Candidates Forums & Voters Guides 2009

When you go in to cast your vote, you are affecting:

• What laws will be made.
• How laws will be enforced.
• How and WHERE tax money will be spent.
• What businesses are likely to choose to come to your area.
• Your property taxes.
• The quality of education provided to your community’s children.
• Accessibility of a higher education.
• The value of your property.
• Who serves on citizen committees.
• What roads are repaired or expanded.
• Tuition rates of universities and community colleges.
• Access to services such as DMV (if money is cut so are days and hours)
• Rest areas on I-81.
• Law Enforcement.
• Fire and Rescue.
• Social Services.
• What types and where trails and bike-ways are built.
• What types of businesses are available to you locally.
• Funding cuts at State level result in increases at the local level.
  • Services that must be provided are often supplemented by State funds. When that money is cut, it falls upon the local jurisdictions to pick up the slack or else it doesn’t happen.
• Quality of drinking water.
• How stormwater issues are dealt with.
• Sewer and garbage issues.
• Maintenance of state and local parks.
• Quality and availability of recreational facilities.
• Health insurance.
• Unemployment insurance.
• Car insurance rates.
• Product safety (agricultural in particular).
• Fraud protection.
• Child welfare and safety.
• Economic Development (creation of JOBS!
• WHEN ELECTIONS ARE HELD!!!!! ( Are they convenient for voters and do they cost or save money for taxpayers.)

And, the list goes on for a long, long time. Your vote is important because the outcome of elections will have a long term effect on your quality of life, your financial resources, your community, and your state.

Please take the time to go vote on November 3rd. And remember that a vote to move the elections to November in Christiansburg will mean a saving of approximately $5000/election (at the minimum, that could double in the next couple of years). Could you think of a better use for that money? Maybe a local farmer’s market? Maybe to apply to the Aquatic Center interest payments? Maybe host another baseball or basketball tournament to bring more business in to the community? Maybe help support the Library or the Free Clinic? Maybe to use as the ‘matching funds’ to help develop sidewalk-trail systems that actually connect with something? Think about it!

YOUR VOTE IS YOUR VOICE! USE IT! DON’T REMAIN SILENT!

The link above takes you to the entrance of the full website (which contains a lot of other information) and there are links across the top to click on to go to specific areas. The link labeled **Video of Meetings” will take you to a page with all of the recordings that are currently available. (Some of the older ones have been removed to save space on the server but are available, just let me know what you need).

One of the patterns you will notice can be found in the responses of the Mayor: “Let’s wait and see.” Last night he provided a new variation on that theme: “Let’s wait and monitor” or “Let’s wait and watch”. (Based upon a review of the historical minutes, this translates into Let’s do anything we can to pretend we’re doing something until the issue goes away!)

I am starting a list of such statements that appear to be designed to take action by not taking action. This type of attitude has cost the Town a lot…and I am sure will cost the Town a great deal more as times progresses. This is an awful lot like putting a band-aid on a cut without cleaning it and applying antibiotic first. It looks good on the surface, but it can lead to some serious problems later. You can’t hide issues forever. At some point, you have to take charge, show some leadership and start dealing with the issue. (Since this specific issue realted to stormwater, erosion & sediment control, it is nteresting that the Town of Christiansburg is under a Corrective Action by DCR for failure to document inspections related to erosion/sediment control and stormwater.)

Watch the video and you will see some good examples of where those leadership qualities were exhibited by Michael Barber, Ann Carter, Henry Showalter, and Jim VanHoozier. Leadership means being outfront, making decisions, and getting things done. IT DOES NOT MEAN LET’S WAIT AND SEE! Rather than Waiting to See, why not come up with a solution. If a solution is not currently present, then set up some specific critera where followup reviews are done on a regular basis until such time as the issue is resolved. Mr. Mayor, it is time to take some positive action rather than negative inaction!

It is a crying shame that one of our older citizens cannot enjoy her property in her retirement years. People build homes with yards with a reasonable expectation that the property can be used as they wish. Who knows maybe you or one of your family members will be the next person to have such a problem.

