George,

We are truly blessed in this community to have such seasoned pros as Nancy O'Brien paying attention to the details of our civic life.

At hand is an 11th hour proposal that City Council abandon years of hard debate, throw up its hands and say to the people of Charlottesville, "you decide" about the Meadowcreek Parkway. Nancy is right to advise us to slow down and take stock of where we are. We have the rough outline of a road that could be a community asset and a consensus among three of our candidates for nomination that the established conditions should be taken very seriously.

Until such time as our elected officials are ready to vote to void the previous agreement and tell the people of Charlottesville that our state and regional partners are unwilling to meet our conditions, a referendum is inappropriate at best, political cover at worst.

Rus Perry (electronic mail, February 4, 2004)