By Bobbi Bowman, The McLean Ear
Congratulations neighbors on a job well done. We turned out in record numbers Saturday to elect six members of the McLean Community Center Board.
We cast 780 adult ballots, nearly double the 470 cast last year.
We have three major citizen boards in McLean but the Community Center board is the only one that’s elected and that spends millions of our tax dollars.
The board meetings and committee meetings of all three are open to the public. Folks attend the McLean Citizens Association and the McLean Planning Committee meetings. Not the Community Center board meetings. Perhaps the MCC board is a little shy.
The McLean Citizens Association (MCA) is our unofficial Town Council. It’s composed of representatives from homeowners associations. They make recommendations on issues affecting McLean residents.
The McLean Planning Committee (MPC) makes recommendations on downtown. This board is composed of sixteen members representing homeowners and business people. The MPC makes recommendations to the Dranesville District Supervisor.
MCA president Rob Jackson sends out meeting notices. The MCA even sends out agendas and minutes. MPC chair Scott Monett is also very good about informing citizens.
The Community Center (MCC) website lists when the board meetings occur, but the MCC calendar that lists classes, trips, concerts and other events at the center lists neither board nor committee meetings.
Busy taxpayers must to search through the lengthy listing of county public meetings to find MCC committee meetings.
MCC meetings must be listed in the county public meetings lists because, the center is an agency of the Fairfax County government. The employes are county employes. The center is also covered by the state’s Freedom of Information Act.
Residents had no way to contact board members until late last year when they finally agreed to e-mail addresses.
Last week the Board’s executive committee asked the public to leave so they could privately discuss perhaps changing their partnership with the McLean Project for the Arts.
May 26, the newly elected MCC Board members Incumbent Kevin Dent, and newcomers Jay Howell , Craig Richardson and Robin Walker, student members Sun Park, a sophomore at Langley High School, and Craig McKenzie,* a ninth grader, also at Langley, join the board.
The Ear invites the neighbors to attend the 7:30 meeting May 26 at the Community Center.
Please continue to attend. The board has a lot of important decisions to make this year —- how to spend our money, whether to build a new theater or gymnasium and where, selection of a new executive director.
*Turns out both student representatives are Langley students. The board has a seat for a student who lives in the Langley High district and a student who lives in the McLean High district.
Craig McKenzie lives in the McLean district but attends Langley, said MCC board member Risa Sanders, chair of the election committee. McKenzie said in his statement to voters: “As an honors student in the ninth grade, I wish to represent McLean High School students during Community Center board meetings. . . “ He never said specifically where he attended school.
The McLean Ear 