Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In a convoluted nutshell:

There are three seats available on the Falls Church City Council, and three seats on the school board. Sam Mabry and Johanna Barry (council candidates), along with Mark Kaye, Alison Kutchma and Becky Smerdon (school board candidates) are the FACTS coalition (Fairness, Accountability, and some other buzzwords.) They do not support any new growth (smart or otherwise), families who live in apartments/condos, replacing our leaking, crowded 50+ year old high school, or finding a solution to our elementary crowding other than stopping people from moving in. They are being helped by Ira Kaylin, former council member and a regular donor this summer ($550 or more) to John Faust, the Fairfax planning supervisor who is blocking the Mount Daniel renovation.

As part of their attack strategy, this group has suspiciously timed the release of letters written in 2012 on behalf of Michael Gardener, who was ultimately convicted of molesting several young girls in the community. Many of the letter writers were found to be city leaders (ugh), one of whom, Phil Duncan, is up for re-election to Council.

Still with me? This is where things really go off the rails:

Not content with merely calling out Phil on his choices, the FACTS crew piled on. They captured the FCCPS parents email list and are using that to spam every family in the city with screeds somehow linking Phil to council candidate Letty Hardi and school board candidate Erin Gill, both of whom favor smart, thoughtful growth as a way to fund city services and schools. (The logic behind the most recent attacks is fuzzy -- either they're taking too much money from developers or they're taking too much money from small donations. It changes by the day.) FACTS are also behind the "We Support the Girls" signs, which are apparently only about Gardener's young victims and not about other girls who were attacked by another teenager last year.

School board candidates Jake Radcliff, Justin Castillo and Kieran Sharpe are keeping their heads down. As is council candidate Dave Tartar.

So basically Tuesday's election is about whether to endorse these dirty politics and people who have promised to stop any potential for revenue, or to choose candidates who have focused on the issues and have expressed concrete ideas on how to get where we need to go.

Good summary!!

Yes - nailed it.

Now for my question ... how do I explain the "We Support The Girls" signs to my kindergartener and first grader? While we've talked about "bad touch" a few times to date, I myself don't understand why people are putting signs in their yards. What about the younger girls from fall / summer 2014 who we want to support and may not be comfortable with front yard signs. The entire situation is a mess.

Anonymous wrote:In a convoluted nutshell:

There are three seats available on the Falls Church City Council, and three seats on the school board. Sam Mabry and Johanna Barry (council candidates), along with Mark Kaye, Alison Kutchma and Becky Smerdon (school board candidates) are the FACTS coalition (Fairness, Accountability, and some other buzzwords.) They do not support any new growth (smart or otherwise), families who live in apartments/condos, replacing our leaking, crowded 50+ year old high school, or finding a solution to our elementary crowding other than stopping people from moving in. They are being helped by Ira Kaylin, former council member and a regular donor this summer ($550 or more) to John Faust, the Fairfax planning supervisor who is blocking the Mount Daniel renovation.

As part of their attack strategy, this group has suspiciously timed the release of letters written in 2012 on behalf of Michael Gardener, who was ultimately convicted of molesting several young girls in the community. Many of the letter writers were found to be city leaders (ugh), one of whom, Phil Duncan, is up for re-election to Council.

Still with me? This is where things really go off the rails:

Not content with merely calling out Phil on his choices, the FACTS crew piled on. They captured the FCCPS parents email list and are using that to spam every family in the city with screeds somehow linking Phil to council candidate Letty Hardi and school board candidate Erin Gill, both of whom favor smart, thoughtful growth as a way to fund city services and schools. (The logic behind the most recent attacks is fuzzy -- either they're taking too much money from developers or they're taking too much money from small donations. It changes by the day.) FACTS are also behind the "We Support the Girls" signs, which are apparently only about Gardener's young victims and not about other girls who were attacked by another teenager last year.

School board candidates Jake Radcliff, Justin Castillo and Kieran Sharpe are keeping their heads down. As is council candidate Dave Tartar.

So basically Tuesday's election is about whether to endorse these dirty politics and people who have promised to stop any potential for revenue, or to choose candidates who have focused on the issues and have expressed concrete ideas on how to get where we need to go.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In a convoluted nutshell:

There are three seats available on the Falls Church City Council, and three seats on the school board. Sam Mabry and Johanna Barry (council candidates), along with Mark Kaye, Alison Kutchma and Becky Smerdon (school board candidates) are the FACTS coalition (Fairness, Accountability, and some other buzzwords.) They do not support any new growth (smart or otherwise), families who live in apartments/condos, replacing our leaking, crowded 50+ year old high school, or finding a solution to our elementary crowding other than stopping people from moving in. They are being helped by Ira Kaylin, former council member and a regular donor this summer ($550 or more) to John Faust, the Fairfax planning supervisor who is blocking the Mount Daniel renovation.

