Reasons to Vote for Erin Rayner, Kevin Wright and Their Team
Dear Editor:
I had planned to let the blank space beneath this headline speak for itself. But on further consideration, perhaps the reasons deserve to be spelled out:
These are my opinions and observations.
Continued chaos at Town Hall.
A ballooning Town budget—with plenty of credit taken for Town accomplishments, but plenty of blame directed elsewhere when it comes time to explain the costs.
More taxpayer dollars consumed by legal disputes instead of finding ways to work through disagreements and govern.
Blame the former four-term mayor, even though during his tenure the Town’s approximately $61 million debt was reduced by roughly $10 million.
Bigger government. Bigger spending. Take the credit. Blame others.
Let the county roll right over us.
More spending and fewer questions about who ultimately pays the bill.
Annexations and concessions to developers that could bring more growth and density to Purcellville.
Zoning changes that could threaten the small-town character generations of residents have worked to preserve.
More manufactured urgency to justify higher taxes.
More residential density in a town already facing the challenges of traffic, infrastructure and the increasing cost of providing services.
More politics, division and dysfunction at a time when Purcellville desperately needs professionalism, stability, fiscal discipline and common sense.
More litigation. More spending. More development. More government. More division. More chaos.
On second thought, perhaps the blank space would have said it better.
Damon Cable
Purcellville
Comments
Any name-calling and profanity will be taken off. The webmaster reserves the right to remove any offensive posts.
1 Comment
Dear Editor:
Mr. Cable’s letter is a remarkable exercise in assigning responsibility everywhere except to those who actually possessed the authority to govern. Throughout this administration’s tenure, the Mayberry majority held the controlling votes on the Purcellville Town Council. The Mayor, Vice Mayor, Town Manager, subsequent Interim Town Manager, and Council majority were not a collection of powerless observers attempting to govern against an entrenched opposition; they represented, broadly, the same governing coalition and possessed the votes necessary to determine the direction of the Town. That distinction is important because political authority cannot reasonably be separated from political accountability.
When a governing majority possesses the votes, it possesses more than the privilege of claiming credit for favorable outcomes. It sets the agenda, adopts the budget, authorizes expenditures, makes appointments, establishes priorities, determines how disputes will be handled, and ultimately defines the tone and direction of the government it controls. The exercise of that authority necessarily carries responsibility for its consequences. When the officials a majority selects for leadership fail, when its policies produce unintended consequences, or when its decisions contribute to dysfunction, those results do not somehow become the responsibility of people who no longer possess the power to prevent them.
Yet throughout this administration there has been an almost continuous effort to explain Purcellville’s problems by directing responsibility backward toward previous administrations, outward toward Loudoun County, or sideways toward individual Council members, attorneys, staff, developers, political opponents, and whichever other institution or individual happens to be convenient at the moment. Certainly, previous officials made decisions worthy of scrutiny, and no administration should be insulated from an honest examination of the consequences it leaves behind. But there comes a point at which inherited circumstances cease to provide a credible explanation for the decisions subsequently made by those who were elected specifically to govern them.
That is the fundamental contradiction in Mr. Cable’s argument. A governing majority cannot reasonably claim ownership of the Town’s accomplishments while treating its failures as though they were imposed upon it by forces beyond its control. If the Town budget has become too large, we should ask who approved the budgets. If legal expenses have become excessive, we should examine who authorized the strategies and decisions that produced those expenses. If Town Hall has descended into turmoil, we should consider who controlled Town Hall and selected its leadership. If government has grown, spending has increased, development policy has changed, or Purcellville’s relationship with Loudoun County has deteriorated, the relevant question is not simply who can be blamed for creating difficult circumstances, but who possessed the authority and the votes to decide how Purcellville would respond to them.
The answer cannot perpetually be someone else. Indeed, there is a deeper principle involved here than the fortunes of any particular political faction. Representative government depends upon a basic bargain between authority and accountability: those entrusted with the power to make decisions must also accept responsibility for the consequences of those decisions. To separate the two—to claim authority when there is credit to distribute and disclaim it when there is blame to bear—is to reduce accountability to little more than a political convenience.
None of this requires defending every decision made by every previous Mayor, Council, or Town Manager. They should be judged by precisely the same standard. Where they exercised authority, they should answer for how they exercised it. Where they made mistakes, those mistakes should be acknowledged. Intellectual honesty requires nothing less. But intellectual honesty also requires that yesterday’s mistakes not become a permanent alibi for today’s leadership.
The Mayberry majority sought control of Purcellville’s government, persuaded voters to entrust it with that control, and then exercised it. With that authority came the opportunity to implement its priorities, select its leadership, approve its spending, and chart the Town’s course. It therefore cannot plausibly maintain that it deserves ownership of the successes produced during its tenure while responsibility for the failures belongs perpetually to someone else.
Political leadership is ultimately measured not by how effectively one distributes blame, but by the willingness to accept responsibility for the results produced while entrusted with power. The Mayberry majority wanted the authority to govern Purcellville. It received that authority.
Accountability requires that it now own the results.
Ryan Everlast