Speaking Up for What You Believe In
Volume 12, Number 5
Issue 553
Last November I had the honor to have 13,349 Chesterfield County, Virginia voters elect me as one of their Soil and Water Conservation District Directors to the James River Soil and Water Conservation District. Though I had once managed a U.S. Congressional campaign and have been the Campaign Treasurer for the campaigns of others, this was the first time that I had run for public office myself. I had always wanted to run for public office because my father had made sure that I met a lot of different types of public officials when I was a boy and I enjoyed doing that. He placed in me respect for the fact that they were--deep down--ordinary people who had opened-up their lives for public service. I wanted to be one of them.
This “Grand Pooh-Bah” office of Soil and Water Conservation District Director turns out to be just what I thought it would be. The office is charged by the original intentions of State of Virginia law to work with citizens in my local jurisdiction (Chesterfield and Prince George) in an attempt to identify local problems and then work to facilitate solutions on a grassroots basis. My position pays no salary. While I thought when I was campaigning that my work would focus primarily on soil and water management as well as environmental issues, it turns out that the citizens of Chesterfield County are crying out for any elected official to listen to their very-well-founded concerns about sprawl and aggressive overdevelopment and the apparent lack of resolve of their Board of Supervisors to find solutions to growth issues.
Since being elected, I’ve walked into an apparent firestorm of citizen opposition against their Board of Supervisors. Though I knew that the majority of the ordinary citizens of north-western Chesterfield County were upset about the extreme over-crowing of roads and schools and the lack of infrastructure for water and sewer service, I didn’t realize the extent of what would come to a very vocal breach of traditional decorum over the past three months.
Things like “Secret memos,” Board meetings ‘till past 1:00 a.m., Supervisors lecturing citizens with red faces, a supervisor being accused of biased in voting, Citizens lecturing Board members with harsh language, columnists in the local press poking fun, have been garnering great attention. Heck, I even got a signed e-mail from another CPA in Richmond wanting to do something about “the present corruption in the Board of Supervisors.”
I’ve had the honor to speak before the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors several times since being elected, not in an official capacity of the James River Soil and Water Conservation District, but still as an elected person. While I’ve received praise from citizens who have been crying out for any elected official to listen to them (and I think I’ve filled “the bill”), apparently the Board thinks I’m “chastising them.” Good. I must be on the right track. Another thing that my Dad taught me was that if you don’t stand for something that you believe in--you stand for nothing. I know I’m on the right track because I am trying to stand up with the general citizenry--for something.
During one of the times I spoke (the famous “David Robinson ‘deny…deny…deny‘” speech (so named by one resident)), I was interrupted by applause from the audience a total of six times when I stated that the Board should find the courage to deny zoning cases and not be afraid to be sued by developers. After all, I said, the Board isn’t afraid to get sued by a Wiccan Priestess who wants to give (but is being refused the opportunity to do so) the prayer at the beginning of the meeting. A few days later the County Administration decided to exclude my office from the public swearing-in ceremony. Good. I must be on the right track.
Almost daily now, citizens call me to ask what they can do to get the attention of elected officials to state that they are against any further development. What prompted this was that quotes from me started appearing in the paper as a result of my eventually-successful quest to get a confidential (at least to ordinary citizens) memorandum that stated 46 (yes, forty-six) legal tools available to the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors to deny zoning cases. The Board had been saying publicly for a couple of years that there was nothing substantive that they could do to deny the out-of-control growth. As a result, I’ve been asked many times recently by citizens what they can do. Funny, they keep asking “is a recall possible?” No, it isn’t, but read the page from my own campaign play-book:
Register to vote and vote. If you aren’t registered to vote in the right district or don’t go out on election day to vote, you really are paying a lot for something (through your taxes) and then aren’t using it. If you are upset at our level of taxes (and I am, too), you must exercise your right to vote. Vote for the politician that shares your views about government and taxes--whatever the office.
Write handwritten letters to legislators and those seeking office. If you have an opinion about Federal, State or Local taxes, write a handwritten letter to your elected official stating how you feel. For example, if Senator George Allen got 20,000 handwritten letters a week (a fraction of the population of Virginia) advocating drastic tax simplification, I would hope that he would introduce a bill to allow Congress to start discussing it. Write letters of opinion to candidates, too, so that they will incorporate your ideas into their campaigns. By writing candidates you will become part of the future of politics.
Become active in organizations that work to bring about political change. I think that there is strength in numbers and the best thing to do to work to bring about tax reduction and tax efficiency is to get together in a group and start discussing it. Whether you want to join a political party (you‘d be surprised how politics at a local level is more about fellowship than politics), a meet-up group, or a lobbying organization (such as The Sierra Club or AARP), join a group and start working towards positive change.
