Shocking comment

Yes, the ordinance provides a framework called a special use permit for the orderly consideration of exceptions. However, the same ordinance – and state law – requires input from the people through a process called a public hearing. This process is meant to ensure that we enjoy government not only of the people but also by the people and for the people.
In the case of Poplar Ridge, a mammoth housing development that was the subject of the discussion into which Booker dropped her bombshell remark, 21 people spoke against the exception while only one spoke for it. The special use permit also was opposed in a petition bearing signatures of nearly 1,600 of the people. Booker was not moved.
Elsewhere in discussion of the same issue, Supervisor Mike Sheridan touched on the principle embodied in Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. To explain why relatively few people turn out for supervisors’ meetings, Sheridan said, “They don’t come to every decision because they trust the people that they put here to represent them.” (As reported in Fluvanna Review for August 14-20, 2014.)
No doubt greater public participation could yield benefits for Fluvanna County. Still, Sheridan is right. It is the duty of the supervisors we elect to represent us, the people. Unfortunately, Booker does not seem to view her job that way.