As I read last week’s Connection, I came across Ken Plum’s column on local governance. Now, Ken Plum is a guy I’ve long admired, thought he was a cut above the typical long-time politician, a gentleman in fact. Also, on issues such as education and health care, for example, he is normally my kind of progressive. Although in bowing to Dominion Power’s re-regulation scheme he dipped a bit, when he voted against Gov. Tim Kaine’s repeal of the fairest tax of them all (estate tax on the fattest of cats), Plum solidified his position in my pantheon of good guys.

So, his column struck me as unusual. Here was Plum, a proponent of Town before he spent so many years in the higher altitudes and before he experienced some kind of political epiphany in the 1980s, raking the Reston Citizens Association and their current petition drive for a referendum on becoming a town over the coals. His arguments are a rehash of things said earlier which are neither law nor regulation — with a couple exceptions: he sternly warns that the Virginia Constitution requires that a majority of voters approve a change in the form of their government. No kidding! The purpose of the referendum proposed by Reston Citizens Association is to allow the voters just such an opportunity. He also notes that a specific charter proposal would be required at the time of the vote — he must have been away from Reston this year while RCA held a series of public meetings on the elements of a new Town charter which is in an advanced stage.

Others will address other obvious holes in worn and patronizing arguments. Most troubling to me is that Plum, a long-time Restonian finds nothing special about Reston compared with any other piece of unincorporated land in this county. He would simply lump us in with all of them. He ignores that, thanks to Robert Simon, this is indeed a special place, recognized as one of America’s premier planned communities with a distinctive identity growing out of our founding principles. He also ignores the fact that when Simon bought the land for his Reston dream, he bought with it a legal charter for a town already granted by the Virginia legislature. But when Simon moved to develop Reston, Fairfax County officials threatened to withhold services like sewer permits if he exercised his charter (see "Reston-Past, Present and Future" documentary).

Then, in 1989, a bill was passed by the Virginia legislature revoking the town charter (see "Reston" by Nan Netherton). Reston residents were not consulted. Coincidentally, at that time another movement was afoot for a referendum on becoming a town. Some powerful forces opposed even having a vote — as Plum and Supervisor Hudgins do now. At about the time the charter was revoked, the legislature also enacted a new law making if more difficult for communities to incorporate. I have heard an explanation of this coincidence. Delegate Plum was there. Perhaps he’ll tell Reston his version one of these days. For now, Delegate Plum should stand up for the community as he has before, and let the people decide the issue.
Two of the three Ssupervisor candidates support referendum. So should he.