Opportunities for public involvement in the review and approval of the management plan for Fort Ward Park and Museum

Dear Linda and Chuck,

I hope this note finds you well.

This letter follows the comments I made at your Fort Ward Park and Museum Advisory Group Meeting about opportunities for public involvement in the review and approval of the management plan for Fort Ward Park and Museum.  I was disappointed that your meeting tonight to discuss this subject was cancelled.  However, I well understand the importance of taking a break from your volunteer work and enjoying the holidays.  All of you have worked long and hard and you deserve a break.

As I mentioned on November 13, 2013 the published schedule for the completion of the Fort Ward Park  & Museum Management Plan indicates that there will be one public meeting held before the draft plan winds its way through the formal City of Alexandria review and approval process.  Ms. Durham indicated that this proposed meeting would be some type of “informal public meeting”.   In the past Ms. Durham and you, Ms. Ries, have indicated that there would be opportunities for public involvement. Given these assurances I found the statements which were made on the 13th to be surprising given the history of decision-making for the Fort and the city’s recent Civic Engagement initiative. 

When the City Council resolution was crafted to direct and fund the development of the Fort Ward and Museum Management Plan there were three “charges” for the Advisory Group.  Items 2. and 3. relate to public involvement in the process of developing a Fort Ward Park & Museum Management Plan.  This provision was inserted to help insure that the plan for the park and museum would be developed with the community rather than developed for it.  As you are well aware Fort Ward has suffered from closed and inaccessible decision-making in the past.  As much as I’d like to believe that the soon-to-be-shared new plan will be a good one, the process so far has bee one that hasn’t embraced these two charges.

For example, Mr. Mallamo recent effort to prepare a hefty report on the families of the Fort Ward community was done with no input from those who lived in the community or their descendant family members.  The notion that an outside consultant can come up with a work product without input from citizens is paternal, unprofessional and a bad reflection on the city.  That effort was an opportunity to “bring community values, knowledge, ideas and advice into the process to develop the management plan”.  Although the African American community is now being given an opportunity to review the document to make sure the research is accurate, Mr. Mallamo’s actions--which are part of the management plan process, are a definite departure from the intent of City Council and the spirit of the 2011 charge.

It is unclear how the various pieces of the park and museum management plan will come together to avoid single-purpose perspectives of different departments.  I understand from what I learned at your meeting that the city’s consultant is scheduled to provide the advisory group a draft management plan on January 8, 2014.   Given that the  above-noted history report is still under community review and comment, and  promised city/ consultant outreach to adjacent homeowners regarding the Storm Water Plan has not been completed,  it seems as if a consultant presentation of the draft plan  is premature.  As you well know the topics of storm water and African American history and culture were two of the major issues that sparked public concern after the development of the 2008 Fort Ward Facilities Plan by the City’s Recreation Department.

Hopefully all these different elements of the park and museum management plan will come together in an integrated and timely way.

My hope is that as the advisory group discusses public involvement you will depart from the approach you have been using during this phase of the effort.  Offering public comments at your meetings is important but it does not respond to City Council charge to your group.  By providing the public with a number of well-designed opportunities to review and comment on the draft plan you help help insure that the document will be accurate and well-received by the communities of the city that you serve, before it is put on review by others.    Meeting your charge now with appropriate public involvement will make the process go smoother.  A failure to embrace your charge will become an issue especially if there is community dis-satisfaction to the proposed plan.  

My involvement with Fort Ward started unexpectedly in 2006.  My request then, as it is now, was to have appointed and elected city officials make decisions with us, not for us, or to us.  It takes a good process to come up with a good plan.  Hopefully you will help give us both so we can get behind the proposal.

Thanks again for your time and effort on the Advisory Group.  You are providing and important service to the city and your neighbors.

May your holidays be joyous and safe.

Sincerely,

Glenn

J. Glenn Eugster

12-11-2013