The Eisenhower-Duke Connector Task Force voted not to adhere to City Council instructions and submitted only one recommendation.
According to draft minutes of the Sept. 4, meeting, "the motion stated that a vote will be taken between the no build and the no build with improvements options and then votes will be taken between the winner of that vote and the build options. The winner of that vote will be the task force recommendation."
The vote was seven to six in favor of the motion, with Councilwoman Redella S. "Del" Pepper voting in favor of the motion.
"The vote really was just about the process," she said. "The consultants wanted us to use a matrix that many of the task force members felt did not allow them to freely express their opinions. We may submit only one recommendation but we may also prioritize several recommendations. We take our final vote on what option to recommend on Sept. 18."
LAST WEEK'S VOTE was taken despite an earlier agreement that no votes would be taken until Sept. 18. According to the May task force minutes, there was consensus to wait until Sept. 18, to take any votes because one of the task force members, Converse West, was going to be out of town for three months but would be back for the Sept. 18 meeting.
"I am confident that this change in the process gets us to exactly the same place, just in a different way," said Ginny Hines Parry, a member of the task force. "All we have done is decide not to use the objective criteria matrix, which was cumbersome and confusing. We will still do what Council asked us to do and present one no build and two build options in priority order."
"I am concerned about the vote because what it indicates is that we have seven people who will vote against any build option and, perhaps seven who will vote for some build option," said Mayor Kerry J. Donley, also a member of the task force who voted against last week's motion. "That means that the task force is deadlocked."
"I think the vote means that there are a group of people who are intent on not having a connector and they entered the process with that agenda in mind," said Joseph Bennett, a member of the task force. "By doing what they have done with this process, these people have given city task forces a bad name. We, in Alexandria, hold dear our right to participate in the democratic process. Clearly, there are those who are not content to allow the democratic process to proceed independently."
COUNCILMAN David Speck has some of the same concerns that Bennett expressed. "This vote leads me to believe that perhaps using task forces to look at issues with broad community impact is not such a good idea," he said. "Clearly, in this case, there are those who have used the process to negotiate specific agendas. It is important that we have broad community input into these types of decisions and not just hear from those with the loudest voices."
Once the task force votes on what option to recommend on Sept. 18, they will meet once again on Sept. 26 to finalize their report to Council. On Oct. 23, Council will hold a work session on the issue and have scheduled a public hearing for Oct. 29. Council will vote on what to do about a connector from Duke Street to Eisenhower Ave. on Nov. 12.