As I talk to voters throughout Arlington, I hear the same thing from Democrats, Republicans and Indpendents alike – they want a bigger focus on core functions of their local government and less on “vanity projects” like the Artisphere and the proposed Columbia Pike trolley. As a 12 year homeowner in Arlington, I could not agree more.

We should focus on infrastructure, education, public safety and deferred maintenance needs of our existing assets over things like new theaters.

I have called for complete transparency for all county spending – opening up our checkbook by putting every penny online in near real-time. I also support the proposal of the Civic Federation to hire an independent Inspector General to audit our county government.

I also support a goal of reducing our debt service as a percentage of our budget by 25% over the next 10 years. With the bi-partisan agreement in Washington to constrain federal spending, and the resulting negative outlook of our bonds from one of our credit rating agencies, we should be taking on less debt, not more.

From a long term budgetary standpoint, we should consider converting our retirement system to a defined contribution plan for new and newly hired county staff.

What I also hear from voters is that the County Board has grown out of touch with them, failing to really listen to community concerns.

A recent example happened in December when the County Board rushed through the newly proposed year-round homeless shelter. I believe this is because they knew it could not stand up to ongoing public scrutiny. The proposal is to pay $7.5 million over the assessed value for the building. It will cost $10 million or more to rehab the building. It includes multiple floors for additional county staff space. And, there were many valid concerns about its location in Courthouse. I believe we should revisit this decision and open it up to other potential locations.