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 »
Tag Archives: VOTE
Should Christiansburg Town Manager have a 3-Year Contract?
Town Manager Contract Survey: It is not just about the contract, but also about the timing where outgoing elected officials are pushing to make the decision now rather than to wait for newly elected officials to take office. The people spoke, quite loudly in the last election, as to who they trust with making such decision. Now, there is an end-run going on to try to push through this contract with the Town Manager without the chosen representatives of the people having a voice. For those who voted for Cord Hall, this means the current Council is changing a decades old pattern in order to exert the last bit of control. Read the rest of this entry »
Christiansburg Town Council: Spending YOUR money before they get it.
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 »
What Campaigns can tell you about Candidates (also, new Aquatic Center Documents online)
First a brief word from our sponsor..over at myvaresources.com on the Town of Christiansburg page, you will find links to the Lionberger Contract with the Town and Change Orders to that contract. (http://myvaresources.com/Town%20of%20Cburg/CburgAquaticCenter.htm)
Now, I am sure that all of you have probably seen more campaign information this year than ever before. What does this tell you? Well, obviously there are people who really, really want to win. Maybe they want to win badly enough to spend lots of someones money on ‘advertising’.
What it tells me is that there are those who are scared, for perhaps the first time, that the status quo will not be maintained. Or, maybe there is concern that if new eyes come into local government, things will become public that have not become public before. After all, Christiansburg only discovered the Freedom of Information Act about 3 years ago (although it has been around for about 40 years now).
Now, how are they treating their opponents. There are a lot of distortions and lies going around. Campaign signs have been stolen. All of that seems like a much harder way to prove you are the best candidate than simply showing what you have done.
How people run their campaign can also show you how they are likely to treat people who do not share their goals, values, or beliefs. Are they likely to discuss issues with you logically, offering the data to support their positions, or are they just going to stand in defiance and demand that they have their way?
Is raising or not raising taxes more important that irresponsible spending? Is making promises that are never fulfilled what you want in a candidate? Do you want leadership that takes credit for the work of others and places any blame squarely on anyone else they can find to blame?
Stop and listen to the candidates. Are they answering your questions or are they dodging them. During the candidate forums, I heard a lot of “mistakes were made” comments but I never once heard the comment “I made mistakes, but I have learned from them.” Of course, there is no evidence in the minutes of Planning Commission or Town Council to indicate that mistakes were acknowledged or that steps were taken to prevent those mistakes from happening again. In fact, the minutes show the same mistakes being made over and over again.
***another word from our sponsor FOIA*** If you were present at the Candidate Forum you heard Mayor Ballengee note that he did not know what urban sprawl meant. Well here are a few definitions for future use:
- an unplanned, disorganized growth of housing etc on the edge of a city
- Slang term for the growth of cities in an unplanned and often wasteful manner.
- the unplanned uncontrolled growth of urban areas into the surrounding countryside.
- The unplanned and often haphazard growth of an urban area throughout a larger geographic area.
The Town of Christiansburg, VA page at myvaresources.com has a LOT of documents and audio/video recording links where any citizen can take a look at what government has been doing in Christiansburg for the past decade. You will see from meeting minutes that budgets are discussed early in non-election years and late in election years. You will see a pattern of issues coming up before the election and then not being supported or addressed until time for the next election. In short, you will find all of the political games that you see at the State and National level, right here at your own doorstep.
As always, check out the information for yourself. Sometimes change is about going back to the way that things use to be, where elected officials represented all the citizens not just special interest groups.
You might also want to remember that the same Comprehensive Plan that set the stage for the Aquatic Center includes a goal of having a Civic Center. Is that what’s next on the agenda? Will it happen the same way, behind closed doors without citizens being informed?
Please take the time to do a bit of research on candidates before you cast you vote on May 4th at the Armory.
Town of Christiansburg Moving Elections will shorten some terms:
According to the State Code: found on LIS (see below) terms of existing Town Council Members or Mayor are not to be shortened except as noted in Section D below which states:
D. In any city or town that elects its council biennially or quadrennially and that changes to the November general election date in odd-numbered years from the May general election date in even-numbered years, mayors and members of council who were elected at a May general election shall have their term of office shortened by six months but shall continue in office until their successors have been elected at the November general election and have been qualified to serve.
