FROM THE EDITOR: No Bombshells, but Perhaps a Lesson Learned
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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If people are looking for a smoking gun in the tranche of documents that were released relating to filling the Ward 3 seat, they will likely be disappointed.
The Advance has begun working through the documents and found them to be mostly … boring.
Notes taken during the interview process with Scott Cole, Susanna Finn, Thomas Johnson, and Pamela Scruggs contain what one would expect to find in interview notes.
Handwritten nuggets noting candidates’ responses to questions like how they would envision the city in 30 years. The answers? “Growth,” “maintain sm town feel,” “environ responsible,” “affordable housing,” etc.
All accurate. None of them earth-shattering.
If there were intense personal disagreements, it doesn’t really show. About as snarky as things get between the councilors and those involved in the process was this email from Mayor Kerry Devine to her assistant:
“Councilors were supposed to submit questions to you today. I’ll get on them again if I have to.”
Not the kind of rebuke that’s likely to land the city in a Netflix documentary anytime soon.
This apparently mundane process raises a question, however. Why all the secrecy?
More pointedly, why didn’t the council at least tell the public who they were going to interview, and why?
Perhaps it has to do with the candidates themselves. Faced with 14 individuals from a cross-section of Ward 3, how does one whittle the list down to four?
A review of the applications submitted by the four who were interviewed reveals individuals with strong educational backgrounds and depths of experience at many levels of government and nongovernment work.
People may disagree with the selection of Finn, but they can’t say she (or any of the other three who were interviewed) wasn’t qualified.
In fact, Fredericksburg was in an envious position. Many cities in Virginia would have been happy to get just one person with substantial professional experience to apply for an empty council seat — much less four.
Yet, there were other applicants who had impressive applications, too.
Jesus Dominguez, for example is a cybersecurity professional with B.A and M.S. degrees. His reason for applying was brief, but surely sound. “Looking to provide a different perspective on City issues and provide a voice to those underrepresented.”
Given that just over 12% of the city’s population is Hispanic, the lack of an Hispanic representative is eye-catching.
Guy Gormley, who brought the lawsuit that forced the city to release documents surrounding the selection process, also has B.A. and M.S. degrees. He’s also career military with a lengthy list of achievements and brings significant experience that could prove helpful to the city.
Or how about Shaliek Tarpley? A disabled veteran with extensive government experience in both Prince William and Fredericksburg, his application shows someone committed to a community that welcomed him at a time in his life he needed that experience.
And that’s just three.
The point is made — there were a number of solid candidates who at least deserved a hearing. If not in front of the Council, then in front of the people that they would have represented had they been selected or won by election.
Council publicly announced the names of the 14 who had applied. Ward 3 citizens most certainly knew a number of these and surely had opinions pro or con about each.
Had the Council held a public roundtable with all 14 candidates, using the same 14 questions that were asked in the interview process, at least the citizens of Ward 3 would have had an opportunity to learn more about the person who would represent them.
Too many? Then select the people you’re going to interview, announce them to the public, explain why you’re picking them, and then open the interviews to the public.
Would there have been people unhappy with the selection? Of course. But there are surely people who are unhappy now.
Better yet, why not simply have a special election for the citizens of Ward 3? Yes, it would have cost the city some money. But at least the citizens of Ward 3 would have had their say in who represented them.
Again - none of this is to say that the city made the wrong decision in picking Finn. Indeed, she is highly qualified and will surely give this job her best from now to November.
It is to say that in a city as small as Fredericksburg, making the selection behind closed doors is sure to create suspicions, as it clearly has. And that serves no one well.
For now, the decision has been made. Let the citizens and the Council move on.
But move on smarter. Should the need to replace a Council member prior to their term rise again, let Council work in sunlight.
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