“Time for recall is now!”
Written By: Steve Ardito
I found the the orchestrated “show of support” for Council members Hellman and Blash at the March 5th Fairfax Town Council meeting very misleading. It was convenient that the small group of individuals who rarely, if ever, joined Town Council meetings in person, just happened to attend this particular meeting to challenge the potential recall. It is likely these misguided individuals do not fully recognize or comprehend the level of frustration shared by many in the Town who frequently do attend said meetings. Blash and Hellman are two of three council members that have a paralyzing hold on the Fairfax Town Council Agenda and defiantly refuse to listen to residents leaving them few alternatives to be heard.
Attending a Fairfax Town Council meeting in person or watching one on Zoom are two very different experiences. When watching on Zoom, the camera focuses on the speaker and unfortunately rarely shows the room. Often missed by the camera is the body language, and lack of courtesy, respect or attention afforded speakers by certain council members. Not only are these dismissive behaviors (fiddling or playing on their phone or laptop, yawning, eye-rolling, etc.) rude and disrespectful, they add to constituents’ frustration and fail to provide the necessary and proper feedback to a speaker assuring them their issues or concerns are being heard or considered.
In the November 2024 election, Fairfax residents demonstrated their discontent and demanded their voices be heard by overwhelmingly replacing 40% of the incumbent Town Council and rejecting three Town ballot Measures. Rather than learning from the election results, the remaining incumbent members (Hellman, Blash, and Coler) upped the ante and continued in their defiance of the Town’s citizenry. Immediately PRIOR to the swearing-in of the well respected freshly elected Council members (Egger and Ghiringelli), the three remaining incumbents (along with ousted lame-duck Councilmen, Cutrano and Ackerman) took steps to censor their two new colleagues by inappropriately passing a resolution requiring a majority council vote for any Council member wishing to place items on the Town Council Agenda. With this action the incumbents are attempting to silence a majority of the town by commanding control over the meeting agenda allowing them to dominate policy, and suppress contrary or alternative thinking and representation. By essentially censoring the two newly elected councilmen, the incumbent council has again chosen to disrespect the electorate and threw down the glove challenging the good citizens of Fairfax to another “game of political chicken” to prove their resolve.
It appears the three (incumbent) council members are again seriously underestimating the town’s will, and have, by their actions and inactions, encouraged a movement to recall. Fairfax residents deserve to be heard and represented by their elected TownCouncil and basically have two options to do so; 1) wait until the next scheduled election in 2026 to vote their will, or, 2) take action now and proceed with a recall.
Surely no one in Fairfax really wants a recall, and most if not all would prefer not to spend the money doing so, but the Town simply can’t afford to delay and further endure the prevailing censorship, fiscal mismanagement, and lack of representation. The time for recall is now…we’re long overdue for the 90% to be represented