As part of their attack strategy, this group has suspiciously timed the release of letters written in 2012 on behalf of Michael Gardener, who was ultimately convicted of molesting several young girls in the community. Many of the letter writers were found to be city leaders (ugh), one of whom, Phil Duncan, is up for re-election to Council.

Still with me? This is where things really go off the rails:

Not content with merely calling out Phil on his choices, the FACTS crew piled on. They captured the FCCPS parents email list and are using that to spam every family in the city with screeds somehow linking Phil to council candidate Letty Hardi and school board candidate Erin Gill, both of whom favor smart, thoughtful growth as a way to fund city services and schools. (The logic behind the most recent attacks is fuzzy -- either they're taking too much money from developers or they're taking too much money from small donations. It changes by the day.) FACTS are also behind the "We Support the Girls" signs, which are apparently only about Gardener's young victims and not about other girls who were attacked by another teenager last year.

School board candidates Jake Radcliff, Justin Castillo and Kieran Sharpe are keeping their heads down. As is council candidate Dave Tartar.

So basically Tuesday's election is about whether to endorse these dirty politics and people who have promised to stop any potential for revenue, or to choose candidates who have focused on the issues and have expressed concrete ideas on how to get where we need to go.

Good summary!!

Anonymous wrote:In a convoluted nutshell:

There are three seats available on the Falls Church City Council, and three seats on the school board. Sam Mabry and Johanna Barry (council candidates), along with Mark Kaye, Alison Kutchma and Becky Smerdon (school board candidates) are the FACTS coalition (Fairness, Accountability, and some other buzzwords.) They do not support any new growth (smart or otherwise), families who live in apartments/condos, replacing our leaking, crowded 50+ year old high school, or finding a solution to our elementary crowding other than stopping people from moving in. They are being helped by Ira Kaylin, former council member and a regular donor this summer ($550 or more) to John Faust, the Fairfax planning supervisor who is blocking the Mount Daniel renovation.

As part of their attack strategy, this group has suspiciously timed the release of letters written in 2012 on behalf of Michael Gardener, who was ultimately convicted of molesting several young girls in the community. Many of the letter writers were found to be city leaders (ugh), one of whom, Phil Duncan, is up for re-election to Council.

Still with me? This is where things really go off the rails:

Not content with merely calling out Phil on his choices, the FACTS crew piled on. They captured the FCCPS parents email list and are using that to spam every family in the city with screeds somehow linking Phil to council candidate Letty Hardi and school board candidate Erin Gill, both of whom favor smart, thoughtful growth as a way to fund city services and schools. (The logic behind the most recent attacks is fuzzy -- either they're taking too much money from developers or they're taking too much money from small donations. It changes by the day.) FACTS are also behind the "We Support the Girls" signs, which are apparently only about Gardener's young victims and not about other girls who were attacked by another teenager last year.

School board candidates Jake Radcliff, Justin Castillo and Kieran Sharpe are keeping their heads down. As is council candidate Dave Tartar.

So basically Tuesday's election is about whether to endorse these dirty politics and people who have promised to stop any potential for revenue, or to choose candidates who have focused on the issues and have expressed concrete ideas on how to get where we need to go.

Anonymous wrote:I just read the letters. I am horrified by the people who wrote those letters. What were they thinking? Perhaps the most shocking to me is the show of support from the leaders of the Falls Church Episcopal.
Shocking that they would urge that a pedophile be quickly released back into the community.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a horrible situation all around. But one of worst parts is that certain candidates in our election are using these poor girls as part of their own twisted campaign strategy. Apparently, "Support the Girls" only means those victims aligned with Sam Mabry and Johannah Barry -- the little girl attacked at Cherry Hill park and the kindergartener at St. James are apparently worthy of being ignored, because they haven't factored into this group's concern at all.

+1

I'm disgusted by all of it, including those using the tragedy for political gain.

Anonymous wrote:It's a horrible situation all around. But one of worst parts is that certain candidates in our election are using these poor girls as part of their own twisted campaign strategy. Apparently, "Support the Girls" only means those victims aligned with Sam Mabry and Johannah Barry -- the little girl attacked at Cherry Hill park and the kindergartener at St. James are apparently worthy of being ignored, because they haven't factored into this group's concern at all.