Politics & Government

McLean Citizens Association Fights for the Neighbors' Right to Know

Asks Community Center Board to Release $100,000 Report

The McLean Citizens Association board  voted unanimously Wednesday to ask the McLean Community Center board to release a copy of a $100,000 taxpayer-financed report to the public.

"It's an issue of why a community- funded group could possibly come up with a reason for not releasing a report on property in the community that they spent $100,000," said MCA board member Bill Denk.

"It should be a sense of the McLean Citizens Association  to encourage the McLean Community Center board to release the study and studies in the future," Denk said.

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He then made a motion that the MCA write to the Community Center board asking for a copy of the report.

McLean residents pay an additional property tax to finance the Community Center.

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The MCA board acted  after  a committee of the McLean Community Center Board on May 11  refused to release to McLean residents copies of a $100,000 consultant's report paid for with taxpayer money on the feasibility of replacing the Old Firehouse Teen Center in downtown McLean.

The Capital Facilities Committee, headed by Kevin Dent, discussed the report from Jones Lang, a leading real estate company in a meeting closed to the public. Last week, the entire McLean Community Center voted on a secret resolution concerning the report. Dent is now chair of the Community Center board.

"I  can’t conceive of what could be sensitive in this study,” Denk said.

Joe Gibson, another MCA board member: "I think we’re entitled to let people know" what the report says.

MCA board member Ed Saperstein: “I think it makes sense to write a letter. If we don’t get anything back then we can look at other things.”

The Virginia Freedom of Information law states: "A report of a consultant hired by or at the request of a local public body" is available to the public "if the contents of such report have been distributed or disclosed to members of the local public body."

The FOI law also requires that a public body say in writing why they are withholding information from the public. Dent said at the meeting that the committee had consulted with the county attorney who said they did not need to release the report. He gave no written justification for the denial of the report at the committee meeting.

On behalf of McLean residents, McLean Patch filed a formal request with Dent and the community center for a written justification for keeping the report secret.

The board responded  that the report was secret because  it was complied solely for discussion in closed meetings, which is an exemption under the law.

The board hired Jones Lang, a well-known real estate company, to do a feasibility study on what if anything the board might build on the site of the Old Firehouse Teen Center in downtown McLean. MCC has long talked of replacing the teen center with  either a gymnasium or a community building that would include a black box theater.


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