LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Candidates Matt Kelly and Anne Little respond to op-ed by sitting City Council member.
Losing on the Issues? Accuse Your Opponent of Dirty Politics
If you can’t win on the issues, you accuse your opponent of dirty politics. That’s what City Councilman Jon Gerlach did in The Advance last Monday.
Gerlach accused me of attacking Susanna Finn, my opponent in the Ward 3 City Council race. I never have. I’ve pointed out our differences on commercial development in College Heights and transparency in decisions on data centers in Fredericksburg. Nothing more.
Claim #1: “Matt Kelly accused his Ward 3 opponent – Susanna Finn – of advocating for convenience stores in College Heights’s Small Area planning. In truth, she engaged with residents about their concerns and successfully led the City Council to remove the commercial component on College Avenue, thus preventing convenience stores.”
Response: At a College Heights Civic Association spring meeting, which I attended, Ms. Finn advocated for small grocery stores and office buildings along College Avenue. Councilor Gerlach was not there.
Residents asked why she would promote something that would harm their neighborhood.
Councilor Gerlach is disingenuous in saying she somehow killed the idea. At a recent College Heights forum, Ms. Finn stated that while the proposal was removed from the Small Area implementation plan, the goal remains in the Small Area Plan.
Claim #2: “Mr. Kelly claimed that Susanna Finn received $1,000 in data center funds while on the Planning Commission, implying that it influenced her later City Council vote on the TOD data center rezoning. This accusation is baseless – and legally dangerous.”
Response: I never said Finn took money from a data center company or that she took money while serving on the Planning Commission. The accusation is ridiculous. What reason would any Planning Commissioner have for taking a campaign contribution? They don’t run for public office. They’re appointed by City Council.
This is what I said in my campaign flyer circulated through Ward 3: “Finn took a $1,000 donation from the attorney for the data center developer shortly after voting for it as a Planning Commissioner. After she announced her Council candidacy, City Council delayed a decision on a second data center near Great Oaks subdivision until after this fall’s Council election.”
Note, the flyer said AFTER she voted for it. It was also AFTER she was appointed to City Council, and AFTER she announced her candidacy to run for Council on her own.
Claim #3: He says I made personal attacks on my opponent.
Response: Over a thousand words long piece and Councilor Gerlach did not provide any specific examples of “personal attacks.”, just the accusation. The only thing I’ve done is point to her statements as a public official, her public positions, and her public votes on issues. Even he says that’s fair game.
Read the documents, watch the council meetings, and talk to those who attended neighborhood meetings, which confirms these facts. Gerlach is trying to turn this campaign into a race about personal attacks because he knows the candidates he supports cannot win on the issues. Councilor Gerlach looks to be guilty of what he regaled against in his OpEd.
Matt Kelly is a candidate for City Council in Ward 3.
Gerlach’s Attacks Are Inaccurate
Last Monday, I awoke to find an op-ed in The Advance written City Councilman .Jon Gerlach attacking me and promoting fabrications. I must respond.
Mr. Gerlach said someone campaigning for me accused my Ward 2 Council opponent, Joy Crump, of neglecting her rental properties. First, no one speaks for me except me. Second, I have no opinion about Ms. Crump’s handling of her rental properties, nor would I even care or comment about something so trivial.
Mr. Gerlach is guilty of exactly what he’s accusing his anonymous source of doing — spreading unsubstantiated rumors.
Mr. Gerlach also said, “At a recent candidate forum, Ms. Little claimed that City Council members – including candidates Susanna Finn (Ward 3) and Chuck Frye (Ward 4) – allowed data centers to pull water from the river and use our drinking water. During Planning Commission and City Council discussions this winter, however, both possibilities were explicitly banned in the ordinance based on common sense and public input.”
Not so. Here are the exact words for the Technical Overlay District ordinance Mr. Gerlach and City Council approved: “Temporary potable water for industrial cooling may be provided through a Water Services Agreement (WSA) approved by the City Council to bridge initial water requirements while an industrial reuse water cooling system is constructed to serve development or redevelopment in the TOD.”
