The Falls Church Insider All About the City of Falls Church, Virginia, For & By The Folks Who Live & Work There

Andy and I both live and work in Falls Church City.  For both of us, the Broaddale Village Shopping Center is about half-way between our home and the office.  So, I was excited to hear the news that Chipotle would be going into the old paint store location.

As of next Friday (June 25th) when the new Chipotle opens here in Falls Church, I’ll be a regular. A couple of notes about their opening:

• The first 100 customers to purchase a burrito, taco, bowl or salad after 3pm on opening day will receive a free t-shirt and free burrito card to use at a later visit.
• They are throwing a pre-opening fundraiser for the City of Falls Church Community Special Events on Thursday, June 24 from 5pm until 8pm.

They will be open from 11 am to 10 pm daily.  See you there!

I’m out of town so I voted last week.  The word then was that based on the number of early voters (few) they expected a relatively low turnout.  Something like 30% of our 8,500 potential voters.  That would be sad — there is a lot at stake.  I’m not going to try to educate you on the candidates or sway your vote.  The standard Falls Church blogs and publications have done plenty of that.  I will try to sway you to vote, period.  Don’t just vote yourself, encourage your neighbor to vote, too.  The polls are open TODAY until 7 pm.

PLEASE VOTE.

Thanks.

Our friends at the CBC asked us to share the announcements of two candidates for the upcoming May elections, Patrick Riccards (school board) and Barry Bushow (city council).  Here they are in full:

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I found the recent discussion surrounding the EDA Member Challenges Housing Project’s Value to City post on Falls Church Times to be really interesting.  As I’ve learned more about the City, a few things have become clear:

1. There has long been a segment of residents opposed to any significant commercial or mixed-use building in the City. Lots of people in Falls Church just don’t want tall buildings (even a few stories), retail shops, or anything else that would take away from the “small town” feel.  My sense is that over the past several decades, this opposition has discouraged a variety of development projects.
2. Increasingly, some citizens are convinced that without significantly increasing the commercial tax base over the next 5-10 years, our City will fall into financial ruin and be forced to merge with either Arlington or Fairfax County.  (Others would say that a bump in taxes will cover us just fine.)
3. There is a perception that attracting significant commercial development in Falls Church is difficult, even impossible.  Historically the reasoning seemed to be that doing so required an “anchor” building and/or tenant around which others could build (which we don’t have).  More recently, the down economy seems to be the primary reason.

For the sake of this post, let’s make two big assumptions:

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From the CBC:

CBC to Hold Nominating Convention for May Election Candidates

Citizens for a Better City (CBC) will hold its biennial Candidates Nominating Convention from 2:00 – 5:00 pm on Saturday, February 20, 2010,  in the George Mason High School Auditorium.  At the Convention, CBC will nominate up to four candidates for the City Council and up to four candidates for the School Board, for elections to be held May 4, 2010.

CBC invites full participation from all eligible voters in the City of Falls Church.  CBC Membership is not required to attend and vote.

For other related information, access the CBC website www.fallschurchcbc.net.

The following is Ron Peppe’s announcement regarding his candidacy.

School Board Chair, Ron Peppe First to Formally Announce Candidacy for City Council!

Although the snow is falling as I write this, and the spring election seems far away, it is time for the CBC nominating convention, and the kickoff of the city election season. Four years ago at this time, I had the privilege of being chosen as a CBC candidate for the School Board and then being elected to the office. Now it is decision time for again for all of us- candidates have to decide about running, and all of you as voters get to decide whom to elect.

I am writing today to share my personal decision about the upcoming election, and to ask for your consideration when you make up your own minds. I have enjoyed my four years on the School Board, and I want to stay very involved in the community.

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When I started this blog in 2008, I planned to blog about my experiences getting to know the way Falls Church operates.  Pretty soon, I invited my brother / business partner, Andy Rankin, to also blog here.  Like me, Andy lives and works in the City of Falls Church.  Like me, Andy volunteers on a board (I’m on the cable access board while Andy’s on the much-more-relevant EDA board.)  Here we’ve shared our thoughts on where the City is headed, when we’ve had time — which hasn’t been often, unfortunately.

There have always been other sources online for information about Falls Church, and a few things have happened since we launched:

1. The Falls Church News Press has expanded their online presence, which updates more often.  It’s a great resource with a deep history in the City, but since it covers the broader Falls Church area (not just the City) I’m less inclined to join the online discussions there.  While I appreciate the FCNP, it just hasn’t seem to gain much traction in terms of online discussions.
2. Blueweeds, the blog written by our mayor’s husband, has been posting far less frequently than it had been (like us!).  As a result, discussions on Blueweeds have fallen off considerably.  It’s too bad — I enjoy Mike’s posts (even when I don’t agree with his approach) as they often spark good debate among residents.
3. The Falls Church Times launched and has done an impressive job with their volunteer staff of both posting a high volume of quality content, but also inspiring a wide range of view points to be shared in the comments.  This is where Andy and I tend to share most of our thoughts these days (rather than on this blog).  The FCT also covers a lot of the “daily news” about FC that I had thought about covering here, but frankly time is hard to come by.
4. We configured the Falls Church Twitter account to tweet as these sources post content (so you can follow them all in one place) and we occasionally tweet extra info as well.

I’m glad that there are a number of places where online discussions are happening among residents of the City and surrounding areas.  An active and engaged citizenry is vital to our future, and it’s also a great way to get more out of the experience of living / working in a small City.

If you know of any other blogs / sites where discussions are happening, let me know.  Also. if you haven’t jumped into any of the discussions that are happening, please do!

