Several residents tagged last week’s meetings between Loudoun and Douglas county staffs as “secret” and “clandestine” and asked the Board of Supervisors why they were not invited.
“I would like to know what was so secret about the taxpayers’ funded Douglas County visit here to Loudoun that the county administrator … had to create a dark-room approach to working with this out-of-state group?” asked Jack Shockey, president of Citizens for Property Rights (CPR), at the Sept. 3 board meeting.
Administrators from Loudoun and Douglas counties met Aug. 28-29 to share information about how the nation’s two fastest growing counties manage their governments. Douglas County, which has experienced a growth rate of 191 percent in the last decade, is the fastest growing county, with Loudoun coming in second. Loudoun’s population nearly tripled from 86,100 in 1990 to 182,000 last year. Douglas County’s population is 207,000.
“I was struck by the similarities of the two counties, Douglas and Loudoun,” said Douglas County Administrator Doug DeBord, according to a county press release. “In Douglas County, we’re getting ready to update our strategic plan, and we want to do a better job in internal communications, which leads to better customer service, and Loudoun County is an exemplary model of that.”
THE MEETING came about after DeBord saw Loudoun County’s customer service presentation at the 2002 Transforming Local Government Conference, which was held in Arizona earlier this year. In July, he called Loudoun County Administrator Kirby Bowers to suggest the visit and Bowers obliged.
“I thought it was a positive thing. Douglas County called us up and wanted to see the internal management initiatives we’re taking,” Bowers said. “It’s good to get out and network and to talk to your peers.”
Loudoun County provided information on the county’s budget, comprehensive and land use plans, fiscal management policies, capital planning, transportation, public works and human resources.
On the second day of the meetings, CPR member James Clarke showed up and Bowers asked him to leave. Reporters also were not allowed to attend the meeting.
“I wasn’t going to spring a public meeting on [Douglas County]. … I didn’t advertise it,” Bowers said. “If I let CPR in, I would have been accused of letting a select group in.”
CLARKE SAID, “I asked Kirby why it was that we could not just sit and listen as these were subjects close to my heart at this time. He responded that the Douglas County delegation had asked that the meeting be kept confidential.”
Shockey said he later received a phone call from DeBord. “He, too, was puzzled as to why these meetings were kept closed to the citizens. He made it clear that the decision not to open the meetings to the public had nothing to do with the delegation from Colorado,” Shockey said, adding that he does not understand why Bowers does not understand “the importance of open government.”
“Staff meetings are closed to the public unless the board wants to alter the policy,” Bowers said in response to the CPR allegations. “I informed board members of the meetings. … Generally speaking, these were not public meetings.”
Chairman Scott York (R-At Large) asked Bowers to explain his actions during the meetings in a memo to the board. Bowers said he would.
SUPERVISOR EUGENE DELGAUDIO (R-Sterling) questioned the funds the county spent during the visit and estimated expenditures to be $10,000 for food and transportation. “If you’re spending $10,000, you should open it up to the public,” he said. “To exclude reporters and citizens, I don’t think that’s reasonable. I don’t think the board should be allowing those kinds of things.”
Bowers said Douglas County paid for the expenses associated with the visit, except for the meals the county hosted. He did not have available the total amount the county spent.
“The administrator can invite anybody he wants and keep taxpayers out. … That’s cookie,” Delgaudio said.