To the Editor:
Many Citizens of the City of Alexandria are not fully aware of what the "Sunshine Act" actually delineates. Simply put, it is a law or act that mandates that every portion of every meeting of a government body shall be open to public observation. In Virginia, this means that there are stringent limits placed on the number of elected politicians or appointed members of boards and commissions that can meet in private to discuss government business, and that number is two members.
In the past two weeks, I have attended two meetings in which the “Parking Standards for New Development Projects” have been discussed. One of those bodies was a Task Force appointed by the City of Alexandria to review current parking requirements, and to then provide to the City Council its recommendations updating the current parking standards.
The Alexandria Department of Transportation and Environmental Services has decided that two members of the City Planning Staff (or a staff member and the Chair of the Task Force) will brief the Task Force recommendations to two members of the City Council, thereby circumventing the intent of the law, since the public will not see what will transpire. This practice has to come to a screeching halt. City Council members should be able to see the results of the Task Force in a normal council work session (which are now televised), and as such, would provide total transparency to this process. The city staff must cease its use of tactics that are technically legal, but do not add to the vaunted transparency that is the objective of the Sunshine Act.