Alexandria Mayor Race
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Anonymous
Not the case, from the plain text of the FOIA emails. Electeds and Staff knew that there was no binding NDA, and WMATA told electeds and the city manager when actually asked. This was the fault of about a dozen people in Alexandria, period - the mayor, vice mayor (and mayor-elect), and city manager. |
Anonymous
+1 from another nearby resident. |
Anonymous
One more time. The FOIA emails show ONE email from one engineer at WMATA to one member of staff (the project engineer for DPI, not Jinks) receiving that - and not clear what he thought of that. There is no evidence (other than circumstantial) that Jinks knew the NDA was not binding, and none that any electeds knew. Again there is argument from silence (why didn't they push about the NDA) although its also possible they did but not in writing. If I were Wilson (assuming he did not know) I would be circumspect now. Its possible that there was miscommunication but it was mostly WMATA's fault, and on one City staff is at fault. Its possible some people at DPI were at fault. Its possible Jinks is at fault (note I mean at fault for not being clear on the NDA, not for the original issue with the mezzanine). Though some here don't agree, I think this is a sensitive investigation, which Council will need to undertake. Carefully. It will lead where it leads. |
Anonymous
DP and I agree with this but I don't have much hope anything will come of this. There doesn't seem to be any inclination from anyone within city government to analyze what went wrong here or to even admit that anything went wrong so I really doubt we'll see any sort of investigation. I hope I'm wrong but nothing anyone with the city has said so far has given me any sort of warm fuzzy feeling. |
Anonymous
I heard it. I was not surprised that Wilson tried to weasel his way out of it. I still think back to his quotes in the May 31 Alex Times issue where he claims he doesn't understand how no one else understood the same information he did. Like he thinks he is some kind of mental giant. NOT! Likely he got insider information and didn't share. I am very, very concerned about his stated preferences and intentions to remove the public comment sections of the City Council meetings. I have never spoken at one but I do believe it is a very important element to maintaining a democratic process. If he is being paid on my dime then his butt better be in that seat listening to everything that my fellow citizens have to say! |
Anonymous
PP, I don't know if you were unfortunate enough to get a skewed story from the Silberberg camp, or if you are part of the Silberberg camp that has been pushing this lie, but for those still reading this thread... Wilson does not, has not, and will not support "removing the public comment sections of City Council meetings. Of all the lies coming from the Silberberg camp, this is one of the most ridiculous. There are still public comments.They just actually follow the actual adopted procedures for public comments. Alison Silberberg was running the meetings off the rails. The entire Council, including Wilson, voted 6-1 for better management of public comment period. (All candidates Link below is to an article explaining the actual facts of the situation. https://alextimes.com/2017/01/city-council-changes-public-comment-period/ Keep in mind it is from the Alexandria Times, who specifically recused itself from endorsing for mayor because one of it’s partners contributed to Silberberg, so they realized they couldn’t endorse when they already had an established bias. You would expect such a newspaper to lean more towards favoring Silberberg, but even they seem to realize how ridiculous things had become, because in their editorial they ran the same week the article above printed, they offered this editorial below, in favor of the change. https://alextimes.com/2017/01/our-view-with-public...s-not-a-matter-of-if-but-when/ As a final note, the council candidates during their last debate were asked about limiting (not ending, just limiting) public comments. Of all 12 candidates, 9 supported the idea. Only three were opposed: Feely, Ray, and Pepper. Even if Silberberg had won, there would be at least 5 other people on the Council opposed, so I doubt it would have gone back "the Silberberg way." It's telling that such a significant majority of council and mayoral candidates were in favor of reasonable limits to public speaking period. (One final note, considering she voted in favor of limiting the pubilc coment period before, you can take Pepper's flip-flop on this issues with a grain of salt. She is just going through the motions. A completely ineffective council member, and I think the person I'm most disappointed is returning. I suspect I will find myself more often than not disagreeing with Seifeldein, but at least he has opinions and a willingness to express them. I think Pepper just likes a reason to get out of the house, and feel important.) |
Anonymous
+1000 |
Anonymous
| It's funny that a Wilson supporter is claiming that the Silberberg camp lies! Oh, the irony! |
Anonymous
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The Potomac Yard metro station is going to have its southern bridge. Paid for by the Commonwealth, as part of the Amazon deal.
The folks who hounded CM Smedberg out of office should be ashamed of themselves. |
Anonymous
If any of the new CMs screw up, I want Smedberg to run next time. Start the campaign at the new south bridge to the new metro station. |
Anonymous
Because they were unaware Amazon would pay for it? Nah. |
Anonymous
To the limited extent that Alexandria receives direct benefits from Amazon and VT, it's because of Smedberg. Smedberg had to keep his mouth shut for almost a year. NONE of his Council colleagues backed him up. And it turns out that he had a plan the whole time, it worked, and he kept every confidence. I hope he runs again. His own colleagues and the Alexandria Dem Comm left him high and dry. |
Anonymous
They WERE aware that postponing the bridge for now, because of real budget limits, did not mean it was excluded forever, which was pointed out repeatedly. And of course they hounded him when he was only doing (by withholding info) what he thought he was legally required to do. They assumed bad faith on his part, despite his years of honorable service. |
Anonymous
And now City Council will have at least three bona fide clinical morons, and will be deprived of Smedberg. This is going to be an interesting three years. |
Anonymous
The Hammond light issue shows the continued dysfunction of the Alexandria government. The press reports show that was inconsistency in the plans for where the light posts would be installed. Even though it appears the final version of the packet before the city council showed that the light poles would be installed on lane one of the track, it appears that the inconsistencies in the planning documents did not allow for public input on the true trade offs on installing the lights at Hammond. Rather than acknowledging flaws in the process, Mayor Wilson claims that the press reports on the planning documents are false. Wilson also claims that the installing the light posts on the track does not affect (even marginally) the usability of the track even though it causes lane one from being partially unusable (because of a fence) to be completely unusable. In the end, the decision on the lights still may be the right one but it is unconscionable that Wilson won’t acknowledge the flaws in the process and that installing the lifts did involve a trade off. |