On Tuesday, August 3, 2010, there will be Planning Commission and Town Council Meetings with a break long enough between the two for you to grab a quick bite to eat. Both agendas can be found on the town’s website at www.christiansburg.org. There are a lot of things going on! Read the rest of this entry »
This hit the email/internet route about 4:30 PM yesterday, just a few hours before the Public Hearing for the Sage Lane project. When this came up during the Hearing, most council members looked puzzled as did the engineer handling the Ivy Ridge (the let’s kill Sage Lane) project who had just reported that the Sage Lane Road had been eliminated from the proffers. Read the rest of this entry »
While the EPA does not hold control over the uses of mirrors, the billowing clouds of smoke coming from the vicinity of the Christiansburg Town Hall should be setting off alarms all over the place. Read the rest of this entry »
In case you haven’t heard, the most recent (of many) hot button issues in Christiansburg, VA has to do with a sudden push to get a contract in place for the Town Manager before the newly elected officials of the Town take office in September. It is at that same meeting that, historically, the Council has decided whether or not to enter into another 1 year verbal contract with the Town Manager for his services. Not only has the timing changed, it has now become important to make sure that it is in writing and for a time frame roughly 3 times longer than in previous contracts for that same position. (See these two Roanoke Times articles for further information and ‘the’ sample contract here.) Read the rest of this entry »
The Auditor of Public Accounts provides the citizens of Virginia with a way to see what is happening financially, with their specific County, City or Town.
On a website entitled “Commonwealth Data Point: Transparency at Work in Virginia” you can find information about expenses and revenue at the State-wide level or by jurisdiction. For instance, by clicking on the Local Government tab at the top, you get a drop-down menu that allows you to choose from “Expenditures”, “Revenues”, or “Local Comparison Analysis”. Read the rest of this entry »
Revisiting a re-visitation of the Meals Tax increase is on the agenda on the Tuesday, June 8th, Special Meeting of the Christiansburg Town Council. Rather than go through all the gory (although sickly humorous) details of why this is necessary, read the editorial at the Roanoke Times.com: Editorial: Christiansburg’s budget shenanigans. You can always watch the video at MyVAResources.com’s Videos of Public Meetings page, Part 5 on the 6/1/10 Town Council Meeting is the key element. On another note in the same sad song: Read the rest of this entry »
This is a very short (only 4 questions) survey that asks these questions:
The goal of the survey is to see how well the officials deal with the public. This is a crucial piece of the “open government” pie and tends to give some idea as to how important “open government” is to these officials. Please take a few minutes and fill out this survey.
To participate, click here!
If you have not seen elected officials in action, or are not a citizen, you are free to participate anyway. Simply go to the recorded videos of Town Council meetings at MyVAResources.com, watch a few and form an opinion. IMPRESSIONS are what this is all about. What are the perceptions that people have based upon their observations and interactions with Town officials.
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Yes, I am busy with other projects and have little time to write so I am using this for filler. I hope it will also give me information to use in future blog articles. Other than trying to repair all of the damage to the Depot due to the recent ‘urban flooding’ [no creek water involved], I am trying to put the finishing touches to the report for the National League of Women Voters on the Citizen Initiative for Transparency Grant we were awarded a few months ago.
This is a fairly detailed report of activities over the course of the last couple of years concerning FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] in Christiansburg, VA. The Montgomery County League of Women Voters was 1 of 11 such groups in the nation to be awarded the grants. Although still being modified a bit, the web site that was designed as part of that study is available for use. You may find it has some useful information, and, yep, there is a survey tool there as well as resources for using FOIA. The site is the Citizen Initiative for Transparency and contains information concering the Virginia FOIA and some interesting additional resources. To check it out, go to Citizen Initiative for Transparency. Everyone is invited to participate in the extended study. You will be hearing a great deal more about this study in the near future!
And, some exciting new studies are just around the corner. For information on how to join the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County and work with others in projects such as this, check out the Montgomery County League of Women Voters website.
Staying with my typical style, you can learn more about the League of Women Voters at Wikipedia 
The League of Women Voters was founded by women, but opened its doors to men in 1973. Since that time, both men and women have worked together in many League endeavors. If the engagement, education, and empowerment of citizens is important to you, this is a good group with which to be involved.
I have dropped a lot of hints to see if people would look but nobody has mentioned anything yet. The Town of Christiansburg has posted the Town’s Code on its new and improved website.
