The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Monday again asked Gov. Tim Kaine to reconsider building a Metrorail tunnel under Tysons Corner, a move that follows the governor’s statement that local support could reverse his earlier decision on the underground track.
It is the third such motion by the Fairfax County board urging Kaine to incorporate the Tysons tunnel in the 23-mile Metrorail extension. The governor abandoned the tunnel in September, citing cost and timeline issues that the Federal Transit Administration warned could sink $900 million in federal funds. A local groundswell of support since has emerged to bring the plan back, and Kaine recently said he would heed the wishes of local governments and transportation boards if they opted for the underground rail.
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Kaine’s spokesman and other state transportation officials, however, have since said the tunnel won’t be reconsidered.
The board enumerated a long list of problems with the commonwealth’s and Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s handling of the rail project, including charges that pricing documents have been kept secret and that the entire project lacked competitive bidding.
The resolution apparently emerged out of a meeting the press and public was not allowed to attend, which county officials argue is allowed under Virginia law.
In justifying why the Board of Supervisors could hold such discussion behind closed doors, county spokeswoman Merni Fitzgerald cited two sections of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. One provision allows closed meeting talks on actual or probable litigation, and the other allows officials to enter closed meetings to discuss the award of public contracts if open discussion “would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body.”
The facts behind the justification to enter closed meeting are hazy, however. It is unclear what litigation the county is referring to in the first provision. In the second, the county is not directly involved in contract negotiations.