Get your checkbook out. There usually is admission to be paid to get to the more advanced level of being involved in the political process. For example, if you want to influence Congressman Eric Cantor’s position on prescription drugs being covered by Medicare, pay the fee to go to his fundraiser and when you shake his hand, don’t let go until you have said 2-3 well thought-out sentences about how you feel. Also, right now, Republican and Democratic candidates are starting their candidacies for Governor of Virginia. For small amounts of money, you can attend fundraisers and start a personal relationship with the next Governor, a governor that will inherit terrible budget problems and transportation issues.
Consider running for an office that you think you can get elected to. This is what I decided to do. I realized that the advice, counsel and opinions that I was giving out about our government and our system of taxation were meaningless unless I was prepared to run for office myself. I decided to choose an office that I thought I could get elected to, “Chesterfield County Soil and Water Conservation District Director,” and then I started my campaign with the help of my family, my staff and my closest allies. There is a horrible shortage of good candidates for public office--all offices. Too many incumbents run unopposed! I think that candidates should be encouraged to run and not be criticized or chagrined. By running myself, I have given the voters a choice.
I am standing resolutely against overdevelopment before transportation, school and water and sewer infrastructure is in-place. There are many development opportunities eastward and southeastward. Why do why do we have this relentless “westward ho!“ mentality? Sprawl and overdevelopment is the NUMBER ONE issue to Chesterfield residents. The Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors needs to develop the political resolve to listen to the citizens that live in the county when they cry-out to stop the development. Though we live in a republic where we, as citizens, elect the representatives that we think will vote like we want them to every time, the fact is that they will vote their own minds and I am a strong advocate of that.
I was told last week that an activist in the local Democratic Party resigned because of “what I was doing to the Democratic Party.” I’m still trying to figure that one out. I consider that to be a compliment. [Remember, among the things that I campaigned on during my campaign for Soil and Water Conservation District Director was strongly advocating aggressive involvement in politics by real citizens, slower growth, fiscal responsibility and “no free meals for elected officials.”]
To be specific, I wish my own Supervisor would aggressively take the lead to advocate the immediate deferral of all “Agricultural to Residential” rezoning cases in the Upper Swift Creek Watershed District (and other environmentally sensitive areas of the County) for the maximum one year period AND immediately take steps to instruct the Chesterfield County Planning Department to update the applicable sections of the County’s Master Plan. Ultimately, I know that it takes three votes on the Board to do anything, so he would just be one of the three needed.
He and I have been learning a lot about true friendship lately. The strength of a great friendship is in its ability to get stronger in times of difference. The excellence of a friendship is in the differences, not the similiarities. Though he and I may disagree about the solutions (I have just told you my own wishes), I am still VERY proud that I know my elected official personally and that I am able to advocate to him directly. I have his respect and he has mine. He’s honest and he cares and he listens as do I to him. My positions become refined when he and I discuss these important issues. In fact, the reason that he and I appear to disagree about issues and the way to bring them out makes me want to talk with him more. I always prefer to surround myself with people that disagree because they make the greatest counselors. Doing this, though, is just harder emotionally unless both friends work hard at being better friends.
When citizens start filing lawsuits against the Board to force the Circuit Court to review a recent case to build 2,500 homes in an area where schools are already at 130% of capacity and when local press columnists are coining new words and phrases, it just seems dumb as dirt that more political resolve can’t be developed to do what the citizens want. Again, it takes three and I know that.
The most meaningful e-mail and phone call to have arrived in the mail after the most aggressive of my quotes in the newspaper was the one from my long-time friend, Will Miller, a mediator in Chesterfield County. He wrote “those of us in the profession of Mediator/Arbitrator who understand the value of integrity and its impact on our private business also understand that being neutral or unbiased involves BOTH the absence of conflict of interest in fact and the appearance of conflict of interest to the degree that it may impact the stakeholders in the conflict. It is obvious that the stakeholders in these County matters have been impacted by certain leaders’ handling of matters.”
Will, a client who has paid me thousands of dollars over the years, little-by-little-by-little, who is one of the client-friends that I would trust implicitly with the keys to my house, gave me the blessing worth far more than the money he’s ever paid me when he said, “I was pleased to see you speak up about this. You are right on point. It needed to be said and was particularly rewarding to hear it from someone not in the profession.”
What I said that got most of the elected officials in the county upset was a simple and straightforward quote that appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch that is one of the basic rules of how to treat people I said, “anytime there is the appearance of a lack of independence, that should be disclosed.” I guess having an amazing command of the obvious about the simple road rules of life gets some people upset when said publicly by a citizen for the benefit of and about our elected officials who may not be making sure to let the citizens stay fully-informed.
I’ve been elected to a four year term. If the Chesterfield Board thinks that I’ve already, as one Board member said that another had said, “chastised them too much,” they haven’t seen anything yet. The sad thing is that, in addition to a much faster build-out of the rural and environmentally sensitive areas of the County being lost, that more and people will die because of overdevelopment (EMS response and traffic accidents on antiquated roadways). Zoning issues and out-of-control overdevelopment really are life and death decisions. I’ll be giving that speech soon.
David B. Robinson, CPA
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