This shortening of some people’s terms (those who were elected in May of 2008) will mean that those people will need to run again and be elected in the November election.
There is one apparent hitch in this ‘get-along’ in that the shortening is restricted to 6 months. Given that the Town of Christiansburg elected officials don’t take office until September (rather than in July as other jurisdictions do) it appears there will need to be some overlap.
Is it possible that for a 2 month period we could have more than 6 Town Council Members? Suppose the 3 incumbents ran in November and were defeated, could we possibly have a situation where for 2 months we would have 9 Town Council Members?
What a mess? Well, the Town of Christiansburg set their starting dates in September while State Code says they state in July (§ 24.2-222. Election and terms of mayor and council for cities and towns. Apparently, this date was established in the 1954 Charter for the Town of Christiansburg. Since one of those council members affected has put forth that he will be seeking legal recourse to the shortening of his term, it may be that things will get interesting…again.
(Town Council Videos of this meeting should be available later today at myvaresouces.com.)
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§ 24.2-222.1. Alternative election of mayor and council at November general election in cities and towns.
A. Notwithstanding the provisions of § 24.2-222, the council of a city or town may provide by ordinance that the mayor, if an elected mayor is provided for by charter, and council shall be elected at the November general election date of any cycle as designated in the ordinance, for terms to commence January 1. No such ordinance shall be adopted between January 1 and the May general election date of the year in which city or town elections regularly are scheduled to be held therein.
B. Alternatively, the registered voters of a city or town may file a petition with the circuit court of the city or of the county within which the town is located asking that a referendum be held on the question of whether the city or town should elect the mayor, if an elected mayor is provided for by charter, and council members at the November general election date of any cycle as designated in the petition. The petition shall be signed by registered voters equal in number to at least ten percent of the number registered in the city or town on the January 1 preceding the filing.
The court, pursuant to § 24.2-684, shall order the election officials on a day fixed in the order to conduct a referendum on the question, provided that no such referendum shall be scheduled between January 1 and the May general election date of the year in which city or town elections regularly are scheduled to be held therein. The clerk of the court shall publish notice of the referendum once a week for the three consecutive weeks prior to the referendum in a newspaper having general circulation in the city or town, and shall post a copy of the notice at the door of the courthouse of the city or county within which the town is located. The question on the ballot shall be:
“Shall the (city or town) change the election date of the mayor (if so provided by charter) and members of council from the May general election to the November general election (in even-numbered or odd-numbered years or as otherwise designated in the petition)?”
If members of the school board in the city or town are elected by the voters, the ballot question also shall state that the change in election date applies to the election of school board members.
The referendum shall be held and the results certified as provided in § 24.2-684. If a majority of the voters voting in the referendum vote in favor of the change, the mayor and council thereafter shall be elected at the November general election date for terms to commence January 1.
C. Except as provided in subsection D, no term of a mayor or member of council shall be shortened in implementing the change to the November election date. Mayors and members of council who were elected at a May general election and whose terms are to expire as of June 30 shall continue in office until their successors have been elected at the November general election and have been qualified to serve.
D. In any city or town that elects its council biennially or quadrennially and that changes to the November general election date in odd-numbered years from the May general election date in even-numbered years, mayors and members of council who were elected at a May general election shall have their term of office shortened by six months but shall continue in office until their successors have been elected at the November general election and have been qualified to serve.
(2000, c. 1045; 2002, c. 30.)
Christiansburg Citizens Move the Vote. Your voices were heard!
On November 3, 2009, the Washington Post ran an article entitled “More local races joining November’s big tickets, by James Hohmann. Although the source is not cited, there was one paragraph about the Christiansburg referendum:
“In Christiansburg, six miles from Blacksburg, many voters are expected to oppose a ballot proposal that would move their elections from May to November. Fairfax and Prince William counties’ registrars said there’s no widespread support for a switch in their jurisdictions.”
At the end of the day, Christiansburg voters did have their say. Nearly 90% of voters supported moving the town elections to November.
I was pretty sure that there was enough citizen interest to move the vote based upon the number of citizens that I have communicated with over the last several months. However, I never dreamed the results would be such a landslide.
The results of the referendum and other local elections were delayed when the Registrar’s Office started putting the first votes into the spreadsheet provided by the state and some of the numbers did not look right. It seems that the total voting population of the County was being used in those ballot issues set for Blacksburg and Christiansburg only. It took a while for the Registrar’s Office to get with the state and have the spreadsheet corrected but the totals presented on the State Board of Elections website today are correct.
