E-mail sent to local citizens, Bristow Beat, and other local news media by PWCBG’s Ralph Stephenson on 6-7 September 2014

1.  Do you know what percentage of the speakers and audience at the Wednesday meeting were from the real estate/development community and thus have a vested financial interest in development in general and at least indirectly in Stone Haven specifically?  I recognized many of them as being part of the real estate/developer community.  Why is it that local news reporters never ask that question?  Isn’t that sort of conflict of interest relevant?  It certainly compromises the objectivity of one’s views on a political (land use) issue when one has a direct or indirect vested financial interest in it.

2.  Your report says: “One man CLAIMED to quote Board of County Supervisor Corey Stewart in saying, ‘When we approve large development, we are essentially approving a tax increase.’ He said Stewart had changed his tune on development, but he doubts Stewart’s motivation for that change.”  It was my wife, Kathy Stephenson, not “one man” (me, presumably), who reported Corey Stewart’s comments from 2006.  Furthermore, this is not a claim, it’s a fact.   Attached is the Washington Post report; Stewart’s comments are in the second full paragraph on page two.

Here’s another example of Stewart acknowledging that residential development has “hurt the average person” in PW County:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f8XDSKrNzs

I’ve known Stewart for eight years and worked with him for a couple years on a number of issues when he was an ally, but not so much since he decided to support unrestrained residential growth in the western end of the county.  He would love for people to forget his own history and ethical conflicts of interest on land use or do whatever he can to obfuscate them whenever they re-emerge — because they show him to be disingenuous, opportunistic, unprincipled, and completely untrustworthy.   Please don’t be co-opted into assisting him in that effort.  : )

For info on Stewart and other Prince William County supervisors’ conflicts of interest on land use, see  Supervisor Conflicts of Interest, right side, top of page.

For more info on my wife’s and my speeches (we were the first and second speakers, respectively, Wednesday night at the Planning Commission hearing), see: Stone Haven information, Kathy Stephenson Speech

3.  In response to Chairman Haynes and other pro-developer citizens’ view that there was a two-year, fully consultative process that sought all points of view on Stone Haven, none of the rank-and-file, non-activist citizens I and my wife have met and talked to about this recently knew anything about the process.  This so-called two-year “consultative” process was rigged from the beginning to provide the desired outcome for developers and their allies on the BOCS and Planning Commission.  It was sham, a fraud, pure and simple.  Nor is it even remotely likely that “no Stone Haven for now” was ever an acceptable option or outcome of the process, yet that’s the option I would’ve chosen for reasons clearly specified here:

http://virginiavirtucon.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/guest-columnist-act-now-to-stop-stone-haven-in-pwc/
http://www.northernvatimes.com/gainesville/news/columnthe-forum-stop-stone-haven-speak-out-against-over-development
Email: Falsities in Chmn Stewart’s Reply on Rez Development, Taxes, County’s Economy, etc; Stone Haven

4.  My organization, Prince William Citizens for Balanced Growth, can (and usually does) provide proof and documentation to back up everything we say.  (We are hard-working citizens and taxpayers who earn our livelihood doing other things and so really have no time to be involved in local politics, and are involved in other community service as well, but nevertheless want to and will relentlessly serve our community in every way we can.)

However, Planning Commission Chairman Austin Haynes, who was chosen by Stewart and quoted profusely and unskeptically in the Bristow Beat article above, can’t back up any of his preferences, opinions, and subjective statements with facts or documentation.  Furthermore, his independent, objective judgement is undoubtedly at least somewhat compromised by the fact that he is part of the land development community.

One of Chairman Haynes’ co-workers, Brendon Shaw, who is now working for the PW Chamber of Commerce as well, has been working for EV Hunter Trust for the last two years, helping them market the Stone Haven project.  See this link for more info:
http://princewilliamliving.com/2014/08/prince-william-chamber-commerce-hires-director-government-relations-brendon-shaw/

To Chairman Haynes’ credit, I believe that it is because of even the appearance of this possible conflict-of-interest that he made his announcement at the beginning of Wednesday’s hearing promising to abstain from the vote Wednesday.  Another of Chairman Haynes’ co-workers at Crossroads Realty is Jackson Miller, a local delegate to the VA State Assembly, who is heavily dependent on developer campaign contributions to stay in office.  Since 2006 he’s received almost $200,000 from developers, more than double the amount he’s received from any other industry: VPAP.org Jackson Miller Campaign Donations 2006-2014 by Industry Sector.   Brendon Shaw used to work for Delegate Miller as his legislative assistant as well.

Supervisor Marty Nohe, who’s been shilling in Supervisor Covington’s stead for Stone Haven for a couple years (because Covington’s been outed for his  brazen conflicts of interest on land use), received money from EV Hunter Trust, the Stone Haven developer, in 2011, right before he began his advocacy for Stone Haven.  Here is the list of BOCS supervisors who received money from Hunter Trust 2009-11:

• $2,500 to BOCS Supervisor Marty Nohe
• $1,500 to BOCS Supervisor Covington
• $1,000 to BOCS Supervisor John Jenkins

See:  http://www.vpap.org/donors/174612-ev-hunter-trust/?recip_type=all&start_year=2009&end_year=2011

RK Realty is the realtor handling the Stone Haven development.  RK Realty has donated the following amounts to the following PW Supervisors and other politicians noted above 2010-13:

• $11,000 to BOCS Chairman Corey Stewart
• $5,000 to BOCS Supervisor Wally Covington
• $2,500 to BOCS Supervisor Peter Candland
• $1,500 to Manassas, VA State Assembly Delegate Jackson Miller

The only one of the five BOCS supervisors above who’s received payoffs from Stone Haven’s EV Hunter Trust and/or RK Realty and is not known to be a likely “yes” vote is Peter Candland.  The other four are strong “yes” votes and completely compromised on this issue — bought off, unobjective; they should recuse themselves from the upcoming vote on Stone Haven.  Stewart, who’s received $11,000 and Covington, who’s bagged $6,500, lead the pack.

See:  http://www.vpap.org/donors/190495-rk-realty/?start_year=2010&end_year=2014

If these are not ethical conflicts of interest, even if legal in VA, and very bad for open, objective, and fair government, I don’t know what is.  (If I were working for or with the federal government and had such a conflict of interest, I would probably end up in a federal prison.)

For other supervisor conflicts of interest, see:  Supervisor Conflicts of Interest

When you connect all the dots above, what do you see?

I invite you and all of the news media personnel included on this e-mail to continue to be in touch with PWCBG (see http://pwcbg.org).  My e-mail is above.

PWCBG uses facts, financial analysis, logic, and documentation to back up its positions on balanced growth/balanced land use.  The same can rarely, if ever, be said of the other side (developers and the politicians supporting them) in the most controversial land use schemes.  Because of the weakness of their arguments, to get what they want they tend to rely on propaganda, half-truths, or even outright lies, emotional appeals, greed, payoffs, backroom deals, and underhanded  political maneuvers hidden from the public.

Ralph Stephenson, co-founder of Prince William Citizens for Balanced Growth (PWCBG)

On 8/29/2014 10:36 AM, Stacy Shaw wrote: