From a steady stream of angry e-mails and inflammatory newspaper advertisements to letters to the editor and public hearing rants, Mayor Richard Thoesen had read and heard enough. Minutes before calling the May 27 Herndon Town Council public hearing to order, Thoesen promised he was not going to sit back and politely accept the mounting public criticism on the proposed budget and Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). "They think we just sit back and take it. Well, I can tell you they are going to see another Rick Thoesen here, tonight," the mayor said.
And they did.
What ensued was a lively and spirited four-hour back-and-forth conversation, the likes not seen, according to many council members, in the Herndon Town Council chambers since the highly-charged debate over Runnymede Park more than a decade ago.
The combination of discussions about taxpayer-funded items like the proposed Cultural Arts Center, a new permanent Neighborhood Resource Center and an interim day laborer site all crystallizing in recent weeks and increased concerns about overcrowding issues, rising assessments and a sluggish economy added the proverbial fuel to an already simmering fire. "This has been tough," the mayor said. "It's like a 'perfect storm,' where everything is aligned perfectly."
As the meeting began, council member Harlon Reece seemed to sense the mood of the standing-room only crowd. While praising the recent Memorial Day festivities, Reece noted that many of the veterans honored fought for freedoms that "we are surely going to exercise tonight." Reece's comments were met with a knowing laugh.
By all accounts, Reece's predictions panned out. "Well, we certainly had a debate and it was certainly spirited," he said. "It was representative government in action and that's a good thing."
The mayor laid the ground rules for the meeting and expressed his frustration with some of the criticism he, and the council, has encountered recently, much of which he found to be unfair and mean spirited. "I am disheartened in many ways. Some of [the criticism] is becoming really personal," he said. "This is not necessary."
When vice mayor Carol Bruce, a veteran of budget hearings-past, left the council chambers at the end of the night she said she was "very sad." "I understand that people fear change and worry about property values, those are emotional things," Bruce said. "But we are talking about people, here. And a lot of the language was ugly and mean. I feel bad for the town."
"THIS TOWN IS UNRAVELING," the mayor said before the meeting, his voice hoarse from a lingering cold and his face pink from a recent trip to Europe. "Honestly, I've never seen it like this before."
While the emotion level was high from the opening gavel, the rancor accelerated once Herndon resident Wayne Hise took the podium to address council on the Neighborhood Resource Center. Hise opened his remarks by saying that he had been awake since 4 a.m. because, he said there were police helicopters hovering over his Elden Street home. "Gee, I wonder who they were looking for," he said. "I've had one of these gentlemen pull a knife on me."
Hise questioned the need for a downtown arts center, as well. "Most of these people are coming here illegally," he said. "For them, a cultural arts center is just another wing in the ABC store."
Hise went on to say he missed the "old Herndon." "This used to be a nice place and well run," he said, before adding that modern-day Herndon could be called "Enchilada-villa," because of the town's
growing number of Hispanic residents.
The usually docile mayor had heard enough, interrupting Hise before he finished. "In my opinion, those remarks are inflammatory," Thoesen said. "You should take it back."
Hise refused. "I cannot do that," he retorted. Later in the evening, Hise stormed out of the council chambers before the council had acted on the budget.
A laundry list of speakers expressed their dissatisfaction with the direction of the town. Treeside Lane resident Robert Gagnon has lived in the town for 27 years and he says he is now looking to move elsewhere. "It's time for the council to stop putting a band-aid on a disease," he said. "This town is dying."
Betty Valley agreed saying that most of the problems were "because of the Hispanics." "The town is just kind of going downhill," Valley, who lives on Oak Street and is an opponent of the NRC, said. "I read the police reports in the papers and I see that everybody is Hispanic."
WHILE THE LATEST budget hearing, with all of its racial overtones, was noted for its strong, and often negative discourse, that does not mean there weren't council and town backers in attendance and at the podium.
Sheila Olem, a resident since 1990, disputed the notion of more than one speaker that Herndon was suffering from a loss of residents and homeowners, the "white flight," because of crime in the town. "I certainly am not looking to flee anytime soon," the Snowflake Court resident said. "I certainly feel safe."
Meanwhile, Bill Perry, a Tiffany Court resident for 17 years, said, like people on both sides of the aisle, that he had watched the demographics change around his house. But he rejected the argument that an influx of new residents, some of whom are immigrants, was bad for the town. "My neighborhood, now, is safer than it used to be," he said.
ANOTHER HERNDON RESIDENT, Jason Randall, continued the verbal assault on the state of the town and the council's culpability for it. The Missouri Avenue resident said he is afraid to walk his dog at night because his neighborhood is "so drug infested and crime-ridden."
Like several speakers, Randall made clear that safety concerns were his number one priority. Randall advocated spending the millions of dollars allocated for a permanent NRC and an arts center on law enforcement, instead. "I don't know, maybe those officers don't feel safe, either. It's not safe," he said before addressing the council directly. "Would you like this in your neighborhood? Where do you live? It would be a lot different if [the NRC and day laborer site] was in your back yard. Instead of sitting at home or in here, go walk these streets at night. It's bad when you are embarrassed to tell people that you live off Alabama Drive."
Randall's comments were met with chants of "Amen" and clapping among many in attendance.
Kara McDonald echoed Randall's comments. "I'm scared to death as it is to live here," she said.
Herndon resident Dave Shoemaker had no reason to feel McDonald's same sense of fear until the early morning of the May 27 hearing. Shoemaker said he found a "Hispanic male" in his backyard. "I have a real loss of security, now," he said.
Hise was not the only one to feel the wrath of the fired-up mayor. Later in the public comment portion of the night, another resident, Ann Null, a frequent council critic, accused the mayor of saying comments similar to that of Hise, a charge rejected by the mayor. The mayor said he had only related comments that he had heard other people say. "I'm not two faced," the mayor told Null.
"I did not say that," Null answered.
"You inferred that," Thoesen said.
Later in the meeting, Thoesen scolded Null, by name, for breaking his edict about holding applause. Audience members at the most recent public hearing turned the meeting into an applause contest, Thoesen explained at the start of the Tuesday's session. By the end of the evening, however, the mayor apologized to Null for singling her out.
THE RANCOROUS, AND SOMETIMES ugly, tenor of the hearing clearly affected Thoesen. "Tonight was not easy for me," he said towards the end of the meeting.
But nearly a week after the marathon session, Thoesen had had time to reflect on the often-heated debate. "I really didn't feel as badly as people might have perceived," the mayor said. "It was emotional and people succeeded in giving council their opinions, that's democracy. The good news is that we now know what issues are bothering some people out there."
Thoesen was not the only one on the dais who felt fatigued from the public hearing. "I was certainly glad the meeting was over," said councilman Michael O'Reilly.
But like most of his colleagues, O'Reilly praised the residents for coming out in such strong numbers and voicing their concerns, even if it was sometimes uncomfortable for the council to hear.
"Regardless of what is said, it is important that 'it' is said," said councilwoman Connie Hutchinson, echoing O'Reilly's comments. "It's very important for the public to share their feelings and fears. I felt pretty good leaving that room on Tuesday."
Thoesen, who is in his second go-around as mayor, did admit that he had never seen so much emotion in a Herndon Town Council meeting. "I have seen it like that at the Park Authority level," the former parks member said. "But, no, never in my hometown."