Donnellan Playing 3-Card Monte With Street Paving Funds

Hey Yupette,

My neighbors and I were promised by DES that our crumbling residential street would be repaved this Spring. Called DES to find out when this Spring. Turns out, after calling around DES, that our street won't be repaved until "sometime after June 30th". Why? The County Board's pressing wants are forcing the County Manager to shift funds from infrastructure needs to the County Board's pet projects (Artisphere, Arlington Mill, synthetic field replacement, etc.) until at least the end of FY 13 and possibly longer. I thought we approved bond funds for street repaving last year. Where are the street repaving funds going?

Thanks for your blog.

Karen, S. 34th Street

"Arlington Voter Registrar's Office Doesn't Control Democratic Caucuses - Chris Zimmerman Does"

Hi Yupette,

I called the Arlington Voter Registrar's Office yesterday and asked to speak with Linda Lindberg about the fraudulent voting in last Saturday's Democratic School Board caucus. Linda was in a meeting but one of her staff told me that "the Voter Registrar's Office has nothing to do with Democratic Party caucuses, we've heard these complaints before, the Arlington Voter Registrar's Office doesn't control Democratic Caucuses - Chris Zimmerman does".

All right. So here's a few questions for Mr. Zimmerman: How did we reach point where the election process for a non-partisan office involves obtaining votes from surrogates and non-residents to insure your candidate "wins"? Why did your caucus "facilitator" threaten to have members of the Green Party, who were passing out information about their housing initiative, arrested for trespassing on public property, a parking lot? Why do you tell Arlington Democrats that Democrats who insist on running in a primary rather than a caucus "will never be appointed to anything"? Thanks in advance for your answers.

Another Fed-Up Democrat

Arlington School Board Spending for The Children's School, Educating Non-Resident Students, is "Wildly Extravagant"

Hello and Thank You for this Blog,

I am an Arlington Resident and parent of a three year-old, and my husband and I pay a fortune for child care.

You should be aware that the Arlington Public School System provides free child care (infant through age 4) to APS employees via The Children's School, which is described by APS as follows:

"Arlington Public Schools provides, for a minimal fee, space, utilities, and custodial services to The Children's School, a day care facility for the children of school system employees. The Children's School is an employee-owned and run cooperative. It is located at Reed School, 1644 N. McKinley Road, across the road from the Westover Shopping Center".

If anything in Arlington Government should be audited it should be The Children's School. The 'minimal fee' the cooperative pays to APS is reportedly $30 per year. The board of directors of this cooperative is controlled by the Arlington Democratic Party. Several million dollars are given to The Children's School yearly, directly and indirectly, with no accountability whatsoever for how tax dollars are spent.

What's worse, admission of the children of non-residents to this and other facilities and programs of the Arlington School System is out-of-control. All non-residents have to present as proof-of-residence are old mortgage papers for the condo they are currently renting to others. And APS looks the other way when it comes to allowing non-resident employees to enroll their kids in Arlington's schools, when it isn't giving out residency exemptions to favorite non-resident employees.

This costs more than $21,000 per non-resident student per year (total school budget divided by total students).

There is no way I am going to vote for any incumbent School Board member. No way. Replace them all.

Rebecca

Where's the Water Revenue Today, Barbara?

Hey Yupette,

I attended the CivFed meeting last night and while ace chamber of commerce and county board booster "Sarasota Scott" McCaffrey was exchanging pleasantries with a VIP Democrat (her nickname is "Bambi") about their household pets, several CivFed delegates were having a serious discussion nearby about Barbara Donnellan and county water revenues. Turns out the water revenue not only swims from account to account as the result of Barbara's "borrowing" but the county also can't determine where about 13% of the water flowing into the county's water system ends up.

Whatever they are telling the bond rating agencies, it looks to me like the county's broke because of fiscal irresponsibility and lack of controls.

Thanks for your blog.

former R & E committee member

Toronto Will Introduce Articulated Buses to Relieve Bus Route Capacity Problems

Hi Yupette,

I visited Toronto this week on business. There are mixed feelings about streetcars in Toronto. If undergrounding streetcars into a subway system were inexpensive, people there would go for that. Yes, accidents involving streetcars and streetcar tracks are a significant problem. What they are doing that's new is buying and re-introducing articulated buses to relieve congestion on bus routes. Here's  a link to a photo of one of the new articulated buses to go into service in October.  They're also purchasing new streetcars to replace existing streetcars.

Next month I'm visiting Las Vegas. I'll let you know about the transit system there.

Ted 22204

Time for Barbara Donnellan to Retire

Hi Yupette,

So County Manager Barbara Donnellan has been playing 3-Card Monte with the County's budget after drastically cutting County Government's internal auditing two years ago. Why am I not surprised that the Columbia Pike superstop program got totally out of control? Why am I not surprised that she held a meeting with the County Board last month to discuss selling off public infrastructure? Why am I not surprised that she promised the bond rating agencies another big real estate tax hike every year for the next several years to maintain the County's AAA bond rating? Why am I not surprised that the County awards no-bid and one-bid contracts where the final cost of the program or project is much higher than the amount appropriated by the County Board?

Time is overdue for a change. Time for Barbara Donnellan to retire. North Carolina beckons. Good old boys and good old girls at the local Chamber of Commerce control everything. She will love it there. Plus, she can visit Ron Carlee for lunch and ride the Charlotte streetcar.

Pike Rider 22204

Pike Streetcar Fiscal Trainwreck Continues - Feds Say Trolley Folly Will Cost at Least $310 Million

Hey Yupette,

Check out this afternoon's County Board meeting on arlingtonva.us - part where County Board went back and forth about the stupid Pike streetcar system.

Then County Transportation Staff weighed in about its meeting with the Federal Transit Administration about the Pike streetcar. Turns out the County significantly underestimated what the cost of the Pike streetcar is going to be - at least $310 million - and so the project was too expensive to qualify for a Federal Small Starts transportation grant. Oh, FTA also estimated that the Pike streetcar system would require a contingency for another $90 million or so

Only one on the dais who didn't go along with Zimmy's program was Libby Garvey. Go  Libby!

Pike Rider