I certainly hope it’s a coincidence that at the same time Woodbridge Supervisor Margaret Franklin’s signs appeared in Woodbridge, nearly 10 of her opponent Jeannie LaCroix’s signs were vandalized, ripped down, stolen and even run over by a truck.

In stark contrast to Supervisor Franklin’s signs, most illegally placed in VDOT right of ways, Ms. LaCroix’s dozens of signs in Woodbridge District are all placed on private property with the permission of the landowners.

I’m calling on Ms. Franklin and her supporters to move their signs to private property and to cease from any efforts to vandalize her opponent’s signs. Using a car or truck on private property to run over personal property is in fact a crime.

I am also urging my counterpart in the Democratic Party to ensure their campaign workers obey the law going forward and refrain from the destruction or vandalism of private property.

Sincerely,

Rob Hartwell
Woodbridge District Republican Chairman

Potomac Local News aims to share opinions on issues of local importance from a diverse range of residents across all our communities. If you’ve recently spoken at a Board of County Supervisors meeting, send us a typed copy of your remarks for publication to [email protected].

In a recent interview for InsideNOVA, Director of Economic Development Christina Winn, it is acknowledged that Prince William County is essentially an order taker for the data center industry.

“Companies seek Prince William as a development destination rather than economic development officials luring them in, Winn said. The economic development office simply helps companies become established once they’ve received the green light from elected officials.”

Winn also “said the that election’s results bear no impact on how her office plans to conduct business moving forward.” That aligns with Chair Ann Wheeler’s apparent intent to ignore the electorate and continue her overly solicitous attitude toward the data center industry unfettered. Her fealty to the lords commerce transcends any obligation to those she was elected to represent.

Taxpayers should expect that their government would aggressively market the county to attract the most beneficial businesses rather than just acquiesce to predatory corporations that want to exploit our “give away the store” tax rates and obliging political climate.

Recall the nightmarish scene in the classic Christmas movie: “It’s a Wonderful Life” (see: sidewalk scene its a wonderful life – YouTube) where hero George Bailey is horrified to witness the desecration of his beloved Bedford Falls under the exploitive influence of the miserly villain Henry Potter. Ask yourself if that scene bears any resemblance to what is happening here right before our eyes.

Is our government turning Prince William County into Pottersville?

Bill Wright
Gainesville

Potomac Local News aims to share opinions on issues of local importance from a diverse range of residents across all our communities. If you’ve recently spoken at a Board of County Supervisors meeting, send us a typed copy of your remarks for publication to [email protected].

The July 17, 2023, letter to the editor seems to assert that because I do not agree with policies that some constituents put forward, I am being uncivil. Civility has to do with the way we communicate and treat each other as people, not our policies. 

For those who have watched the Board of County Supervisors meetings, it will be recognized that I have almost always acted civilly to staff and public speakers.  I say almost because there was one instance when a public speaker put up a picture of me that included my daughter, and that crossed a line for me, which I hope is relatable to every parent out there.

I do not believe the families of elected officials should be brought into the conversation at any level, and that picture drew a reaction from me.  Otherwise, I have always tried to keep decorum in the Chambers no matter my stance on a policy. 

People often ask why I am not bothered but some of the personal attacks that people say at public comment time or in print. It’s because I believe they are not really taking issue with me; they object to either my policies or my politics, or sometimes both. 

Please know that when opposition to a policy fails to gain ground, a group will try to find fault with the process, and when they fail in an effort to discredit the process, they resort to attacking the person.  It’s inevitable, as shown by the personal attacks which have happened often over the last three and a half years.

I try to keep our board meetings as civil as possible while the personal and political attacks continue. I recognize this is where our nation is now, not just our community. I believe it needs to change, as I mentioned in my forward to The Wheeler Report (my weekly newsletter with a 60% open rate and distribution to over 3,000 residents), which stated:

“Promoting respectful and constructive political discourse is the responsibility of everyone within the community, myself included. There are ways in which we can all contribute to creating a culture in which changes to policy don’t lead to abusive language and incivility aimed at elected officials and our neighbors in the community.  To do this we must engage in political discussions with respect and refrain from personal attacks. Focus on the issues and treat others’ opinions with courtesy, even if you disagree. Seek common ground and emphasize shared values to help build understanding and bridge divisions. Attentively listen to others’ viewpoints without interruption is key to fostering constructive dialogue. Fact-checking information before sharing it ensures accuracy and helps prevent the spread of misinformation.”

