READ: Letter To ‘Fauquier Now’ About Mayor's Claims Of Transparency

This letter was submitted to Fauquier NOW on Sunday 11/6, by a Protect Fauquier member, in response to Carter Nevill's claims that he supports a transparent process.

I wish the Mayor’s recent claims about transparency were true.  But I am among many residents who have witnessed firsthand something quite different:

 ·       We have seen firsthand the clear look of irritation on his face when we speak during Citizens Time about our well-founded concerns over the Amazon proposal.  We are convinced he does not want to hear us.

·       We have seen the Mayor summon a Warrenton policeman over to take away a citizen who pointed out clear inconsistencies between the Town’s Comp Plan and the data center zoning amendment.  (Yes, this citizen slightly exceeded his 3-minute limit, but this is commonplace, without the resorting to police intervention.)

·       We saw that at the next Town Council meeting, the entire first row of seats was placarded as “reserved for the handicapped” – only to be removed at start of the meeting when no disabled individuals appeared to use them.

·       We learned that town staff signed nondisclosure agreements with Amazon, in order to prevent sharing information with the public.  And we later learned of an attempt for those staff NDAs to be inexplicably deemed to be extended to cover Councilmembers so that they too could not share information with the public.

·       We have paid thousands of dollars to file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for Town documents, only to find clear evidence of closed door meetings between Amazon and Town staff, while citizens were in the dark about the data center zoning amendment.

·       We have seen the redactions and substantial gaps in the FOIA documents – information withheld from us – about those meetings and discussions.

·       We have learned that the Town FOIA Officer who decided what to withhold and what to redact (so the public could not know what was going on) was none other than then Town Manager Brandie Schaeffer.

·       We were shocked and dismayed to learn that the Town Manager who played the central role in shepherding Amazon’s data center amendment through the town process resigned, saying it was to spend time with family, but who two weeks later was working for Amazon.

·       When we raised concerns about conflict of interest, we heard the Mayor heatedly deny that possibility – and we understand the Mayor has ignored a request for a review of the Amazon process to date.

·       We were shocked recently to see a Notice that the Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on Nov 15.  This notice was given days after a PC Work Session which was replete with scathing criticism by multiple Planning Commissioners on the incompleteness, inadequacy, and untrustworthiness of Amazon’s application.  Who scheduled the hearing and why? How can there possibly be a public hearing and a PC vote with so many unanswered questions, especially over crucial matters of noise and power lines?  Is the process being rushed, to enable a Town Council vote in December?

I am not, as the Mayor suggests, one of a limited few dissidents who are raising these concerns about both the Town process and the Amazon data center itself. 

I am one of over 1500 individuals who have signed petitions opposing the data center.  And all of us, and more beyond, are deeply troubled at a process that seeks to shut us out – despite the fact that it is our efforts that have revealed Amazon’s initial noise study was flat wrong and that Dominion and Amazon’s power plans were far in excess – which is suddenly causing them to pull back.

Finally, I would offer the Mayor’s own words.   In a profile in a local newspaper, Carter Nevill described his guiding philosophy in these words:  “When the Master governs, the people are hardly aware that he exists….  When his work is done, the people say, ‘Amazing, we did it all by ourselves.’”   Does that sound like someone who honestly believes in openness and transparency?  I don’t think so.

I believe in democracy.  I believe there are a lot of smart, thoughtful, caring people in Warrenton.  And I believe they deserve to know what their government is doing.  I believe they deserve to be listened to.  

Cynthia J. Burbank

Warrenton, VA