions' Proposed Tax Rates for 2008 - THE FACTS

Fact: The Real Estate tax rate for Falls Church for 2006 and 2007 remained steady at $1.01 - coming in at #5 out of the 11 Northern Virginia jurisdictions tax rate comparison schedule. See table*
Fact: Falls Church's projected Real Estate tax rate for 2008 is $1.04 - - - coming in even lower at #8 on the list of the 11 Northern Virginia jurisdictions. See table**
Fact: While some of Falls Church's neighbors have been hit with 20%+ increases in their Real Estate tax rates for the coming year, most Falls Church homeowners can expect to see LOWER tax bills in 2008 for their homes. Average homeowner's tax bill will decrease by $112.
Fact: Falls Church's ability to lower most homeowner tax bills for '08 is due to increase in new commercial construction/assessments. See http://www.fallschurchva.gov/ article on RE Assessments dated 3-5-08.
So, please. Remember the FACTS when the doomsday naysayers begin their campaign season rhetoric!