Say this about Roanoke County supervisor Al Bedrosian – who won the Hollins District seat last November securing the Republican nomination on a coin flip after winding up in a primary election tie with Mike Bailey – there hasn’t been a dull moment since.
Bedrosian, a self-described Christian conservative, won the general election in part because two other candidates split the remaining votes down the middle.
Since taking office in January, Bedrosian, a father of five home-schooled children, has led the fight to remove funding for the controversial RC CLEAR-ICLEI group, claiming its ties to the “unproven” theory of global warming means it has no place in the county budget. The county had been appropriating $1200 a year for ICLEI software that tracked carbon emissions and helped compare the county to other parts of the country that were also tracking reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Some claim ICLEI is an international organization tied to a U.N. agenda that wants to tell people where and how they should live, a charge that supporters claim is unfounded.
“The media has not been totally truthful about this issue,” said Bedrosian, who declared that those who don’t support the theory of global warming are not against “clean air and clean water.” You must separate those issues he added, “from the theory of man-made global warning. It has nothing to do with the use of fossil fuels.”
Bedrosian said he would work to set up an alternative group to RC CLEAR, “a fact-based citizen’s group,” one that would focus on clean air and water – and not on global warming.
He has also come out against the current Roanoke County policy on opening session prayer, which calls for more non-sectarian blessings – and recently did not stand at a public meeting when a non-Christian blessing was offered by the India Society at the start of a session. A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said sectarian prayer was allowable means the county should change its current policy – or have no policy at all he declared.
However Bedrosian has also said he would not invite a non-Christian to lead an opening prayer, a position some say is not consistent with the Supreme Court ruling. “We were born in that Christian heritage and all of the founding documents were overwhelmingly Christian. I think our current policy is out of touch.” The Board would have to vote on any change to allow more sectarian prayer. The current guidelines were established after a Wisconsin group threatened to sue the county for allowing overtly Christian prayer at Board meetings.
Bedrosian, a fiscal conservative, voted against the Glenvar High School renovation project, which was approved by other board members, opposes the new Vinton library being built as too expensive and vowed to cut back on the scale of a Plantation Road streetscape project.
The Virginia Tech graduate and long time Xerox employee has been hailed by supporters for questioning just about everything at Board of Supervisor meetings and ridiculed by opponents that have already labeled him a “one-term disaster.”
In an unusual move after just four months on the job, Bedrosian held a news conference outside the Roanoke County administration building recently, reiterating his positions and talking about life on the board. “We’ve had a barrage of issues recently,” said Bedrosian at the onset, who claimed the media “put points of truth” in their reporting but had also gotten it wrong in some cases or had “embellished,” certain issues.
Bedrosian said his job is not just to agree with the other four Board members, it’s to uphold the Constitution, then to be “good stewards of the taxes,” that residents pay. Debate, even passionate ones, are good for the process said Bedrosian. He also said transferring the board clerk from the authority of the Board of Supervisors to the County Administrator’s office was a bad idea; “an affront to the balance of power in local government.” Nevertheless the board voted for that change.
Led by chairman Joe McNamara, the board also moved to limit the length of discussion by each supervisor on a specific issues previously voted on to ten minutes – a move inspired in large part by Bedrosian’s proclivity to dwell on topics at public meetings, slowing the process down. “This is a disturbing sign of limiting the voice of the public,” said Bedrosian. “I’m very concerned … these issues need more serious consideration.”
Bedrosian ran for office again last year after failing to unseat then-Delegate Dick Cranwell in the late 90’s. “We all have different points of view,” said Bedrosian at the county administration building recently, “and that is good. We need to express them all. We will all then be held accountable by voters for our point of view. That’s also a good thing.”
Once again Bedrosian dwelled on a favorite subject – debt – saying the county “is spending money we do not have on projects we cannot afford in the name of progress and better quality of life.”
Discussion, even dissension is healthy said Bedrosian, adding that he looks forward to serving on the Board for the next four years. Based on his willingness to take sometimes controversial stands, Roanoke County citizens should fasten their seatbelts and hang on for the ride.
By Gene Marrano
