DUMFRIES, Va. – She represents the people of Dumfries in Prince William County, but she’s not the mayor of the town. She doesn’t like him very much, either.
Prince William Potomac District Supervisor Maureen Caddigan sent a strongly-worded letter on Wednesday, obtained by Potomac Local News, to Dumfries Mayor Jerry Foreman.
“I will of course be happy to meet with the Dumfries Town Council but I will not meet privately with you in view of your many assaults on my character, performance, and ethics. In short, I’m sorry to say but I don’t trust you,” penned Caddigan.
So, how did we get here? A valid question. But first a little civics lesson. Dumfries is a small town of 5,000 residents nestled inside Prince William County’s southeastern corner. Foreman was elected Town Mayor last May, and he – and the independent Dumfries Town Council – represents everyone who lives in the town.
Caddigan serves on the Prince William County Board of Supervisors and answers to residents who live in and around the town in neighorhoods like Brittany, Montclair, Southbridge, and Triangle. And while she doesn’t represent town residents directly, she does take the concerns of those in the two towns in her Magisterial District – Dumfries and Quantico – to the County Board charged with overseeing all of Prince William.
But it’s a job Foreman says she can do better, and he said so during a meeting of the Dumfries Town Council on Tuesday night.
“Over the past three years on the Council, I have been to Supervisor Caddigan’s Office several times. As Mayor I have been to her office twice. Supervisor Caddigan, I’d like you to come on down to Town Hall, I don’t think that you’ve ever visited me at Town Hall and sat in the Mayor’s office. It appears that the only time you come to Dumfries is when there is a public event and there are cameras and press available, I’d like to assist you in changing that image,” said Foreman.
The bickering stems from a culmination of issues including the restoration of Quantico Creek, widening of U.S. 1, an improved intersection at U.S. 1 and Va. 234, allowing the town to have a larger voice in county government, and a new effort by Caddigan to rename the areas surrounding Dumfries to Potomac, Va. It’s similar to the time when Caddigan suggested a name change for the Williamstown neighborhood, an area that has been associated with crime.
“You make it sound like that I don’t care about the town or its residents. This is not only unfair, it is totally untrue. I do represent the town residents and long made it a point to understand and respond to their issues,” Caddigan wrote to Foreman.
That response, some say, has led to confusion – the same confusion that prompted Caddigan to push to change the name of her Magisterial District from Dumfries to Potomac in 2011. At that time, she said too many residents who lived near Dumfries would take their issues to Dumfries Town Hall instead of her, their proper County Supervisor. A name change would fix that, Caddigan said.
In an email this morning, Dumfries Councilwoman Kristen Forrester states she supports the mayor, and said Caddigan seems to be taking Foreman’s comments personally.
During the meeting, Jerry gave an accurate accounting of Supervisor Caddigan’s lack of responsiveness on very specific and key points on which she’s been asked to work with the council on behalf of citizens. Nothing in his communication was personal. It is both the right and obligation, as town servants, to let constituents know when roadblocks are being assembled by County representatives.
It is truly sad that Supervisor Caddigan considers a legitimate professional criticism as a personal attack and responds with her own personal attacks against others. What Supervisor Caddigan continuously fails to recognize is that it isn’t about her. There is work to be done and the Council in Dumfries is trying to do it. We need a Supervisor who values the same commitment.