Civility is how we treat each other, not our disagreements over policy.

PS: I am honored to be included in any letter to the editor that finds me in league with former President Obama because it lets me know I am on the right side of history.

Ann Wheeler
Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chair At-Large

Editors note: Ann Wheeler presides over the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, which manages the second-largest jurisdiction in Virginia. She was elected in 2019 and will complete her term on December 31, 2023, following a June 20, 2023 Primary Election loss.

Potomac Local News aims to share opinions on issues of local importance from a diverse range of residents across all our communities. If you’ve recently spoken at a Board of County Supervisors meeting, send us a typed copy of your remarks for publication to [email protected].

We all recently received a lecture from Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chair At-large, Ann Wheeler, on ‘civility’ in politics in her recent newsletter.

“The term ‘civility’ refers to using polite language in formal conversations and is closely related to courtesy and consideration. Unfortunately, it seems that civility has been lacking lately, not just in Prince William County, but throughout our nation,” Wheeler wrote.

Since Barack Obama decided to ‘fundamentally change’ the U.S., we have fallen into the abyss regarding civility on any topic. We are no longer able to discuss politics, race, schools, library books, bathrooms, the definition of the sexes, or God forbid, use correct pronouns as demanded by proper English. 

As parents, we are no longer allowed to attend school board meetings or a board of county supervisor’s meeting, locally or around the nation, and engage in, as Ann Wheeler suggests, ‘constructive dialog.’ If we dare to breach any of the above subjects, we are ignored, visited by local police, shut down or subjected to the burning of our cities and businesses, total annihilation of our history, labeled as domestic terrorists, or suffer the nonstop removal or destruction of our constitution and the images and sculptures of our founding fathers.

Veterans have been told to “F—Off,” by Chairwoman of the Prince William County Democratic National Committee, Tonya James, simply for singing the National Anthem during a school board meeting.

We have been lectured by the Chair of the School Board, Babur Lateef, that our opinions as parents are not valued over that of teachers.

And the Prince William County Director of Equity and Inclusion, Maria Burgos, told us all that “once you understand a Marxist framework, you will understand how it is used in education,” while denying Critical Race Theory and Marxism are taught in our schools.

Ann Wheeler has attempted to shut down public discourse on more than one occasion because citizens disagreed with her agenda and have disrespected her constituents by completely ignoring our wants and needs regarding the takeover of Data Centers, now destroying our landscapes and neighborhoods. And, the 64-thousand-dollar question? Is Ann Wheeler financially benefiting from the approval of all these data centers? We may never know the truth. And who can forget on May 18, 2023, the Virginia Supreme Court found that Prince William County Board Chair Ann Wheeler and four fellow Democrat supervisors, Andrea O. Bailey, Kenny Boddye, Victor S. Angry, and Margaret Angela Franklin, “knowingly and willfully violated the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (VFOIA) by attending a meeting…without complying with statutory requirements.”  That event will cost Prince William residents well over $150,000. 

Despite all we have endured over the past three and a half years, we are now being told by Ann Wheeler we must improve our civility in political discourse. Have any of these so-called leaders looked in the mirror or maybe viewed the video playbacks of the meetings they run? It’s hard to separate politics from personal when you are told repeatedly to mind your P’s and Q’s, while at the same time, you are being scolded for having an opinion that goes against the political agenda being shoved down our throats.

The lack of civility is the result of almost four unbearable years of being ignored, mocked, and berated for not wanting our kids exposed to mask mandates, school closures, sexual indoctrination and pornography in our kid’s libraries, boys invading girl’s bathrooms and sports, the infiltration of our communities with data centers and a total lack of respect for the very people who these leaders are supposed to represent.

So, Ann, wake up and smell the roses. The citizens of Prince William County voted you out because you have never represented us, nor have you taken the lead in showing the slightest bit of civility to the populace. 

In November, we will vote out the rest of those who refuse to represent the masses.

Eventually, a beaten dog will bite.

L.H. Bravo
Gainesville

Editors note: Potomac Local News aims to share opinions on issues of local importance from a diverse range of residents across all our communities. If you’ve recently spoken at a Board of County Supervisors meeting, send us a typed copy of your remarks for publication to [email protected].

With the region’s elected officials gathering at their annual retreat this Friday and Saturday, the Coalition for Smarter Growth continued to urge reform of the region’s transportation priorities.