So yes, drinking water will be used to cool the data centers and likely for several years. An agreement on this issue has yet to be negotiated. How many years will the developer need to use drinking water for its cooling system before it completes a water recycling line from our waste treatment plant on the Rappahannock River to the data center site in Celebrate Virginia near River Road? That’s the unanswered question not even Mr. Gerlach knows the answer to.
The contractor will have to purchase rights-of-ways from private property owners all over the city or dig up city streets to lay the water line literally from one end of the city to the other. Because of its nature, the line cannot be connected to existing water lines, making the project even more complex and expensive. It will be a massive construction project that will likely take years to plan and build, all the while using city drinking water to cool the data center.
Finally, I agree with Mr. Gerlach when he began his op-ed saying, “The troubling trend of ruthlessness we see nationally has now spilled over into our city’s campaign season.”
Fredericksburg’s elections are nonpartisan for a reason. They’re supposed to be about fixing local problems, not pushing national party agendas. But our city elections have turned partisan because the local Democratic Committee endorsed local candidates. I asked to speak to both local political parties to express my views on the issues, but since I declined to be endorsed by either, Democrats refused to let me speak. Fredericksburg voters don’t need party bosses telling them how to vote. Voters can decide for themselves who will put our community first.
Anne Little is a candidate for City Council in Ward 2
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Sue Sgt comment Part 1. Make sure to hit 'refresh' for Substack to generate 'Expand full comment' at the bottom of each comment.
As Hamilton Palmer notes in his comment, Councilor Gerlach does have a credibility issue. IT'S TIME for Jon Gerlach to get off Council. It was a relief to watch his video to announce he was not running again.
For the past two years, the involved residents who show up at the Council meetings and give public comment see that Ward 2 Councilor Jon Gerlach is just part of the NONTRANSPARENCY that has infected this Council's ONE PARTY DEMOCRAT RULE on the dais.
They all have to vote 7-0. (as per FOIAed retreat document).
More sophisticated Councils know that for controversial issues, this 7-0 consistent ALL IN voting builds DISTRUST.
FOIAs that we've chipped in to pay for are the evidence for the behind-the-scenes manipulation of the people, the residents.
See the 10-1-24 email below of the exchange from Curry Roberts, University of Mary Washington Fredericksburg Regional Alliance, and how he personally addresses Jon Gerlach to get 8-12 DATA CENTERS at CVA Celebrate Virginia near the Fred Nats ballpark and within 200 ft of children in the apartments there and the seniors at 'Jubilation'.
This type of backdoor manipulation of the people to 'socialize' (brainwash) them would never fly with NoVA voters. But 22401 residents are seen as more easily taken advantage of.
Why do we see the tremendous effort of the residents in the surrounding counties to hold the DATA CENTER developers accountable for their invasion of our region, yet in The Burg, we have more than a few braying about the children in the public schools and it's about their future. and they are the ones who get the DATA CENTER revenue?
Because they've been 'socialized' (brainwashed) and Councilor Jon Gerlach was part of this.
Stafford Co is responding to DATA CENTERS. Similar to King George, Spotsy, Prince William, Loudoun, Fauquier, Fairfax counties. Drive out on Rt 3 West and see the large 'NO DATA CENTERS' banners in the Stafford and King George fields.
Yet here in Fredericksburg 22401 (only 10 sq miles with its ever-decreasing tree canopy and green space), we have Councilors Frye, Gerlach, Graham, Holmes, Mackintosh appointee Finn and Mayor Devine voting on 2-25-25 ('aggressively'/city's word) ALL IN 7-0.
They even ignored Planning Commission's vote a few days earlier of "NO, the Technology Overlay District for 8-12 DATA CENTERS was not ready, expressing concerns about BYRIGHT instead of a Conditional/Special Use Permit'.
Friends of the Rappahannock did not support the TOD. A few days later American Rivers named The Rapp 6th Most Endangered River in the US.
