February follies

Tuesday in the Board room,

The February 3 meeting of the Goochland Board of Supervisors promises a continuation of the saga of our governing board versus citizens who are finally paying attention and tired of incompetence and half-truths.
For a complete look at the agenda, visit the county website at www.co.goochland.va.us and click on supervisors. Don’t try to download the complete packet unless you have a high speed internet connection.
Of great interest, given all the recent commentary on regulations surrounding closed meetings, is the item announcing that the supervisors will meet in closed session at the end of their afternoon gathering to discuss the sale of the Fairgrounds Building.
We can only hope that any vote taken to sell the property is done in public. It would be really nice if each board member explained his vote to give citizens some idea of his thought processes.
According the agenda, the evening session will be devoted to revisions of the county’s comprehensive land use plan and a new false alarm penalty ordinance.
The comp plan is also on the website, again only download if you have high speed. Take careful note of the two addendums they contain interesting comments and last minute changes.
The comp plan itself has all sorts of useful information. Unfortunately it also seems to be replete with favors for friends from one end of the county to the other. Some of the accommodating language is subtle, other parts quite blatant. This is an unfortunate reversion to the “old” way of doing things.
Presentation of the plan revisions will be brief. Unless citizens prepared in advance by at least reading the plan, the discussion, if there is any, could be hard to follow.
It will be interesting to see how the supervisors react to public comment on the eleventh hour changes to the proposed 2028 plan.
Another item of interest for the afternoon session is what seems to be a Code of Virginia section dealing with rights of local employees to contact elected officials. The agenda entry includes no explanation, just the following:
Ҥ15.2-1512.4* * Rights of local employees to contact elected officials* Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to prohibit or otherwise restrict the right of any local employee to express opinions to state or local elected officials on matters of public concern, nor shall a local employee be subject to acts of retaliation because the employee has expressed such opinions.
“For the purpose of this section ‘matters of public concern’ means those matters of interest to the community as a whole, whether for social, political, or other reasons and shall include discussions that disclose (i)evidence of corruption, impropriety, or other malfeasance on the part of government officials; (ii)violation of law; or (iii)incidence of fraud, abuse or gross mismanagement. (2006, c.597)”

If you have some free time, try to attend either the afternoon or evening sessions. Let the board know you are paying attention.