A national poll of 2001 voters (90% of whom are drivers) released last week by Transportation for America revealed that two-thirds of Americans know highway expansions don’t cure traffic. Sixty-seven percent of American voters polled agreed that widening highways attract more people to drive, which creates more traffic in the long run, defeating the stated purpose for countless road expansion projects across the country.

In short, the public understands that “induced demand” is real, even if they are not aware of the term itself. Today, when officials in the DC region are planning for at least 900 more lane miles of highway and arterial road expansion and amid the ongoing debate over high-occupancy toll lanes for 495/270 in Maryland and 495 through Alexandria, the Coalition for Smarter Growth (CSG) urged officials to reconsider these plans. “CSG’s Induced Demand fact sheet for local, regional, and state officials – released today – makes clear the failures of road expansion,” said Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth.

“Induced demand is the widely documented phenomenon in which widening major roads and highways results in more driving (vehicle miles traveled) that generally cancels out any congestion-reduction benefits in as little as five to ten years,” said Bill Pugh, Senior Policy Fellow for CSG and author of the fact sheet which draws upon numerous national and international studies and includes local DC area examples.

“Unfortunately, elected officials in the DC region continue to propose over 900 lane miles of major road expansion and continue to ignore the reality that it won’t work,” said Schwartz. “They will end up wasting billions of tax dollars and make our quality of life worse, not better.”

The Council of Governments’ Transportation Planning Board is currently developing its Visualize 2050 regional “constrained” long-range transportation plan1 (the existing 2045 plan includes 900 lane miles in road expansion), and in Northern Virginia right now, counties and cities are submitting project applications for funding through the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority.

CSG has previously shown in its “On the Wrong Road” report that the NVTAuthority’s “unconstrained” Transaction 2050 plan would add 1000 lane miles of roads in Northern Virginia alone and induce growth in driving at 1.5 to 3 times the rate of population growth in the outer suburbs. The NVTAuthority has allocated over half of its regional funding to road capacity expansion projects, even though the agency’s own Technology Strategic Plan acknowledges the reality of induced demand.

Stewart Schwartz
Executive Director, Coalition for Smarter Growth

Editors note: Potomac Local News aims to share opinions on issues of local importance from a diverse range of residents across all our communities. If you’ve recently spoken at a Board of County Supervisors meeting, send us a typed copy of your remarks for publication to [email protected].

There is a saying of biblical origin: “Pride goeth before a fall.”

Its rough translation is that having too much pride or confidence will cause one to make mistakes that lead to failure.  Excessive pride or confidence is commonly known as arrogance.

That saying should be engraved on the political tombstone of Ann Wheeler.

Her comments rationalizing her election loss, and her actions since, show she has learned absolutely nothing from the clock cleaning she got at the hands of the voters.  She said that those who attribute her loss to data centers alone do “not fully understand the intricacies of the changes that have occurred in Prince William County” in recent years.  It’s more likely that Ann Wheeler does not fully understand the intricacies of an obvious rejection of her developer-centric agenda and undemocratic tactics.

Prince William County citizens have suffered the arrogance of Ann Wheeler for three and a half years.  Must we now endure her bruised ego for the next half year?

Citizens will need to be vigilant in the months ahead for evidence of Chair Wheeler’s continued intent to subvert the public will.  She will certainly be under pressure from numerous campaign contributors who watched their generous donations go up the chimney.  When you make a deal with the devil, the devil wants to be paid back.

There are several contentious land use cases waiting in the wings to be shoved down our throats, like the Prince William Digital Gateway, Devlin Technology Park and John Marshall Commons Technology Park.

Who can Chair Wheeler convince to follow her off a cliff?

Bill Wright
Gainesville

Editors note: Potomac Local News aims to share opinions on issues of local importance from a diverse range of residents across all our communities. If you’ve recently spoken at a Board of County Supervisors meeting, send us a typed copy of your remarks for publication to [email protected].

In late May/Early June we heard about the possibility of commercial air service coming to Manassas Airport. Finally, in late June the Airport Commission Board Chair confirmed the dream could become reality in mere months if the city council and the mayor find it acceptable.

Thousands of small airports across the country would be expressing gratitude for any air service planning to come to their facility. Air transportation is a major employer, providing vital economic benefits and boasting high occupancy rates. Air transportation is a major contributor to the economy, bringing in outside businesses and consumers.

The economic impact and social benefits of bringing commercial air flights are too innumerable to list, but what can be summarized is that bringing tourism and trade to any new area will foster the growth of that area significantly.

