Statement of Jay Fisette

Arlington County Board
January 1, 2004 Organizational Meeting

Good morning. Knowing my priorities, my first order of business is to congratulate our new Chairman - Barbara. I admire your deep commitment to Arlington and to our longstanding tradition of good government. You are pragmatic, policy-driven, and people-focused. I look forward to our working together.

I also want to extend a special thanks to Paul, our 2003 chairman. Paul, you exhibited great poise and grace over the past year and through your efforts we achieved many significant accomplishments. And I will continue to enjoy, respect and learn from the balance of the team - my colleagues Walter and Chris.

As I assess the state of our community today, we are healthy. Not perfect, but we continue to change, to grow, and to improve. And we have many initiatives in the pipeline, at some stage of development. There is no moss growing under anyone’s feet here.

Healthy communities are like healthy relationships: they require honest and open dialogue, resilience, and the ability to manage ongoing tensions. Great communities - and ours is one – are not afraid of these tensions but must successfully navigate among and between multiple stakeholders and interests -- between the public sector, private sector and citizens, between developers and neighbors, between those neighbors, and between this generation and the next. These tensions are evident, and inevitable, in all areas of our business.

With this in mind, I will highlight some policy areas which will be of particular interest to me in 2004.

Fiscal Responsibility/Infrastructure

On taxes and budget issues, I will continue to promote fiscal discipline and accountability in balancing responsible tax policies with needed public investments. I will continue to promote prudent investment in our infrastructure – with a special eye toward our technology infrastructure.

The state is entering a pivotal time. The tax reform decisions made in Richmond in the next months will greatly impact the long-term quality of life for residents and businesses in Virginia, and may greatly affect local governments. We will either become stronger partners with a more secure future, or the state will become our Achilles’ heel, cutting our funds and flexibility while further shifting the burden of maintaining services to us.

Our revenue-sharing agreement with the School Board enshrines our commitment to public education and the recognition that our children represent our best hope for the future. I look forward to further enhance the cooperative relationship and collaborative ventures between the county and schools.

I support Barbara’s focus on “Investing in Children” and our Head Start Program. And I want to thank the Partnership for Children, Youth and Families for their first Community Report Card. It is a well-researched document that shows there is much to celebrate in Arlington, and it should provide helpful insights as we make Arlington even more safe and supportive for our young people and their families.

As Lily Tomlin once remarked, “Do you know why adults are always asking kids what they want to be when they grow up? They’re looking for ideas.”

Development/Urban Village

Arlington is now a national leader in New Urbanism. Other jurisdictions visit Arlington to study our planning process, our transit-oriented development, our bicycle network and on-street bike lanes, and our form-based coding along Columbia Pike. I have a strong commitment to this vision and to ensure that the structures and spaces in Arlington’s future will create places that draw people to them and enrich our quality of life.

I support the call to update our master transportation plan and to implement various Walk Arlington projects. Starting with Paul’s efforts, we have made great strides in creating a more pedestrian friendly community – but the lack of standards and clear policy continue to hamper and frustrate as well.

We face challenges and conflicting interests regarding the scale and design of new developments, small business retention, and affordable housing goals. Parking strategies must be developed consistent with our overall smart growth principles. For example, we should see at least 1000 new on-street parking spaces by the end of FY 2005.

And towing continues to be a problem in Arlington. While complaints had dropped from 112 in 2001 to 39 in 2002, they rose by 64% in 2003. And as we know, that is only the tip of the iceberg. Appropriate parking enforcement is fine. Illegal fees and abusive treatment of customers are not.

Regionalism/Emergency Preparedness

Regionally, Arlington should continue to play a leadership role. At the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, I will continue to promote regional smart growth, environmental and emergency preparedness efforts. There is much value in sharing our successes, as well as learning from the best practices of others.

Within Arlington, we have made great strides to prepare ourselves for potential incidents, and we had some practice in 2003 with natural disasters including snow storms and Hurricane Isabel. We launched our cutting edge community alert system – “Arlington Alert” - which provides valuable real-time information on emergencies and public safety incidents to residents and workers. But instead of 6000 persons registered (3% of our population), we should have 60,000 registered. It only takes a minute to sign up on-line. If you’re watching at home, wait till the end of the meeting and sign on today.

A Great Community

Arlington is a great community. The successes that we achieve as a community are not random or accidental…nor should they be taken for granted. We must keep learning and re-inventing ourselves. We must encourage and participate in the civil exchange of ideas and views. We must re-affirm the core values that are embedded in our county’s vision statement.

As the world gets smaller, and as the world is challenged to live by its rhetoric, Arlington must continue to live these values in our decisions every day.

And the quality of our people – both staff and residents - is at the core of our success. Our staff is top flight, and provides a high level of professional expertise and customer service. It is truly a pleasure to work in a government where I receive as many compliments about county staff and services as complaints. That is not typical for a job like mine.

And the quality of the people who live and work here – and of your contributions - sets a very high bar and high expectations for your government. You make us better at our jobs. You provide fresh ideas and innovative solutions. You step up time and time again. It is clear that many Arlingtonians have internalized the words of Anne Frank, who said, “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

I am very intrigued by Barbara’s Civic Engagement Institute. It holds promise to enhance access to information and promote further and broader engagement in the civic life of our community.

Conclusion

I will conclude by sharing the words of Zoe Jones who wrote this as a 7-year old, 1st-grade student at Oakridge Elementary School for Arlington’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. essay competition in 2003. Sometimes the words of our children - unencumbered by those adult tensions swirling above them - remind us of what’s really important in life. Zoe wrote:

This is what I would do to make the world a better place. I would say to everyone to not be mean to each other. I’d change the world by putting up signs that say no littering. I’d make sure that no one is being a bully. I’d put up signs that say no picking on other people. I’d say to our enemies that we shouldn’t have a war but instead make up with each other because what are we really fighting for? I would make one school for everyone even if you have black skin or white skin because what’s wrong with black or white skin? I would make the world cleaner than it is because some people litter all over the place. I would make the world a better place to live in. I would give everyone somewhere to live instead of on the ground.

Now, as we recognize the raw and simple wisdom in Zoe’s words, let us all recognize the power and importance of each person and each solitary act of kindness, and continue our work together to create a community that reflects the best hopes and aspirations for ourselves and for the world around us.

Happy New Year.