Councilwomen Greene & Ellis encourage residents to vote for balance on Election Day, Tuesday, November 8. Together with Rick Bookwalter, they can bring balance to the city council and fight future tax increases.
Manassas City residents petitioned for car tax relief when a 4-2 vote left them overtaxed and underwhelmed with the current budget process. Councilwomen Lynn Forkell Greene and Theresa Coates Ellis voted no but were outnumbered in May.
*Paid for and Authorized by Lynn For Council 2021
Late last month, a post on pwperspective.com, a website that features political news from Prince William County and touts itself as “Virginia’s anti-racist voice,” posted a hit piece about Manassas City Councilwoman Lynn Forkell Greene, whose running for re-election on November 8.
Light on details, the post accurately reported someone filed a grievance against Forkell Greene while she was still on the city’s Parks and Recreation Committee before she was elected to the City Council in November 2021. The author, and website founder John Reid, didn’t bother to report on the nature of the grievance, who filed it, or whatever came of it.
I read the post and asked Reid for more information and why he omitted those details, and the post vanished from the website. A week and a half later, the same post appeared again, this time without the author’s name, after someone posted it to the left-leaning website The Daily Kos.
“Why you didn’t contact the subject of the story for comment? Is PW Perspective a journalistic news site or a partisan opinion blog?” I asked Reid. Reid never answered my questions about why he didn’t call Forkell Greene for a statement or ask those at City Hall about how the grievance was resolved.
Call Potomac Local what you will, but we seek comments from both sides. Either side might ignore us, but at least we’re showing our readers — the people who trust us enough to pay to read our news — that we’re doing our job.
Curious, as we journalists naturally are, I wanted to know more. I learned the grievance dates back to July 2021.
Forkell Greene volunteered to serve on the Manassas Parks and Recreation Committee for two years before she was elected to help develop policies for the city’s parks. Much of that time was spent during a youth baseball league controversy. The city signed an agreement with its largest employer, Micron, to allow it to pave over two of the eight city-owned ballfields at the E.G. Smith Baseball Complex to build an employee parking lot.
Late last year, the Greater Manassas Baseball League coaches, parents, and children learned they would eventually get the boot from the 60-year-old ballfield complex after the city agreed to allow Micron to build a new structure on the fields and agreed to find a new home for the baseball team.
During the winter of 2021, Forkell Greene contributed a handful of stories to Potomac Local as a freelance reporter. I would keep her from covering the parks and recreation committee on which she sat, and when she announced she would seek a City Council seat, we made a clean break.
During her time on the City Council, Forkell Greene has advocated for open government. She’s pushed to live stream more public meetings online, making local government business more accessible to the public, especially since City Hall is closed and undergoing a massive, costlier-than-anticipated overhaul.
She had the same attitude while on the parks and recreation commission and often questioned why the parks and recreation committee wasn’t consulted when the city decided to ink a land-use deal that would turn one of its most popular parks into a parking lot. Malcolm Richards, committee chairman at the time and who filed the grievance, apparently would have none of it.
He wrote the mayor:
“To date, Mrs. Lynn Forkell has sent me emails, text messages, and phone calls that were aggressive in nature and vexing. Today, my personal email and along with other committee members’ emails were shared with a reporter who Mrs. Lynn Forkell provides content for the publication (Potomac Local). In addition, Mrs. Lynn Forkell has used committee time as a platform to run for political office; she invites guests to attend the meeting to disrupt the flow of the meeting and stage arguments. Additionally, she used electronic devices to record meetings and take pictures of committee members as a form of intimidation.”
Mark Rabatin, who served with Forkell Greene on the parks committee, concurs that most of the consternation born in those meetings was over the city’s takeover of the baseball fields and that the committee had little say
“One day, I was driving by the little league t-ball fields and saw they were all torn up, and then I asked about it. [The city staff liaison to the committee] said they had already decided to give the fields away,” said Rabatin “If it weren’t for me driving by and asking about it, none of us would have ever known.”
Rabatin left the committee last summer, about the same time as Forkell Greene. At least six other members followed them out the door. According to the City’s website, Richards no longer sits on the committee.
Toward the end, the meetings became unproductive, uncollaborative, and difficult to attend due to a rigid meeting schedule they said was set by Richards, said Rabatin and Forkell Greene.
The mayor wrote a response to Richard’s letter and sent it to committee members in July 2021, telling them to straighten up. “An atmosphere of respect and civility” includes respecting and following the leadership of the Chair, unless his or her decisions are reversed by a vote of the membership,” Davis Younger wrote.
The one-and-half-page letter was all that came from the grievance against Forkell Greene.
The city has more than 30 community boards to help guide policies on everything from the library, utilities, and towing to garbage. Not everyone on the boards and commissions will get along, so the city maintains an open-door policy to hear from members, said city spokeswoman Patty Prince.
“Any volunteer from any board, committee, or commission is welcome to talk to any member of staff or Mayor and Council should they have a grievance. However, our [boards, commissions, and committees] have been wonderful groups of individuals who are dedicated to their city and work hard to move the city forward,” said Prince.
The time Rabatin spent on the parks and recreation commission left him sour, he told Potomac Local News. He volunteered about 12 hours a month working on items for parks and rec, and in exchange, he had hoped to work with elected leaders and city staff to help chart the course of the growing city and plan for the care and expansion of its parks.
“We had ideas, but so did the city staff. They’ll listen to you, but then, in the end, they’ll do it their way,” said Rabatin.
Councilwomen Greene & Ellis encourage residents to vote for balance on Election Day, Tuesday, November 8. Together with Rick Bookwalter, they can bring balance to the city council and fight future tax increases.
