Officials gathered to establish a new parking garage serving Virginia Railway Express riders and downtown Manassas Park visitors.

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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].

Drivers on Brentsville Road are now traveling on a new bridge over Prince William Parkway.

The bridge is part of a $55 million interchange being constructed where three roads meet: Brentsville Road, the parkway, and Dumfries Road, leading to Downtown Manassas.

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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].

Prince William County Supervisors amended its collective bargaining ordinance, allowing full-time employees to negotiate salaries and benefits.

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Manassas School Board member Sara Brescia is asking for a public discussion about public schools' grading policy.

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The Manassas City Council will meet on Monday, July 18, 2023, to discuss ongoing electric issues in the city.

A recent series of power outages in the city has been "unprecedented," according to utility director Tony Dawood. Most recently, issues at the city's power substation in Battery Heights off Liberia Avenue left customers in the dark.

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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].

The Stafford County School Board is working on its Capital Improvement Plan for the 2025 budget year, which begins about a year from now.

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