Friday, July 29, 2011

Putting Jobs in Leesburg First

Yesterday was the first Leesburg Jobs Symposium, sponsored in part by Supervisor Kelly Burk. The businesses involved came together to discuss questions and ideas by which the county can help businesses grow to the point where they need and want to hire more local employees. This is a concrete way for business and government to work together to serve the needs of the people, in this case the need for more long-term, well-paying jobs.

To his credit Coucilmember Reid was at the Symposium, having been invited there by Supervisor Burk along with all the other members of Town Council. It would have been wonderful for Councilmember Reid to provide his own input on what it will take for his own company, for example, to grow to the point where it will hire some more people from his District. That would have been an excellent contribution to the conversation.

Instead of doing that, however, Councilmember Reid spent his time during the Symposium composing a press release for his campaign. Given the opportunity to add to the conversation about solutions for his constituents, Mr. Reid chose instead to serve himself and his ambitions.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Ken Reid's Contradiction

Councilman Reid's latest campaign email is a wonderful study in contradiction. The newsletter's subject line is:

"'Jobs forum' July 28 designed to mask Burk's anti-business votes."

Councilman Reid then goes on in the newsletter to state "My opponent, unfortunately, is anti jobs, anti business and supports heavy-handed regulations and higher taxes.

What is funny is that Reid admits, in the very same newsletter that, "about 4 or 5 members of the panel [Supervisor Burk's Jobs Symposium, tomorrow morning] (including the host, Rehau) are backing her campaign for supervisor." In point of fact, a majority of Leesburg's downtown businesses support Supervisor Burk's re-election, including a number of business leaders who had previously supported Republicans in other elections.

Which, of course, begs the question, how can someone be "anti-business" and still get the broad support of the business community in the area she was elected to represent?

In point of fact, Kelly Burk has a strong, pro-business agenda, and has made a point of connecting businesses to jobseekers in Leesburg. The jobs symposium held tomorrow morning is part of that agenda to help local businesses expand their hiring of local residents.

That's consistently putting Leesburg first.

Inconsistency is Councilman Reid's modus operandi. After all, he was never running for office again, until he changed his mind.