To the editor:
The editor should not underestimate the sentiments of those questioning running your 6,800-word expose, “Former Mayor Euille was focus of FBI probe,” in the February 15 Alexandria Times. Even though they should know better, some will consider this sort of criticism of Alexandria’s first Black mayor to be “racism,” notwithstanding that you would have made the same criticism of a similarly situated white mayor.
More troubling, though, is that many might be OK with what most readers likely concluded is a “give-and-get” system. They presumably know that former Mayor Allison Silberberg ran on a platform prioritizing an ethics code which would not have allowed this, and no sooner did she broach the topic than her colleagues instead pushed through a toothless alternative.
The Alexandria Times and several of its foremost contributors have filed Freedom of Information Act requests and conducted research demonstrating that something has gone awry in local governance, while those responsible win their elections each time by greater margins. Have social media’s algorithms stovepiped information and reinforced Millennials’ preconceptions so that city hall’s virtue signaling suffices over facts?
Your expose raised a host of further questions between the lines. Were there any additional checks besides the one whose stub was found inside the filing cabinet? How many, from who and for how much?
Is this how the public’s business is in general conducted in Alexandria? Do other city councilors expect to receive such largesse if they vote the right way? Does such an expectation explain seemingly inexplicable fealty to a corporate agenda where nothing is ever voted down, no matter the facts of the case?
When Silberberg’s time on the dais was done, she went back to catch-as-catch-can consulting. Do any current elected officials anticipate receiving well-paying jobs at the proposed arena if they vote for it? Is that the real reason they oppose a referendum which could overturn their anticipated rubber stamp of a project with dubious financials?
-Dino Drudi, Alexandria