To the editor:
After years of civic engagement, I was far from naïve about how Arlington structured its engagement. The approach I experienced as part of the Pentagon City Sector Plan was no better than documented in The Washington Post’s 2018 article, “Has Arlington Lost Its Way?”
Yet despite the sound of these alarms, the county’s engagement processes remain egregious, more assertive and far less transparent.
To address these serious governance issues, the Arlington County Civic Federation, comprising 79 member organizations, approved the Restore Public Confidence in Arlington County Governance resolution on March 14 to hold the county government accountable. The final vote was 75 in favor, 32 supporting a competing resolution and eight abstaining.
How did we get here? People who loved and dedicated years to their community have given up on engaging with Arlington officials. A group of residents created a new idea to re-inspire one another: crowdsource evidence-based examples of county-engagement fails. The examples were abundant and powerful, and show a systemic pattern of disconnect between the county and its residents.
The crowd-sourced submissions had to be documented and credible. With examples flooding in over a period of months, approximately 700 footnotes of wrongful and concerning governance practices were compiled into a 100-page report.
This was not about any one type of policy or issue and ranged from development, to parks to safety concerns to public records and meetings and everything in between and touched every community and every background. This was a systemic issue where many no longer considered Arlington County an accountable, transparent or inclusive government. Arlington could no longer bully individuals into thinking they were outliers or that each instance of malfeasance was a “one-off.”
When the abundant examples showed patterns and tactics clearly forming, a resolution was created – not from theoretical or ideological examples, but from strong evidence-based material.
Some may shake their heads over this intensive compilation of data, but what Arlington leaders are doing is not normal. This is a government that has preemptively filed a lawsuit against its residents who asked the Board of Zoning Appeals to review possible policy violations by the county. Attempts to undermine or bury the Civic Federation resolution and its accompanying 100-page report of examples had been fierce.
Whether or not this particular resolution lived or died on March 14, the valuable records and crowd-sourcing efforts shine a bright light on Arlington government, and the examples of governance issues continue to grow in number on an independent site – Restore Confidence in Arlington VA Governance – where residents can continue to submit their examples.
Arlington can no longer credibly deny or ignore these serious concerns across virtually all policies and all participation levels. Confidence has been lost by many engaged residents who deeply care and are committed to their communities and the future of Arlington.
All aspects of transparency, accountability and inclusivity must be addressed for Arlington to govern properly going forward. Either leadership must change its ways, or there must be a change in leadership.
Kari Klaus, Arlington
