realloudoun

It’s always a good idea, when you’re planning to do something like take an axe to the school budget, to arrange things so that you don’t have to suffer the embarrassment of facing an angry public, which was what our very media-savvy all-Republican Loudoun Board of Supervisors did last week, neatly scheduling their final vote on the county budget to take place before the 6 pm public comment period.

Adding to that bit of political stage management was the usual budgetary buffoonery and political gamesmanship that this Board is making their trademark. For a while it looked like the Board, having adopted the $1.8 billion budget by a vote of 5–3, would be unable to muster a majority to adopt the $1.205 property tax rate that was the direct mathematical consequence of the budget figure they had just approved. How’s that for businesslike leadership and responsibility? Continue reading →

We all of course were no doubt astonished to awake to the news this morning that the all-Republican Loudoun Board of Supervisors, all of whom had received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the investors in the proposed entertainment and sports venue at One Loudoun, last night passed with no dissenting vote the sweeping special exception, rezoning, and newly invented “special activity area” zoning designation sought by the project’s developers, “VIP Sports & Entertainment”.

Our alleged local newspaper Leesburg Today (which has signed on as a corporate “partner” of the as-yet-nonexistent Loudoun Hounds baseball team that the stadium is supposedly being built for—how’s that for editorial independence) announced the joyous news with perfect objectivity Continue reading →

Pardon us for being quaint and old-fashioned, but why is it not an issue that the all-Republican Loudoun Board of Supervisors will be voting this evening to approve a sweeping exception to zoning and planning rules for the direct financial benefit of a project whose backers gave tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to the very officials who will be voting to approve their project?

The investors behind the proposed entertainment and sports complex at One Loudoun — excuse me, the wholesome American baseball stadium, even though the baseball team does not exist and if and when it does exist it will be so minor league as to be uaffiliated with Major League Baseball and barely distinguishable from a high school team — gave at least $67,000 to the members of this Board for their election.

Chairman Scott York (R), who has dropped all pretense of being an objective judge of the proposal Continue reading →

Our all-Republican Loudoun Board of Supervisors, elected with a half million bucks from developers and Chamber of Commerce types, has been reminding us ad nauseam for the past year not only how “business-friendly” they are (example: giving away $2 million of your tax money to the Washington Redskins to help them leave the county) but also how “businesslike” they are in running government.

But in fact, their idea of running something “like a business” actually in practice means running it like a cartoon version of a business: making decisions in secret and on the fly; cutting backroom deals that benefit cronies; spending huge amounts of time and money inventing a “brand image” for themselves; and punishing subordinates who tell the truth. Continue reading →