I am sure that there are those who remember from their high school days some of the key phrases like:
“When in the Course of human events…” or “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

However, there are probably far fewer who remember some of the other important phrases held within that document. Specifically, those facts which are listed to give support to the claim that the King of Great Britain established a form of Tyranny over these States.

Now, take some of those facts and try looking at them from the perspective of the local, state, or federal government being in the place of the ‘King’ and I think you may find some similarities.(I’ll paraphrase a few of these here.)

• refusing to allow the enactment of laws for the public good.
• refusing to allow Governors to pass Laws that were of immediate need of the public until he could get around to giving his approval, then neglecting to attend to them.
• governing bodies were required to meet in areas far from their stored Public Records, striving to wear them down to where they would simply comply.
• dissolution of those agencies/groups daring to oppose the King.
• after that dissolution, to fail to replace the groups, thus eliminating effective responses to issues that arise.

I wonder if these are some of the guidelines that we should be evaluating our government officials on when it comes time to vote? For those seeking reelection,  how have they handled the discussion of issues and/or voting on ordinances that affect the public good. (Remember that a zoning ordinance, subdivision ordinance, stormwater ordinance, and ALL other ordinances are the laws that your local officials are enacting.

When you look at ‘refusing to allow Governors to pass Laws’ comment, think about where elected officials go to get information on what they are allowed, by law to do. Do they take the word of someone telling them that the ‘minimum standards’ are what is required by law (which is true), or do they have the foresight to ask, are we allowed to do more than the minimum? Do our citizens deserve more than the minimum?

I think the “required to meet in areas far from their stored Public Records” shows a clear correlation with public meetings and public documents, but in this case concerns the degree of openness that the government is willing to provide people (and what the people are willing to accept). Are the elected officials making sure that the public has the information needed to understand their government and what is happening when decisions are being made?

The last two, I group together and see a relationship with the creation of citizen committees and their ‘failure to thrive’ due to neglect. When was the last time you heard an elected officials request that a citizen committee be formed. When was the last time you heard of such a committee presenting a report to the government agency? Any such reports should be public knowledge. In fact, it should be done at public meetings whenever possible. Citizens have a right to know what information the government is being given that may affect decision-making.

Fortunately, we are in a position where we do not need to breakaway from government in order to change the way government works. We have the ultimate power in the form of voting. It is unfortunate that so few people exercise that right and responsibility. However, I believe that is in the process of changing. More and more younger people are becoming involved and active. They seem to be taking their right to vote quite seriously. We may well see a major shift in the voting population based upon age groups.

There are a lot of people out there who say that these younger voters will lose interest, they will stop coming out to vote. If you are someone running for office, be careful of this stance. Information is much more accessible than ever before. It takes only a few minutes for someone to go to a site like Project Vote Smart and check out the voting records of your current elected officials. Of course, you can find other information there such as biographical information, positions on issues, ratings by interest groups, public statements, and perhaps most importantly, campaign finances.

For a quick preview of what to expect on the November 3, 2009 ballot, check out https://www.voterinfo.sbe.virginia.gov/PublicSite/Public/FT2/PublicElectionDetails.aspx?Ret=1
Yes….the referendum for changing the voting date in Christiansburg from May to November is on the ballot. Now, it is in the hands of the citizens of the Town of Christiansburg.

Since there are so few (if any) places in Town any more where construction would not impact neighboring communities, isn’t it time for the Town to come up with some for of noise ordinance for this situation. A noise ordinance does not have to be so specific as to be too cumbersome. It could simply be related to construction noise not impinging on the regular family and sleep hours that most people try to enjoy.

For a full review of the history and some of the current applications of noise ordinances, check out ….yes…that favorite resource of mine: Wikipedia – Noise Regulation. A simple noise ordinance like this could make life better for those who have to live through the noise around them and for public officials who will be held accountable after the fact when something like this slips through the cracks.

By Carol Lindstrom On February 8 at 1:00 PM