George,

When I became County Executive of Prince William County, VA (pop. 280,000), I found several surprising facts: many people were only able to sell their townhouses at a loss, the Board of Supervisors and developers intended to fully develop the entire 354 square miles of the county, protection of open space and habitat was not a county government value or policy, PWC had the highest tax rate of any county in Virginia and developers were giving the county less than 1/3 of the appropriate cash proffers...$4,000 vs. $15.000.. My staff and I worked on developing a sound environmental and fiscal plan to change this situation.

That plan, hailed by citizens and environmentalists, but unpopular with many developers and some Board members, was approved and put in place in 1998. It created a Rural Crescent that set aside nearly half of the county into a rural area, increased proffers to $15,000 per single family house and proposed a new town zoning text amendment which has resulted in the construction of two new towns. This plan has now been emulated and improved upon by Loudon County.

I could have made no recommendation thus not appearing "controversial." No comments such as this would have appeared in the press. But that's not who I am. If taking a stand for what you believe in results in criticism, then so be it. I put the public's good above my own job security. I have taken many risks with my own job security but I have never risked the best interest of the citizens.

Bern Ewert (electronic mail, February 18, 2002)