But we had Councilors in Oct 2024 participating with the DATA CENTER developer that Mayor Devine wouldn't name until After the 2-25-25 vote, despite citizens on fixed incomes and UMW students paying hundreds of dollars in FOIAs/Freedom of Info Act requests for this non-proprietary fact.
That the CVA DATA CENTER Developer is STACK INFRASTRUCTURE, with employee Kevin Hughes appointed by Council to be on the FXBG Economic Development Authority.
Some of these Councilors even participated in a 'socializing' (brainwashing) strategy on the 22401 residents.
'Socializing' is used by the billion-dollar DATA CENTER industry, Goliath against the resident Davids, to get them to bleat messaging:
Wearing James Monroe HS colors of orange/black on their buttons "I support DATA CENTERS' at the 2-25-25 Council meeting: 'for the public schools, for the children, for our future, for their future, for the children's future'.
Not one of them spoke up for the children and seniors who have to endure the CONSTANT noise of 8-12 DATA CENTERS within 200 ft of their homes.
The Virginia General Assembly JLARC report (12-9-25) states: DATA CENTERS should be in Industrial zones, 1000 ft away from residences.
Children near them in NoVA are getting headaches and struggling to sleep at night.
Some of those button wearers rushed out of the 2-25-25 Council meeting on the Hanover St sidewalk to catch up with those of us speaking up for the children in those apts, shell-shocked, that they didn't know the downside of DATA CENTERS and apologized for what they said at the mic.
Here's more about THE SOCIALIZING (brainwashing) these naive, gullible residents went through:
This is an email sent out by Curry Roberts, University of Mary Washington Fredericksburg Regional Alliance to outgoing Ward 2 Councilor Jon Gerlach:
"The purpose of this is to host a Building Construction Trades Council meeting in Fredericksburg to begin socializing the benefits of potential data center development in the City of Fredericksburg. Don Slaiman with IBEW Local 26 will be coordinating with the other Unions. Can you also propose an agenda Don?
Joel (Brittany), could we utilize the event space connected with Castiglia’s at a reduced charge? Could you have someone reach out to Don about food, which the FRA is willing to contribute towards? Kevin, would Stack be willing to contribute as well?
Joel and Kevin, we have Jon Gerlach and Chuck Frye attending from City Council for this one. Are you the two best to participate from the EDA? If it is more than two people from either body, it would make it a public meeting.
We would also like to invite some potentially allied groups who might be interested in learning about the significant job creation and tax benefits to the City. Two groups mentioned were representatives of the City teachers organization and the NAACP. Jon, can you and Chuck help with the NAACP? Kevin, can you speak with Jannan about who we should invite from the teachers association? The one time I spoke with her, she suggested the PTA as well".
With all this behind-the-scenes work to get to the 'aggressive' timeline to hurry up and pass the TOD/Technology Overlay District at Celebrate VA, the supporters of DATA CENTERS came out to bray about the money the schools would get. and 'it's for the children, our children, the schools need the money, the children are our future, we've got to have DATA CENTERS money for the children!'.
NOTE: Not one of them mentioned the historically 'equity-denied' children and families living within 200 ft of those noisy DATA CENTERS at 'Celebrate Virginia'. The ones who are targets for oppression by systemic discrimination.
We just don't have the data yet to show the harm of living 200 ft near them. 24/7 CONSTANT noise of them. JLARC noted reports of migraines, and NoVA News sources in the 'Digital Gateway for DATA CENTERS' in Prince William, documenting that children have headaches now and are struggling to sleep at night.
Here's what the NoVA online news sources write about. They're living the DATA CENTER explosion in their area, which is now coming here.
Those of us in the Fredericksburg Neighborhoods Coalition for the past two years, meeting 1X per week have learned from what they're going through. To hear 'the other side' of the story, like we used to have with a Council that had BALANCE on it and respected 'DIVERSITY OF THOUGHT':
“This election is the most important we’ve ever seen in Gainesville,” Harders said in his opening statement. “We’ve gone against Disney and others before, but this is the biggest challenge yet. It’s not just about saying no to data centers — it’s about saying yes to a vision that protects our watershed and reinvests in our community.”
