Video: Arlington County Board Candidates Rip Board on Reeves Farmhouse Decision

Here’s video of last night’s Arlington County Board Democratic debate (candidates attending were Peter Fallon, Christian Dorsey, Bruce Wiljanen, Katie Cristol and Andrew Schneider; James Lander was at a School Board meeting so did not participate in the debate). We’ll start with the candidates criticizing the County Board for its decision to sell the historic Reeves farmhouse property. See the comments section for more video, including a question on widening I-66 inside the Beltway (all candidates said that was a very bad idea); one on the qualities the County Manager should have (basically, perfect in every way – lol), another on County Board transparency (yes!), opening and closing statements. Worth noting: Andrew Schneider was endorsed by 2014 Demoratic County Board nominee Alan Howze. Schneider also made a very strong statement about why he’s a liberal Democrat, and why “I don’t think you can be an elected Democratic leader and not support our party and our nominees.” I strongly agree with Schneider, simply would change the word “can be” to “should not be.”

P.S. I asked Christian Dorsey after the debate what he thought about the Arlington County Board resolution urging the Washington NFL team to change its (racist) name. Dorsey said he thought that passing resolutions was a break in precedent for the Board, and that if they’re doing to do that, it should be on something urgent/pressing. I asked him how he would have voted: yes, no, or abstain, and he basically didn’t like any of the options, said he might have been “not present” or something like that. I’d be interested in what other County Board candidates think on the question of: a) whether the Arlington County Board should be in the business of passing resolutions; and b) what they think of this specific resolution and how they would have voted.

UPDATE: Andrew Schneider says he “didn’t support the resolution – even if I have personal qualms about the name…I would have voted with John  [Vihstadt] and Libby [Garvey] and abstained.”