Avports, the experienced operator behind this application, is very optimistic, and they have indicated they will entrench themselves in this area much the same way as Omniride has, caring about our residents and being a pivotal part of the community.

That said, like all businesses, Avports measures its success by profitability, of which load factor plays a major part. Load factor is how full the airplanes are arriving to and departing from Manassas Airport. Avports has stated that Florida and other popular East Coast destinations will be the primary targets for testing.

Air service is a “use it or lose it” form of transportation to our community. Airlines serving the greater Washington market need to make money, or they will move their assets to other markets.  We are not just in competition with surrounding airports for our air service; we are in competition with every other community in the nation that wants air service. If an airline thinks its aircraft can make more money in another market, they will likely move that aircraft asset.

It is imperative that we support Avports and the air service that they are providing our community. At times, there may be seats available at less cost in other close-by markets; but every passenger leaving the Manassas market to fly from another airport further restricts our ability to grow our services and to get additional air service.

The Prince William Chamber of Commerce and our 1,300 members stand proudly in support of this project.  As its CEO, I would challenge the greater Washington region to commit to flying from the Manassas Airport.

Avports view our market favorably, but the future of expanded commercial air service in Manassas depends on the community’s commitment to fill the service they are going to provide.

Thank you, and Let’s fly.

Robert Sweeney
CEO, Prince William Chamber of Commerce

Dear Editor,

My name is Verndell Robinson. I am an award-winning realtor of seven years who is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Maritime Law. I am running for Potomac District Supervisor because we deserve transparency and accountability from our elected officials.

For instance, most other major counties in our region maintain a lame-duck session policy. A lame duck session is the period between Election Day in November and December 31. Instituting a lame-duck session policy to prevent political games and contentious votes is routine during election years. In particular, focusing on avoiding contentious land use matters during the lame duck session. Instituting this policy gives the public confidence and ensures that Board members and elected officials do not engage in any political games or “pay to play” backroom deals.

But here in Prince William County, it’s clear that some of our current supervisors do not care to uphold that level of transparency and trust with voters. At the center of this issue is their continued push for rampant data center developments.

A lame-duck policy has been proposed in Prince William County to specifically prevent any major land use matters, including data center development applications. Supervisor Bailey remains silent on whether she’ll support the resolution to protect Potomac District residents from political games in the July 11th vote.

I question the motives of her silence. Is she indebted to the data center industry? Did she not hear the cries of the 254 registered constituents saying they do not want more data centers during a two-day Board of County Supervisors meeting?

Why hasn’t she shared the intended Potomac Tech Park on Rt 234 near Forest Park, even though there are already 11.7 million square feet of dedicated data center space elsewhere? Prince William County has a crescent that was not supposed to be touched, but now it seems that our pro-data-center supervisors want to turn it into a concrete jungle.

Maybe her political donations give us a better understanding of her motives. According to her reported donations to the Board of County Elections, most of her donations come directly from landowners who are selling to developers, unions that support data center developments, those who stand to profit from data centers, and the data center developers themselves.

Andrea Bailey has never voted against any data center project, and now she wants them right here in our district. As you know, data centers in residential areas bring with them a host of problems: noise, lower residential tax value, and electrical overload. With the approval of the master plan in December of 2022 for the rezoning of the Potomac Tech Park, data centers are now a Potomac District problem.

To compound the issue, initial applications only bring more applications in return. Now, there are proposals for the land directly across from the intended Potomac Tech Park. This is an area where developers have already shown interest in expanding their current proposal to neighboring residential subdivisions, namely Minnieville Manor, Mallard Overlook, and Ashland.

Potomac District residents: We must fight back now! We deserve a voice that will listen, and that will act in the best interest of the public and not themselves or the data centers. We must stop the political games of lame-duck sessions and prevent applications like Potomac Tech Park from being forced through.

I urge you to support candidates like me, Verndell Robinson, that will listen to the voices of the people. ACT NOW to help pass the lame-duck resolution. Demand Supervisor Bailey makes her position clearly known and demands that our Board fully supports this resolution by emailing [email protected].

Verndell Robinson
Candidate, Prince William Board of County Supervisors Potomac District

Editors note: Potomac Local News aims to share opinions on issues of local importance from a diverse range of residents across all our communities. If you’ve recently spoken at a Board of County Supervisors meeting, send us a typed copy of your remarks for publication to [email protected].