RA Board Elections: This Time, A Real Endorsement From a Group That Just Won't Let a Wacky, Sitcom-Like Misunderstanding Go

Remember that minor brouhaha about the Reston Association endorsing unwittingly giving free publicity to coincidentally mentioning three RA Board candidates in an e-mail, only not as an endorsement? Yeah, that was awesome. Now another Reston-area group has endorsed three candidates of its own, which quite coincidentally are not the same three candidates who benefitted from the RA's largesse electioneering incompetence. Who'da thunk it?

Apparently the folks at Save Brown's Chapel haven't gotten over that wacky, sitcom-like misunderstanding about building a massive rec center/juicery on top of one of Reston's few remaining open spaces. Making the second-best video ever about Reston apparently wasn't enough to satisfy their bloodlust, so now they're endorsing Joe Leighton, Peter Greenberg and Ken Knueven. What's up with that?

Remember last summer when the Reston Association Board of Director's [sic] planned to destroy Brown's Chapel Park and replace it with a $100 million county facility? The RA Board was working behind closed doors with the Reston Community Center (RCC) Board and was prepared to move this initiative forward.

Remember the meetings where hundreds of Reston Association members supported the coalition to Save Brown's Chapel and protested loud enough for the Board to notice that they would not be allowed to destroy one of our parks?

Remember the lack of openness and transparency between RA Board leadership and its members?

The Brown's Chapel fiasco underscored the dangerous outcome that can occur when the work of the RA Board is performed in closed executive session ultimately putting members' interests at risk. That scenario resulted in RA Board members rubber-stamping a $100 million facility that would ruin a beautiful park, destroy precious open space and cede acres of our valuable land to the county. Preventing this disaster required the actions and voices of the 1,500 Restonians who stood together and who signed a petition to force the RA Board to listen and finally to scrap the project after spending almost $100,000 of our money on a feasibility study.

Geez, guys. Haven't you heard of "water under the bridge?" Or at least "massive rec center over the open space?"

The Coalition to Save Brown's Chapel has endorsed the following candidates:

Joe Leighton - At-Large. Joe was the only current RA board member to take a stand early in the process and to send an alarm to the community. When Joe tried to make a motion in June 2009 to eliminate Brown's Chapel as a development site, not a single RA board member seconded his motion. It was months later after the RA board finally felt the pressure of its members that Joe's motion was passed. Joe is a leader who takes his job seriously and understands that he represents all RA members.

Peter Greenberg - North Point. Peter, a 14-year resident of North Reston, was the first person to sound the alarm about the destruction of Brown's Chapel Park. Peter worked tirelessly on the Brown's Chapel Park issue and was the first person who vowed to help put RA parks and open spaces in a "Conservation Trust". Peter, a successful businessman with extensive senior executive experience and a strong background in finance, is an outstanding North Point candidate.

Ken Knueven - Lake Anne / Tall Oaks. Ken will bring significant corporate experience to the RA board. For more than 30 years Ken has been instrumental in the development, growth and leadership of global organizations and currently manages Strategic Federal Programs for Microsoft. He values the neighborhood pool concept over the consolidation of mega locations, and will work toward protecting the interests of RA members against the mega-pool replacement concept People who live in this district should remember it was only a few years ago that Tall Oaks neighbors had to protest to the RA Board in order to keep their pool open. Ken will also lead in helping Lake Anne residents have a voice in dealing with the issues facing the aging RELAC operations.

SBC is having a meet-and-greet or something with these three candidates at 6:30 p.m. March 1 at -- wait for it! -- Brown's Chapel. We just wonder if the RA will "accidentally" send out their three names in a fancy e-mail.