PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID Alexandria, VA Alexandria Permit #482 Gazette Packet Attention Postmaster: Time-sensitive material. Address Service Requested To: 1604 King St., Alexandria, VA 22314 25 Cents Vol. CCXXIV, No. 49 Serving Alexandria for over 200 years • A Connection Newspaper December 4, 2008 Reform Isn’t A Call In the Bag City’s plan to ban To Serve plastic bags will Mayor uses Unity face obstacles Breakfast to in Richmond. advocate for By Michael Lee Pope service to Gazette Packet community. Photos by Photos t’s an age old question: By Michael Lee Pope IPaper or plastic? But Gazette Packet Councilman Tim Lovain says it’s also an existential Louise Krafft hen Mike Mackey first predicament, threatening Wbegan mentoring, he the future of the planet. The told a capacity crowd first-term councilman has huddled into the Mark Center proposed that Alexandria Hilton for the fifth annual Unity /Gazette ban plastic bags, following Breakfast last week, he was not the lead of countries such as sure who was more nervous — the Ireland, 7-year-old named Tommy or him- “We need Bangladesh, Brianna Parrott adds a jeweled snow flake to the window display at Artcraft in Old self. Yet despite their reservations, South Africa, Town. both soldiered through their Thailand and weekly afternoon reading sessions to get Taiwan. He first at Jefferson-Houston Elementary people proposed the School. After a while, the sessions idea in an Alex- ‘Black Friday’ Not Black Enough seemed less intimidating and in- into a andria Gazette creasingly familiar. Packet op ed Sunday’s bleak weather “His smile went from Capitol different published in Hill to City Hall,” said Mackey, the May, and now rained on merchants’ city’s gang-prevention coordinator. mindset he has added holiday parade. “I was hooked.” about an item to the See A Call, Page 31 city’s legislative By Chuck Hagee packet during Gazette the use the upcoming General Assem- of plastic or most of the smaller retail merchants Death bly session. in Alexandria, Belle View Shopping Cen- “They are a bags.” ter and Hollin Hall Shopping Center plague,” Lovain F Deemed — Del. Adam “Black Friday” was not nearly as bleak declared during as many had expected. However, it was nothing Ebbin (D-49) a City Council to cheer about either based on their Monday as- discussion last Suspicious sessments. week about the upcoming hortly after 2 p.m. on Tues- But the annually hyped sales day, the Friday General Assembly session. day afternoon, Dec. 2, the after Thanksgiving, which many retailers depend S “The time has come to do Alexandria Police Depart- on for a significant amount of their annual gross something.” ment received a call from an indi- income does not have the same impact on smaller At Lovain’s request, coun- vidual who was concerned about retailers as it does on the large retail chain stores. cil members added a plank a woman who lived in the EOS 21 This was particularly true this year with the larger to their legislative agenda Apartment complex on South Van stores pushing myriad of sale items — well be- that asks member of the lo- Dorn Street. When officers arrived fore Black Friday. cal delegation to introduce to check on the welfare of the “We never consider Black Friday to be a big shop- legislation that would allow woman, they discovered the body ping day. At most, it can usually be compared to a Alexandria to pass an ordi- of a woman who was already good Saturday,” said Adam Winer, owner and nance prohibiting retail mer- dead. Police spokewoman Ashley manager, Artcraft in Old Town Alexandria. Inside of Why Not? in Old Town. chants from using plastic Hildebrandt declined to say if foul “We were very busy on both Friday and Satur- carryout bags. Under play was suspected, although the day. But, Sunday was a bust due to the weather. Friday’s sales to be much less than normal. “But, Virginia’s “Dillon Rule,” the Police Department categorized the In general people appear to be buying less expen- at this point, I attribute that to most people being General Assembly would be incident as a “suspicious death.” sive items this year,” he said. at the malls hunting for bargains. We’ll see as the required to grant the city “Someone was concerned about Todd Healy at Gallery Lafayette found this Black See Not So Black, Page 31 her and called us,” said See Bag Ban, Page 29 See Death, Page 29 www.ConnectionNewspapers.com Alexandria Gazette Packet ❖ December 4-10, 2008 ❖ 1 2 ❖ Alexandria Gazette Packet ❖ December 4-10, 2008 www.ConnectionNewspapers.com Council Notebook News Layoffs Expected In these times of grim economic news, the City Council unani- mously voted for a potential bit of good news for residential tax- payers last week. But it might come at the expense of city em- ployees. Council members approved a “guidance” resolution that directed City Manager Jim Hartmann to