At the webpage you will find options to be able to see or download individual chapter or the overall ordinance. Funny thing is that (I haven’t finished the line-by line analysis yet) in the individual Chapters there is a Chapter 10 Erosion and Sediment Control. It is a 14 page .pdf document.
Now, if you go to the full copy of the Code, Chapter 10 is titled: Erosion and Sediment Control and Stormwater Management. It is 47 pages long and broken down into 3 sections. These sections are: Article I. Erosion and Sediment Control, Article II. Stormwater Management, Article III. Illicit Discharge.
Maybe that is what was meant by the State of Virginia directive that the Town must update it’s Storm Water Management section of the Town Code. Maybe it was to remove it from visibility in order to be able to ignore it more effectively. Maybe the Town is actually working on the updates, but such a note should be found. Where is this update that was ordered? If the codes were out of complaince was that a significant part of why all of the flooding occurred.
What happened here was what is known as Urban Flooding, Flooding due to increases in impervious surfaces and sections of disturbed land surface. T he same amount of water fall would NOT have had the same impact 5 or 10 years ago.
I can just see the new real estate ads now: Free Personal Flotation Devices with Every Home Purchase!
New photos on myvaresources.com. Check ‘em out!
This omission in the Codes would be funny if the very thing that got me started on this whole process had not been the fact that I raised an issue on parking and was told I had no standing. To prove the point, I was provided a copy of the relevant State Code that did show that I had no standing. Unfortunately, the copy I was given was not complete. I went to the actual State Code and found that the lines that were omitted clearly stated that I did have standing and my request was valid. Once someone lies to me I never believe that person again without checking out what that person said. In this case the person was the Town of Christiansburg. Over time, they have proven that my beliefs were well founded.
From Virginia State Codes:
§ 15.2-2239. Local planning commissions to prepare and submit annually capital improvement programs to governing body or official charged with preparation of budget.
A local planning commission may, and at the direction of the governing body shall, prepare and revise annually a capital improvement program based on the comprehensive plan of the locality for a period not to exceed the ensuing five years. The commission shall submit the program annually to the governing body, or to the chief administrative officer or other official charged with preparation of the budget for the locality, at such time as it or he shall direct. The capital improvement program shall include the commission’s recommendations, and estimates of cost of the facilities, including any road improvement and any transportation improvement the locality chooses to include in its capital improvement plan and as provided for in the comprehensive plan, and the means of financing them, to be undertaken in the ensuing fiscal year and in a period not to exceed the next four years, as the basis of the capital budget for the locality. In the preparation of its capital budget recommendations, the commission shall consult with the chief administrative officer or other executive head of the government of the locality, the heads of departments and interested citizens and organizations and shall hold such public hearings as it deems necessary.
Localities may use value engineering for any capital project. For purposes of this section, “value engineering” has the same meaning as that in § 2.2-1133.
(Code 1950, § 15-966; 1962, c. 407, § 15.1-464; 1975, c. 641; 1976, c. 650; 1996, c. 553; 1997, c. 587; 2006, c. 565.)
Once again, if you head back to the minutes and documents of the past, this is something that has been only partially done (at best) or all but ignored (at worst). Many of the items included in the Town’s alleged Capital Improvement Plan are not even Capital Improvements! Capital Improvements do not include money to non-profit agencies and the Planning Commission has no business offering decisions/suggestions to the Town Council on that. Heck! It’s not a land use issue.
This is one of the reasons why we desperately need to get Planning Commissioners to complete the certification program. They have little knowledge of what their role is and boundaries are crossed on a routine and regular basis.
Since this is where most of of Town Council members come from, it creates an even worse issue when the people they are reporting to have the same lack of training as the people doing the reporting. This lack of knowledge serves to encourage BAD decisions. This tool, if it were provided as it is intended, would help the Town Council make fact-based decisions that are in the benefit of the public while maintaining a high level of accountability to the taxpayers for use of tax funds.
Although the Town Manager has informed me that the Town does a Capital Improvement Plan instead of a Capital Improvement Program, there is no separate distinction with the State Codes. Why even Wikipedia shows the terms are interchangeable. In fact, Wikipedia does a superb job of clarifying the purpose and components that comprise a Capital Improvement Program/Plan. You really should take a few minutes to read this. Then you’ll know more than the Planning Commission and Town Council members about the topic:)
After having raised this issue several times over the last year, I had hoped to see some positive movement on this front. Alas, I am again disappointed. Maybe next year….may the next NEW TOWN COUNCIL!
Come watch the festivities on Monday afternoon, maybe…just maybe, they will prove me wrong. (I keep hoping.)
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