November Meeting:
Second Tuesday!!

Legislation Package and I-66 Widening

Our November meeting will be held on the Second Tuesday of the month to avoid Election Day. Our main task will be to adopt our Legislative Package for 1999-2000. We will vote on rules for considering the package, since we have found it works better to consider the draft items the committee approved unanimously as a block, then vote on non-unanimous items, then vote on other proposals as long as they are available in writing in 70 copies no later than 7:15 on meeting night. The draft and one such proposal are included in this newsletter. The second part of the program will be consideration of the resolution prepared by our Transportation Committee on proposals to widen I-66. This issue is heating up and the Federation needs to be on record with a position.

Draft Legislative Package

Introduction: Civic Federation Principles

• We oppose any efforts to change formulas for state funding that would result in decreases in funding for Arlington County government and public schools
• We urge the General Assembly to revise the state transportation funding formula to increase funding for growth areas such as Northern Virginia
• We strongly support increased funding for schools, mass transit, and highways
• We support provision of retirement packages to Arlington County Employees that are competitive with bordering and/or neighboring jurisdictions.
• We support adoption of a statewide recycling goal of 40 percent by the year 2005

1. Administration of Government, Generally

B. Requirement of State-Owned Industrial Facilities to Develop Environmental Man-agement Plans. Supports legislation to develop and implement pollution-prevention plans and to establish a state office to coordinate and provide technical assistance.

C. Initiative and Referendum. Requests the Governor of Virginia to appoint a bipartisan study commission to examine how the adoption of initiative and referendum would mesh with Virginia�s traditions and weigh the assets and liabilities of I & R.

D. Marking of Handicapped Parking. Supports legislation to develop a uniform requirement for the marking of handicapped parking spaces.

2. Authorities

3. Aviation

4. Conservation (environment)

5. Counties, Cities, and Towns

6. Crimes and Offenses Generally

• A. Sodomy Laws. Supports prohibition of prosecution under the sodomy law except in conjunction with another charge.
• B. Sexual Orientation. Supports the addition of sexual orientation to the coverage of anti-discrimination and Hate Crimes laws.
• C. Aggressive Panhandling. Requests the legislature to authorize the Arlington County Board to adopt an ordinance to make it unlawful for any person to panhandle in an aggressive manner, to panhandle within fifteen feet of an automatic teller machine, or to panhandle from any operator of a motor vehicle while standing in a roadway median or on a travel lane.
• D. Handicapped Parking. Supports legislation to raise the reduced mail-in fine for parking in a handicapped space from approximately $100.00 to $300.00 (the current fine is $500 should you go to court).
• E. Volunteer Enforcement of Handicapped Parking. Supports the enactment of legislation to allow Arlington (like selected other jurisdictions) to train and deploy volunteers to enforce handicapped parking violations.

7. Criminal Procedure

8. Dangerous Weapons

A. ?

B. Gun Control. Strongly supports legislation requiring mandatory instant background checks on purchasers of all firearms at all gun shows and allowing up to seventy-two hours to complete the check if the instant check is inconclusive.

9. Energy Conservation and Resources

10. Education

11. Housing

12. Insurance

A. Insurance Rates. Supports a law to prohibit insurance companies from raising rates when the insured motorists in accidents are found to be not �at fault.�

B. Third-Party Notification. Supports man-datory third-party notification so that inca-pacitated persons would not lose insurance coverage automatically if they should inad-vertently miss a payment.

13. Partnerships

14. Property and Conveyances

15. Public Health

1. Premarital testing for HIV and reporting of results to both prospective spouses

2. Testing of all pregnant women and reporting of results to both prospective spouses, followed by treatment of infected mothers to prevent transmission to the fetus

3. Testing of newborns and reporting of results to both parents, followed by treatment of infected infants.

16. State Corporation Commission

17. Taxation

A. Consumer Use Tax. Supports repeal of the Consumer Use Tax.

B. Economic (Fair-Market) Rent. Recom-mends establishment of statewide, economic (fair-market) rent, not contract rent, as the basis for assessments of commercial property.

C. Cigarette Tax. Supports authorizing Ar-lington County to increase the cigarette tax in a manner similar to that of cities.

D. Local Income Tax. Opposes legislation that would allow a local income tax.

18. Transportation and Highway Safety

A. Bicycle Safety. Supports requiring the Virginia Department of Transportation to establish sufficient right-of-way for bicycles during planning and construction of state roadways and greater accommodation for bi-cycles on state roadways.

B. Truck Safety. Supports measures to increase the number of officers and to strengthen penalties for violators in order to improve safety of truck operations on Virginia highways. Demands stronger enforcement of speed limits, and urges tougher requirements for commercial drivers� licenses.

9. United States Government

20. Waste Disposal

21. Water and Sewer Systems

A. Water Quality Measurements. Supports the development and standardization of methods for the measurement of contaminants in storm waters and waters that feed the Chesapeake Bay.

B. Water quality Improvement. Supports stabilization of the Virginia Water Quality Improvement Fund Act to permit qualifying localities to receive up to 50 percent of the local costs to design, test, and install biological nutrient removal technologies at waste water treatment facilities.

C. Nutrient Reduction. Encourages the Commonwealth to consider methods in addition to point source control to achieve identified nutrient reduction goals.

Addenda

Arlington County

Crimes and Offenses Generally

Persons Convicted of Rape (Second Conviction). Supports requiring a mandatory sentence of life without parole for any person convicted of rape for the second time.

Red Light Cameras. Supports requiring the owner of a vehicle captured on film running a red light to be responsible for payment of the fine whether the owner or another person was driving. A defense for this crime could be pro-viding a valid name and address of the offender.

