A droll footnote to the item we reported the other day about extremely well-traveled Loudoun Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott York (R-At Large):
Because York was one of no fewer than five state and local officials involved in divvying up road building funds whom York invited along on his action-packed ten-day highly official tourism and shopping spree to Turkey in late October, and one of three officials on the trip who serve on the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, even Virginia’s extraordinarily lax ethics rules required that public notice be given of the trip — as do any occasions where three or more officials serving on the same body get together, as there is a presumption that they may be discussing official business out of the public view.
York, per usual, never tells his benighted constituents about any of this many foreign junkets to Germany, England, Asia, and now the exotic Near East (all of course vital to the job of administering a Virginia county), nor has he ever to our knowledge reported back to the Board of Supervisors or the public on the “results” of these trips.
But on the advice of the NVTA’s lawyer, public notice was required this time. And so it was indeed provided.
We’re sure everyone saw it, as it was conveniently posted in a single location . . . on the bulletin board at NVTA headquarters.
This inevitably brings to mind the scene in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” in which the local planning authority insists that fully adequate “notice” has been provided to the hero of the story that his home is about to be demolished to make way for a new bypass, insisting that the plans have been “on display” at the office for the last nine months:
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard’.”
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