prepare a budget that would have the average homeowner paying the same amount as last year. Because property assessments have declined over the last year, that would require the city government cut its budget by 4.3 percent and the school system to reduce its budget by 2 per- cent. City officials say accomplishing that goal might require lay- ing off some city employees. “We fully expect there will be considerable service reductions in the proposed budget, and the proposed budget will likely in- clude potential reductions in the city’s workforce,” said Mayor Bill Euille. “We must approach this effort with full clarity, ag- gressive communication, and, above all, compassion.” The guidance resolution identified several areas where council members would like to see the city manager minimize reductions, such as public safety, human services, transportation spending and education funding. Council members also directed Hartmann to avoid harming programs or services that would harm property values or diminish Alexandria’s ability to recover from the cur- rent economic downturn. To accomplish this, they suggested, Hartmann should try to identify ways for residents to accomplish Photos by Alexandria Fire Department tasks that government can no longer afford. Participants in the Alexandria fire Department Coss Fit Porgram are, front row: Craig “We have some extreme financial challenges as we face the most Youngdale, Pat Evans, Fire Chief Adam Thiel, Chet Helms, Josh Weisman, Mike Perry, significant revenue shortfall in decades,” said Hartmann in a writ- and Brian Meckes. Second row: Mike Lynn, Greg Cook, Warner Sherman, Thurston ten statement released after the vote. “We will do our best to McClain, and Darryl Stanton. minimize the impact of reductions on city employees and work creatively and collaboratively to mitigate the impact of reduc- tions on city employees and work creatively and collaboratively Finding ‘Cross Fit’ a Good Fit to mitigate the constraints in delivering city services.” Tapping the Tills Firefighters’ new exercise City Hall is about to get tough on deadbeat taxpayers, employ- program is based on daily ing a host of aggressive new collection methods to make sure that the city government will get every penny that’s coming to it. demands of profession. The enhanced measures come as the result of an inquiry by Coun- cilman Justin Wilson, who suggested that the city could in- By Chuck Hagee crease its revenues by going after delinquent taxes. Last week, Gazette Packet the City Council gave the green light for bank liens, garnishing wages, credit agency reporting and even seizure of property. One ire fighting is one of the most physically of the more extreme methods approved last week is known as a challenging professions anyone can under “till tap,” which city officials describe as a “last-resort mecha- Ftake. And, while physical fitness and train nism” used when all other collection methods have failed. ing have long been part of their daily rou- The till tap works like this: City officials would obtain a “sei- tines, this year, Alexandria’s first responders are in- zure warrant” from a magistrate, which would be delivered by troducing a new program to not only keep in shape the Sheriff’s Office to the delinquent business, where money would but also promote team work, an essential element be removed from the cash register. Officials note that such ex- to the success of their mission on every call — treme measures would be rarely used, and that the threat of em- firefighters and EMS. ploying them might be enough to prompt the deadbeats into ac- Known as “Cross Fit,” this program is being uti- tion. lized by the U.S. military as well as police and fire “Just the fact that they exist might have a deterrent effect,” said departments nationwide. It emphasizes team-ori- Councilman Tim Lovain. “All we might have to do is have a few ented functional fitness. till taps of a few restaurants and have the sheriff distrain some “This is an outstanding complement to our Assistant Fire Chief Denise Pouget and assets a couple of times and word will spread.” See New Exercise, Page 42 Terri Meckes. Squirrel Survives Attack Pinkett’s Ponzi Scheme Detailed City Council members have a thing for plush human-sized mas- cots. They always have a chuckle when Robby the Recycling reston Pinkett III, 68 of Alexandria, defrauded U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente. Squirrel pays a visit. And who doesn’t love T.C. Williams High Pmore than 180 investors of more than $40 Pinkett personally pocketed more than $5.4 mil- School muscle-bound Tony Titan? Then there’s Tom Turkey, million, according to statement of facts filed lion in fraudulent proceeds, according to his state- who makes an annual pilgrimage to City Hall to promote the Tur- with his guilty plea in federal court in Alexandria on ment of facts in his guilty plea.