Board of Supervisors Disenfranchises Significant Others

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, at its meeting this week, approved two changes to the memorandum of understanding between the County and the Reston Community Center. One change will allow electronic or mail voting. You may remember that Supervisor Hudgins vetoed that idea when it was raised several years ago. Supervisor Hudgins' electronic newsletter gave no indication why she agreed to the change now.

The second change to the memorandum of understanding voided the current arrangement whereby every resident of Small Tax District No. 5 can vote in the Reston Community Center's preference poll for members of the Board of Governors. Instead, the memorandum of understanding now allows each residential and commercial address one vote. With one small change, the Board of Supervisors took the right to vote away from every "significant other" in Reston. And it gave every business in Reston a vote.

Now to be fair, the RCC preference poll is something of a farce. Voters don't choose members of the Board of Governors. According to the Board of Governors, only Supervisory Hudgins has the authority to appoint members of the Board. In the preference poll, the community is only making recommendations to the Supervisor.

Nevertheless, it is shocking that the Board of Governors would take it upon itself to change the voting arrangements without engaging the Reston community in some sort of dialogue first. It is more than shocking that the Board of Governors, Supervisor Hudgins, and the Board of Supervisors should limit still further local democracy in Reston.