Manassas City residents petitioned for car tax relief when a 4-2 vote left them overtaxed and underwhelmed with the current budget process. Councilwomen Lynn Forkell Greene and Theresa Coates Ellis voted no but were outnumbered in May.
*Paid for and Authorized by Lynn For Council 2021
A Prince William County resident told Potomac Local News she received a text message urging her to vote at her polling location. However, the message listed an early voting location, not her regular precinct.
She reported the text message to the Prince William County Office of Elections, worried that others might have received the text message and will go to the wrong polling location on Election Day.
The text from Black Voters Matter states, "...reaching out to make sure you have what you need to vote...public records suggest you may not have voted yet..."
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The 7th Congressional District in Virginia is one of the most competitive races that could help determine who controls the House after the 2022 midterm elections. The battle between Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger and GOP newcomer Yesli Vega will act as the litmus test on where constituents in the newly re-drawn district stand on political and social issues.
Voter registrars in our area are working overtime to register new voters following another error at the state's Department of Elections.
Multiple voter applications filed with the DMV were not processed. The state blamed a computer glitch for the error.
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Republicans scored an early election victory in Prince William County Circuit Court.
A Judge on Tuesday, November 1, 2022, issued an injunction to allow the Prince William County Republican Committee to have its party members serving as election officers in the roles of poll chiefs and assistant chiefs in 12 disputed precincts across the county.
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About 320 mail-in ballots will be scanned at the Prince William County Office of Elections following chain-of-custody concerns from elections volunteers.
The number represents about 30% of the 1,100 mail-in ballots the office has received since early voting began in September.
Volunteers found that one of the two seals on the ballots had been opened before they were set for counting. In a statement, Prince William County General Registrar Eric Olsen said he’ll keep the ballots to be counted.
Here’s part of the statement:
These mail ballots will be reviewed and counted unless election officers reviewing them find a different reason to reject them (rare). While election officers generally unseal the ballot envelope when they process the mail ballots, under Virginia Code §24.2-709.1, our office is required to mark the date received and examine the ballot envelope to verify the required information has been provided. In doing so, the seal on some of the ballot envelopes inadvertently came open. Deputy Registrars resealed them and they have been stored in a secure location prior to review. Under Virginia Code §24.2-709.1(B), circumstances that prevent compliance with the officers unsealing the envelope is “not grounds for contesting the election” and “shall not invalidate the absentee ballots.”
The issue drew the attention of former Virginia General Ken Cuccinelli, now with the Election Integrity Initiative and a campaign organizer for Yesli Vega, running for Virginia’s 7th Congressional seat.
(1/2) VA election integrity problem in Prince William County. Gen. Registrar employees are opening mail-ballot envelopes-exposing voters' ballots(!)-& then presenting them to partisan Election Officials & asking them to certify that the exposed ballots aren't spoiled!
— Ken Cuccinelli (@KenCuccinelli) October 28, 2022
“Elections have a thousand components, and small parts sometimes go wrong. That is why when this was brought to my attention this morning, I worked with our bipartisan election officer teams and immediately had officers stop processing any envelopes with seal deficiencies to (1) determine the scope of the problem and (2) determine the causes and legal framework of the issue,” said Olsen.
Olsen abruptly announced his resignation earlier this month, saying he’ll step down following the November 8 General Election. He cited stress health concerns as the reason for his resignation, which comes about a year after he was hired.
President Donald Trump gave an unsolicited endorsement to Yesli Vega, prompting now a response from her campaign.
Trump urged voters to elect Vega, a Republican from the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, to Virginia’s 7th Congressional District. Trump posted the endorsement onto his Truth social media platform and called her a “strong Republican voice against violent crime and all other things destroying our nation. He also wrote, “Vega is a warrior for America First,” and tied to Spanberger to voting to support President Biden’s agenda 100% of the time, despite campaigning as a moderate.
On Friday, a Vega campaign spokesman said Trump’s endorsement appeared after Vega appeared on the Fox News Channel. She didn’t ask for it.
Here’s a statement from the campaign.
“President Trump joins the thousands of Virginians who have been supporting our campaign here in the 7th District, because they are discouraged with the failure of leadership they see from Joe Biden and Abigail Spanberger.
“Virginians are demanding lower cost of living, better schools, and safer streets. We started a movement last year here in Virginia and I am so excited to take this movement to Washington and deliver on those demands.” – Yesli Vega, Republican Nominee for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District
Republicans in Virginia are cautious about cozying up to Trump, as Democrats took over both houses of state government during his term in the White House. Last year, Gov. Glenn Youngkin kept Trump at arm’s length during his successful campaign for governor.
Trump is widely seen as a front-runner in the 2024 Presidential Election and never conceded his loss to Biden in 2020.
Meanwhile, in a new statement released today, Spanberger ties Vega to State Senator Amanda Chase (R-Chesterfield). She says she’ll introduce the “Life Begins at Conception Act to ban abortion in Virginia during the January 2023 General Assembly session. Chase said the bill mirrors legislation introduced in congress by Rep. Bob Good (R-Va., 5).
“The unborn child is a human person from the moment of conception. Abortion was never mentioned in the United States Constitution. But you know what was mentioned? The right to life,” Chase states in a video posted to Facebook.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, a 40-year precedent on abortion, sending the issue back to state legislatures to decide whether or not to permit abortion.
Earlier this year, Washington, D.C.’s NBC4-TV reported that Vega supports the right to life.
The last day to vote early in person is this Saturday, November 5. Election Day is Tuesday, November 8.
