Hello County Board, Remember the "Arlington Way"?

I received the following email today from Arlington County Board Chairman Barbara Favola. I do sincerely appreciate receiving her response, the more so since I have not had the courtesy of a response from Messrs. Tiwari and Temmermand thus far.

[subject:] regarding Gulf Branch Nature Center (Intranet Quorum IMA00221631)

February 26, 2009

Mr. Steve Young
5617 South 5th Street
Arlington, Virginia 22204

Dear Mr. Young:

On behalf of the County Board, thank you for taking
the time to let us know of your support for continued use
and programming at Gulf Branch Nature Center and other
Arlington programs that care for the environment.
Arlington, like communities across the country, faces
significant budget challenges this year. The Board received
the manager's proposed budget on Saturday Feb 21 and will
be reviewing and adjusting the proposal until April 28th when
the budget is adopted. You can access the full budget at
www.arlingtonva.us/proposedbudget
Whether the programs at Gulf Branch Nature Center
should be funded in fiscal year 2010, beginning July 1, 2009,
and at what level will be considered as part of a larger
budget deliberation that the County Board is just beginning.
Your comments are an important part of this deliberation.
Meanwhile, program activities and the facility at Gulf Branch
will continue to be available at least until June 30th. Fiscal
year 2010 budget decisions will be made by the County
Board on April 28th.
For your information, County staff will be briefing
appropriate commissions on March 5 regarding the proposed
budget as it relates to the Department of Parks, Recreation
and Cultural Resources.
Commission chairs will discuss the budget with the
County Board on March 19 from 7:00 - 9:30 pm in the
County Board room at 2100 Clarendon Boulevard. The
general public is welcome to attend, though public comment
will not be taken at these meetings.
Finally, the Board will conduct public hearings on the
Manager's budget proposals on March 24 and 25 and on
proposed tax and fee increases on March 26 from 7:00 -
10:00 pm in the County Board room.
We look forward to continuing this dialogue.


Sincerely,


Barbara A. Favola
Chairman

But here's my problem. I sought to bring to the Board and County managers' attention improper practices that were followed in the firing of the two key women in leadership positions in the key nature programs proposed to be destroyed, namely Gulf Branch Nature Center director Ms. Denise Chauvette and Invasives Coordinator Ms. Jenn Truong. Due to the County's lack of transparency, it is very difficult for me to piece together exactly what happened, but I am satisfied that for all practical purposes both women were fired without cause under the guise that their layoffs were necessary to meet FY09 shortfalls.

So what happened to the Arlington Way? The Arlington Way would dictate that people not be terminated until a decision had been made, following proper procedures, about the fate of their programs. Everything about this has been improper and smells to high heaven. This is the kind of behavior I might expect from some backwater county. I am appalled to see it happening here in Arlington.

So again, I ask, what has gone wrong that Arlington has decided to declare war on nature and target these women?

But maybe the managers have calculated that folks don't care enough to demand that this be fixed. I hope they are not right.

Absolutely, it is OK to propose any crazy ideas you want for the FY10 budget and go through the public process before a decision by the elected officials. It is not OK to fire people arbitrarily in an attempt to make an end run and subvert the process, and then to put up a smoke screen about what happened and try to pretend that these people weren't fired.