How the Petition for a Referendum on the Joint Water Authority Got Started

by Douglas R. Johnson
March 1, 2009

The purpose of the Fluvanna Taxpayers Association (FTA) is "about informing and educating the citizens on what is happening at County meetings". That organization has and will continue to "promote communication, involvement in County government, and the lowest taxes that cover what we need and sustain our quality of life". That vision was instituted by FTA's late founder, Lee True, and is maintained by FTA's courageous current chairman, Faith Stuart.

What happened on Thursday evening, February 19, 2009, was that the FTA had an open meeting to discuss the proposed Joint Water Authority. The presentation was fair giving both the pros and the cons. The difficulty came with the discovered unanswered questions. It seemed that the project could be good or bad depending on the answers to these questions.

But documented evidence was presented that emphasized that no one knew the answers, not even the Supervisors who were about to "cast in stone" this Joint Authority. We all who were in that room knew the history of Fluvanna County Board of Supervisor (BOS) Public Hearings. Typically the BOS would listen to the public then act on a pre written resolution totally ignoring what was said.

We attendees did not trust the process for such an important issue. We did not even discuss whether a water pipeline to Zion Crossroad was a good idea or not. The real question was as to doing it as a Joint Authority between Fluvanna County and Louisa County.

It was brought up at the meeting that the law provided this question could be put to a referendum and virtually everyone there called for such a referendum.

Chairman Faith Stuart expressed her unwillingness to alienate the BOS by having said petition be a FTA petition. Therefore, I and certain others who attended that FTA meeting took it upon ourselves to act as individual citizens rather than representatives of any organization.

What this has turned out to be then is a true grassroots effort that has "legs of its own". The support for this petition has crossed party lines. It is being circulated by Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. It is bringing our County together more than any other way that I have even heard of. Truly this has wakened the sleeping lion.