As I mentioned the other day the City Council is considering an ordinance that would move the City elections from May to November.  It seems like the main reason to make this change is because more people would vote.  Many more people in the City vote in November elections than in May elections.  Most people naturally say that having more people vote in an election is better than having fewer people vote - and that’s probably true most of the time.  I don’t think it’s true in this situation.

When considering this issue the first thing I pondered was - why don’t more people vote in May?  I haven’t done any research but these are the reasons I came up with:

1. No decisions to make - apparently there haven’t been that many candidates on the ballots in recent years.  If there are generally 5 people running for 4 slots or 4 people running for 4 slots then people might not feel compelled to come out and vote.
2. People don’t know about the election - this one I find hard to believe.  I haven’t lived in the City during a May election but I’m guessing the Falls Church News Press and various online forums cover it heavily.  Maybe there are flyers, signs, and some banners up around town?
3. People don’t care - don’t take this the wrong way!  I think in a place like Falls Church a lot of the residents are very educated and knowledgeable about government.  The strong voter turnout in November (the City regularly ranks very high in overall voter participation rates for November elections) indicates that people care about national and state politics.  I just think many people don’t pay too much attention to the local stuff.  I never really did when I was living in Fairfax County.  Now, I personally pay more attention to the local stuff than the national stuff - but I’m not saying the other approach is bad, just different.
4. People are lazy - I don’t think this one is true either.  I don’t think that the effort of going to the polls one extra day every other year is keeping people from voting.  I really, really hope that’s not what’s going on.
5. People feel uninformed - again, I’m not really buying this one.  I don’t think it would be hard for people to become informed about the candidates and issues so if people aren’t voting because they don’t think they know enough to vote… well see #3 above.

Okay, but what would happen if the election was moved from May to November?  We know a lot more people would be going through the voting booths.  How many of those people would even realize that there was a local election (see #2 above)?  They would get into the booth and see a slate of people to choose for City Council and School Board and at that point would obviously realize that it’s also a local election - but how would they choose who to vote for?

I think some of our educated voters would actually skip the local section, realizing that they didn’t have the info needed to make an informed decision.  Many would probably go ahead and pick some names.  Some of those folks would pick names that they have heard before (incumbents, people with a lot of yard signs, etc.).  Others might use even less logical methods (randomly, in the order they appear on the ballot, people with names they like, etc.).  It seems possible to me that in a November election you could actually have more votes cast by people randomly then the total number of votes you get in May.  This suggest that the candidates could be elected at random.

I’m pretty confident that the people who vote in May are at least familiar with the local issues (otherwise, why would they vote?).  Because there are fewer voters in May it seems like the election could be susceptible to small groups of people banding together to vote in their preferred candidates.  But isn’t that the point?  Isn’t it better to have a small group of informed voters select our City Council and School Board rather than a larger number of uninformed (or at least under-informed) voters randomly selecting people?

I’ve suggested this scenario before and people have accused me of not giving our voters enough credit - that they would learn about the candidates and issues ahead of time and make informed votes.  If that’s the case, then why aren’t these people voting in May?

I don’t know, maybe it’s embarrassing that we have such low voter turnout in May?  Maybe we just look better if more votes are cast - whether or not those votes lead to electing the best candidates.  Personally, I’d rather have a small number of people who know and care about the City vote and select our leaders.

The City of Falls Church holds local elections every other May.  During these elections half of the City Council and School Board members are elected to 4 year terms.  The next election is currently scheduled for May, 2010.  Apparently it has been this way for a long, long time (I think the elections used to be in June instead of May - but they’ve always been in the spring).  I moved into the City in June, 2008, so I haven’t yet experienced a May election - and there’s a chance I never will.

About 10 years ago the state legislature passed a law that allows the Cities of Virginia to change their elections from May to November.  There are two ways to make this switch: either a majority vote by the City Council, or a ballot referendum voted on by the citizens.  Shortly after the law was passed the League of Women Voters of Falls Church put out a report on the issue.  It is an extremely well balanced look at the pros and cons of changing when the election happens.  You can read it here.  The City Council is now considering an ordinance that would move the elections, starting next year, from May to November.  In order to change the 2010 election the ordinance would need to be passed before January 1, 2010.  The other option, putting a referendum on the ballot, would need to be in place by that date also - which is basically impossible - so the soonest a referendum could be on the ballot is the 2012 election.

I’m hoping the City Council doesn’t rush this issue.  If there’s enough support for a change to pull together the petition needed to trigger a referendum then that’s what we should do.  It would take years before the election day could change - but at least we’d know or sure that the citizens want the change.  Also, if the City Council makes the switch to November it is much harder to change back to May (it would require the lawmakers in Richmond to get involved).

If four members of the City Council support this ordinance then it will take effect.  This would result in the City Council members unilaterally extending their terms in office by 6 months.  Something about that just doesn’t seem right.  Even if they adjust the ordinance to have the election change happen in 2012 it will still be extending the terms of four members.  I think the appropriate thing to do is let the voters decide this issue.

I strongly suggest reading the LWV’s report on the issue, it covers all the bases.  From the discussions I have heard there seem to be two main reasons to support moving the election.  The first reason is that it would save the City money.  The latest estimate from the City is a savings of $18,000 per year (it’s not clear to me if that’s per election year (i.e. every other year) or an actual per year savings).  That’s not a trivial amount (although it’s pretty small compared to the City’s overall budget) but I think most people eventually agree that the cost savings isn’t a big factor.

The second reason is that we would see better voter turnout in November.  I think that’s almost certainly true - but is that a good thing?  I’ll touch on that in my next post.

18k/year