[The FXBG Dem Committee reps at their Early Vote table in front of the 601 Caroline St, 5th floor, Registrar's Office? 'Not true. Not true. Not True. They don't use water. Not true'. ad nauseum].
Harders called for a five-year moratorium, warning that unchecked industrial growth threatens local drinking water and the environment. Stewart agreed, arguing that residents have lost trust in their government after years of opaque decision-making'.
“The job of a supervisor is to listen to the will of the people,” Stewart said. “When constituents say no, that’s what you do. You represent them — not developers.”
Harders said the county’s earlier handling of the Prince William Digital Gateway project — a 2,100-acre corridor planned for 37 data centers — was “reckless.” “We’ve been absolutely irresponsible with this issue,” he said. “It’s time for a new direction.”
In reference to the passing of Bd of Supervisors Bob Weir: 'Bob was a beloved leader who earned everyone’s trust,” Harders said. “We need to continue his mission to protect the Rural Crescent and bring integrity back to local government.”
Stewart agreed: “Bob didn’t care what political stripe you came from. He cared about the community. That’s the kind of leadership we need to bring back.”
Sue Sgt comment Part 2: That's what the Fredericksburg Community Coalition is trying to do in 22401 in working hard every day to elect the NON-PARTISAN Council and School Board candidates who refuse to take a political party endorsement because cities in Virginia are non-partisan:
These UNITY & TRANSPARENCY Council candidates will bring 'DIVERSITY OF THOUGHT' to the Council dais.
They listen to ALL residents. They refuse to participate in the Fredericksburg Democrats' endorsed blue ballot because it is dividing the city. The Democrat endorsed blue ballot: the lazy candidate's way of getting a vote instead of doing the sweat work, knocking the 1000s of doors that these hardworking, invested in the community candidates have been doing, some since 1-2-2025.
They are not beholden to Democratic politico bosses in the Democratic Party telling residents who they must vote for:
We want this NEW WAVE to come on Council. To return to TRANSPARENCY. The ones who 'walk their talk' in voter outreach at the voters' doors:
Ward 1: KEN GANTT (vote at Hugh Mercer ES); 8 years on Planning Commission;
Ward 2: ANNE LITTLE (vote at Dorothy Hart): Tree Fred volunteers planted more than 10,000 trees, increased the Bluebird population, has THE TIME to knock doors herself, every door possible, up to 2000 doors now. She'll read the city documents and understand them. That takes about 6-8 hours released late on Thursday to be prepared for the Tuesday Council meeting. She has THE TIME.
Ward 3: MATT KELLY. (vote at Gladys West ES. Same bldg. just different name). Experienced. Respected by regional partners because he won't sell them out as happened with current Councilors on eliminating the least expensive Bridge Crossing when they voted on 2-25-25 for the Technology Overlay District.
Ward 4: JESSE DOMINGUEZ. Out busting his bottom to get to voters. He's not being a part of the Fredericksburg Democratic endorsed divisive ballot doing all the work like his worn out incumbent-opponent is relying on that piece of paper to get him an easy vote. JESSE is 'feet on the ground' doing the sweat work to engage voters. That's the Councilor we want on the dais.
School Bd QUALITY candidates: Ward 3 SARAH STELMOK;
Ward 4: DR. STAN JONES (write in his name and make sure to color in the circle by his name. Vote for only one candidate.
We don't want the clone opponents who will just mimic/regurgitate info they've been told to say at the Council 'work sessions' and repeat it a few hours later on the Council dais. All talk. No substance. We don't want the ones who have participated in behind the scenes scenarios that we used to see in the open in FXBG.
As the rep from the Virginia Coalition for OPEN GOVERNMENT asked in an email: 'What has happened to Fredericksburg? It never used to be this way'.