My thanks to the Registrar’s Office for catching the problem and getting it fixed before a lot of erroneous numbers got published, creating chaos.
I would also like to thank all of the candidates (win, lose, or draw) for being willing to tackle the tough issues and being a source of information for voters.
Finally, my thanks to the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County for setting new standards for providing citizens with information through their forums and website (lwvmcva.org). If you want to be involved in voter education, voting rights, local/state/national issues, membership with the League of Women Voters is open to all. Thanks to those people who contributed to the League of Women Voters and made it possible to produce all of the printed materials. For more information on joining the LWV’s or making a donation, go to: League of Women Voters of Montgomery County Virginia.
IT’S ELECTION DAY! GO VOTE!!!
Please take the time to go vote, before work, at lunch, after work, whenever you can. Polls open at 6AM & close at 7PM. If you know your address:) you can find your polling place HERE!
November 3rd is Election Day. YOUR VOTE IS YOUR VOICE! USE IT! DON’T REMAIN SILENT!
The League of Women Voters of Virginia has a great website set up where you can get information on candidates throughout the state at state, regional, and local levels. Please take a few minutes to check it out.
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!
Health care public option: So elected officials wanna opt out for me…and for you?
I do not like this at all. Who made elected officials so omnipotent that they should blatantly decide whether or not any citizen that they represent wants those officials to remove the possibility of a public option in health care.
Well, that seems to be one of the options being discussed. There is that darned word ‘options’ again. It sounds like politicians want to exercise their options to prohibit me from exercising my options. Maybe I’m missing something in this but something just doesn’t seem right.
I have no problem with the voters of a state deciding whether or not they wish to have a public health care option available to them. I have a great deal of problem with elected officials making that decision for me or any other citizen.
If the put the public option in and leave the opportunity for states to opt out, that should require a referendum by the public. The VOTERS should be the ones to decide, not elected officials who may or may not be tempted to make a choice based upon pressure from big interest groups.
In fact, since some elected officials seem to be so sure that the American people do not want a public option, maybe it should just be put on a national ballot and simply let people decide.
Some of these arguments against a public OPTION are so stupid that I find it embarrassing to think that the rest of the world is seeing this kind of discussion. Here’s some of the points I feel are important:
- If elected officials are so sure American’s do not want this, why not simply let the option go through, and the failure of people to choose that option will prove their argument?
- If we can trust insurance companies to do the right thing and police themselves, why did this ever come up as an issue? How did we get to this point?
- What is the big idea of trying to stop an OPTION when the Declaration of Independence clearly supports “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.
- Add to #3 that the first line of the Virginia Declaration of Rights reads “That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.
There are some central themes here that tell me that it is citizens who should make the choice, not elected officials. Elected officials cannot be expected to get out to talk to every single citizen to ascertain what citizens want. Perhaps, a hundred or more years ago, that would have been possible, but not with today’s populations. In order for elected officials to do their jobs properly, they need to remember that it is simple things like: “freedom” which includes the RIGHT TO CHOOSE; “life” which means to be alive (something that health care seems to be pretty much directly related to); and, happiness (i.e., free from what worries and fears that one can be free of) which seems to be directly related to being healthy, being restored to a state of health, or, at least, being as comfortable as possible with whatever state of ill health with which a person has to live.
Another thing or two elected officials need to remember arethat lies, deception, and misdirection eventually come back to haunt you. We as citizens will watch, we will remember, and we will get out and vote! Just give us the truth and let us make our decisions about our lives. Do not be so out of touch with those you represent that you miss seeing and listening to those for whom the existing health care options are simply NOT financially feasible. We have far too many people in this country who cannot afford to eat, pay for housing, buy clothes, or buy Christmas presents for their children. For those people, being able to come up with the money to provide decent health care in the existing forms available is not an option .
We, as a country as only as strong as the “least among us”. People who cannot afford health care are not asking for money for enhancing body parts, unnecessary plastic surgery, or other such things. The issue is simply basic health care.
It is a crying shame when a country provides Viagra through Medicare, but the woman with an unplanned pregnancy and no insurance could look at being financially devastated, possibly even end up losing custody of any other children she has simply because there was no health care option. If you are against abortion, then think about how the public option could help in cases such as this.
