Dear Friends and Neighbors,
I hope that you will join me and Senator
Chap Petersen at a Town Hall meeting
this Saturday, January 24th from
10:00 to 11:30 a.m. at the City of Fairfax
Council Chambers, 10455 Armstrong
Street. We are looking forward to sharing
our progress in Richmond and to answering
questions about issues that are important to
you.
In the General Assembly, there is the
thrill of victory and the agony of defeat
– and then there is having bills stuck
in subcommittee. This week I experienced
all three, two of which were with one bill!
One of the bills I am most excited about
authorizes George
Mason
University
to appoint an advisory member from the
community to the Board of Visitors
(HB 1990). I am enormously proud to have GMU
as a neighbor. At the same time, Mason has
grown from a school consisting of four
buildings and a couple hundred students in
the 1960s to over 30,000 students today. In
short, not much goes on in the campus that
doesn’t affect the community, and vise
versa. After working closely with the
university, we agreed that a stronger,
ongoing, and more strategic partnership is
needed between the community and GMU. In
particular, we wanted to make sure that the
community felt it had a voice in the future
of Mason – and likewise, GMU wanted to
make sure that it benefited from the insights
that a community representative could
provide.
The approach is new and also unique to
GMU, so it generated considerable debate.
The measure passed the House Education
Committee 14Y to 6N. Today on the House
Floor the bill deadlocked on a tie vote
(48-48). Fortunately I will have another
chance this next Monday. You can be
sure I’ll keep you updated on this
one.
In limbo is my HB 2107. An issue that I
feel strongly about is making sure that
eminent domain is used only when appropriate
and absolutely necessary. This year I am
carrying a bill to close a loophole
regarding the ability of local
governments to use “quick take”
eminent domain. A quick take is an
accelerated eminent domain process used for
acquiring a right of way. While this
authority is necessary, it is typically
reserved for large linear projects such as
roads, water systems, and other similar
infrastructure where several properties are
involved. A glitch in the Code allows for a
quick take to be used for any project that
otherwise qualifies for the exercise of
eminent domain – which was not the
intent of the General Assembly. Kudos to
Fairfax County for also recognizing the
problem and working with me on the
legislation.
While all of the parties involved appear
to agree that the current language is not
appropriate, it opened a new debate over the
proper scope of quick take eminent domain.
After an hour of testimony and debate in the
Civil Subcommittee of the Courts Committee
we finally agreed to come back next week for
another try.
This week I enjoyed having several
constituents come to visit me in Richmond. I
was pleased to welcome representatives from
the Business and Professional Women of
Fairfax, the Sierra Club, the Virginia
Bankers Association, the Fairfax City Credit
Union, and the Coalition for Virginians with
Mental Disabilities, just to name a few.
Thanks for coming down!
I look forward to sharing other bills and
issues at the Town Hall meeting and in
future newsletters. Hope to see you
Saturday.
Sincerely,
David Bulova