Historic Preservation

Transportation and Highway Safety

Water and Sewer Systems

Endnotes

1. The County Board should be given three years to phase in such changes.

2. There are many safety and environmental concerns at National:

• National Airport should be designated a short-range airport, and its current perimeter should remain at 1,250 miles.
• A single master plan should be developed to coordinate ef-ficient development and usage of MWAA airports according to the characteristics of each site, as required by existing legislation
• MWAA should permit no 2-aisle wide-body jet operations
• No loopholes should be allowed in the mandate that no more than 37 operations shall occur during any 60-minute period (the sum of takeoffs and landings; multiple sections of one flight shall not be counted as one operation only).
• MWAA should permit no commercial flight operations between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m.
• MWAA should develop immediately a plan for preventing the flow of highly poisonous de-icing solutions from flowing into the Potomac River
• Detailed measurements should be made of all airport-polluting substances that result from all land and air vehicles.
• Congress should ensure that there are no international flights at this airport.

3. We encourage DEO to use appropriated funds to enforce environmental laws, including solid waste management, as intended by the legislature in 1998.

4. The Inspector General shall operate independently but shall provide periodic reports to the County Board and the courts as may be required.

5. Volunteers could be able to enforce handicapped parking restrictions on private property where police and meter maids are not allowed to enter.

6. Allowing school to begin prior to Labor Day should have no fiscal impact in Northern Virginia. Reason given for school not beginning before Labor Day is to allow employers a sufficient pool of summer laborers.

7. Citizens must present bona fide public interest reason for this information, and the partnership or its agent must provide this information within ten business days at a reasonable cost to the re-quester.

8. The State Corporation Commission regulates state corporations in the same way that the Securities and Exchange Commission regulates at the Federal level. The SCC has often been perceived as not sufficiently protective of consumer interests. The Federation believes a body as powerful as the SCC should have broader, more diverse representation than its present membership permits.

9. Although the Virginia Supreme Court has ruled that contract rent may be used, the Federation has opposed its use because it usually lowers commercial assessments shifting more of the real estate tax burden to homeowners.

Additional Proposal Received

Draft Resolution on Widening I-66

Draft ACCF Resolution

Whereas the Civic Federation�s Transportation Committee has begun research on the proposed project but has found that very little information is currently available to permit conclusions on the impact of the widening; and

Whereas the process to date has been con-ducted without public knowledge until actions have been completed and with no input from Arlington�s citizens or their local government officials, and decisions have already been made that affect our interests without our knowledge or involvement; and

Whereas these decisions have been taken at the State and Federal levels without benefit of an environmental impact analysis or any consultation with Arlington officials or citizens,

Now therefore be it Resolved that:

The Federation believes that government de-cisions should be openly arrived at through a public process, and respectfully requests that the I-66 proposals first be evaluated as part of a comprehensive regional plan that:

• is created with local input

• respects the interests of commuters and residents

• evaluates the total mix of transportation solutions for all of Northern Virginia

• begins with analysis of methods to increase the efficiency of the existing paved lanes

• preserves quality of life and community integrity

• is based on a full environmental impact assessment

• protects the environment and uses the latest technology to reduce the impact of noise and air pollution in our neighborhoods

• does not destroy homes to clear space andis the most efficient use of limited taxpayer re-sources.

We further deplore the unilateral abrogation of the Coleman Agreement by one of its parties with no prior notification or consideration of the views of the other party, Arlington. Whether or not the community eventually approves of a modification of this highway, the manner in which this action has been taken has shaken our faith in long range planning efforts involving the U.S. Government.

Bluemont Civic Association Calls for I-66 Coalition

Police Offer Bike Registration

Coming Up

• November 2 - Election Day

• November 9 - ACCF Meeting:
  • Legislation Package for 2000

  • Route 66 Widening Proposals

• November 18 - First organizational meeting of a coalition to respond to I-66 change proposals. See the article on this page for info.

You Can Receive Your Newsletter by Email!

(We are capitalizing the BSCL now because the lower case version--bscl--can be mistaken for bsc1, or even bsci. The initials stand for Barcroft School and Civic League, where we are posting ACCF materials pending establishment of a dedicated Federation Web site.) Proposals to Widen I-66

ACCF Committee Chairs

Community Relations
David Foster 276-0206 dfoster@fulbright.com

Cultural Affairs
Herschel Kanter 536-6286 hkanter@erols.com

Environmental Affairs
Patrick Smaldore 528-3935 patricksmaldore@rocketmail.com

Housing
Reid Goldstein 271-0431 rgoldstein@stratsight.com

Legislation
Nancy Graham 243-4650 nagraham@msn.com

Membership
Frances Finta 528-2882 ffinta@aol.com

Parks & Recreation
Eric Buehlmann 237-0332 Eric_Buehlmann@jeffords.senate.gov

Planning & Zoning
William Gearhart 522-2276

Public Services (Co-Chairs)
Rebecca Gray 549-3277 gray-jones@erols.com
Stan Schachne 522-1358 schachne@aol.com

Revenues and Expenditures
Robert Atkins 527-8859

Schools Co-Chairs
Roger Meyer 671-3655 rdmeyer@aol.com
Terri Prell 820-3782 prellth@webtv.net

Special Events Co Chairs
Dan Krasnegor 534-4024
Tommye Morton 522-1506 TRMort@aol.com

Transportation
Randy Swart 521-2080 randy@BSCL.org

ACCF Officers

Executive Committee

Newsletter Editorial Committee

This page was last revised on: December 28, 2003.