Don’t bother telling me that stuff like that doesn’t happen. I saw it when I was a child abuse investigator. Families devastated by medical bills that ended up unable to provide adequately for their children. I’ve seen children removed from homes and placed in foster care or with other relatives simply because parents could not afford to pay medical bills. I’ve seen families thrust into abject poverty trying to cover those bills, unable to feed and clothe their families DESPITE working one or more jobs where the person working could not afford the family plan. I’ve seen the loss of pride and dignity as people who have worked hard to provide for their children suddenly had their lives crash around them. I’ve seen people resort to illegal activities as a last resort to try to pay those bills and provide for their families.
Come on, all you elected officials, give us a chance to make our own choices. This has gone on for far to long. It is time to quit talking and start doing!
Tension is Building for the November 3 Ballot the People’s Debate May Answer Some Questions!
HERE IT IS!!! The “People’s Debate” sponsored by AARP Virginia and League of Women Voters of Virginia. Gubernatorial Candidates will respond to questions from the moderator AND those supplied by citizens through an online component! Locally, people will want to tune in to either CBS WDBJ-7 or Blue Ridge PBS Channel WBRA-15 at 8PM on October 12, 2009. This is a great opportunity to really see who these candidates are and learn what their goals are for our state.
Do not forget though that along with the State elections, there are local elections and issues that will be on your ballot election day. The Town of Blacksburg will be selecting 3 official (and 1 sort of unofficial) Town Council members. The Town of Christiansburg will be deciding if they wish to move the Town elections from May to November (saving about $5000/election of taxpayer money).
Now, let us take a look at some data that might help explain why tension levels are also high at the local levels. First, the obvious unknown:
| Number of Registered Voters | ||
| Year | Blacksburg | Christiansburg |
| 2004 | 14,063 | 11,490 |
| 2006 | 15,304 | 12,335 |
| 2008 | 14,661 | 13,228 |
| 2009 | 20,686 | 13,925 |
All of those incumbents in Blacksburg and those officials in Christiansburg that do not want to see elections moved to November have got to be wondering how all of those new voters are likely to vote.
Now for some numbers that tend to get lost during those post election celebrations:
| Year | Number of Votes Not Cast in Previous Elections | |||
| Blacksburg | Christiansburg | |||
| # Registered Did Not Vote | #Registered Did Partial Vote | # Registered Did Not Vote | #Registered Did Partial Vote | |
| 2004 | 10938 | 563 | 10519 | 361 |
| 2006 | 12149 | 1134 | 10937 | 512 |
| 2008 | 10938 | 563 | 11701 | 423 |
Those individuals who either did not bother to vote at all or did not find suitable candidates and did not vote for all of the positions that were open may be sending a message to candidates. I would be wondering if current issues and some of those new faces might not just get some of these votes. There were more than enough votes in just those who did partial votes to have changed the outcomes of those elections.
Compounding those issues for the Town of Blacksburg is that voter turnout in November is usually 3 to 5 times higher than the previous May elections. The numbers provided in the above tables are based on the May numbers. What will happen when those numbers are increased?
Although not dealing with specific candidates, Christiansburg elected officials might find themselves worrying that those same missing votes might work against them in the future. Votes in Christiansburg must decide whether to keep Town elections in May or to join many other jurisdictions in moving Town elections to November. It would stand to reason that elected officials would have some of the same concerns that Blacksburg candidates are facing.
What does remain the same regardless of whether voter turn out is high or low, or whether the elections are in May or November, is the fact that YOU are the only person who can decide IF you will vote or not. For the sake of your town, your neighbors, and your families, I certainly hope you will take the little bit of time it takes to go vote. Each and every vote is important and the results of elections and referendums can have long term affects on everyone.
Try to get to a candidate forum or debate to hear the candidates discuss issues. If you absolutely cannot make those, then you will find links to online recordings of the forums/debate at a website sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County. Additionally, written voters guides which consist of questions to and the responses by candidates are also available.
For those of you in Christiansburg, I can say that moving the elections will save on taxpayer money and will encourage more people to be involved in the election of government officials. I suppose the results of the Blacksburg election will be something of a litmus test to see if involving more voters in the process of electing local officials will have an effect on voting patterns.
Don’t forget to vote!
