Remarks by Takis P. Karantonis
54 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 3
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I fully align with the comments of my colleagues. There is one thing that Sarah Howell, because honestly, I had a number of conversations with her on the hot topic that will be hot topic again of taxation in Virginia. And she was kind of more conservative than I would be. However, this gave us the opportunity to compare compare trajectories in public service. I remember her telling me that she started as a PTA president. in the 80s in Reston as an association, kind of a civic association president. So she is not only a part of Northern Virginia's enormous contribution…
Nobody should forget to sign up for Arlington Alerts, okay?
So last two proclamations, but not least important causes that we recognize today. This one is very close to my heart. It is honoring National Sickle Cell Awareness Month. For those who don't know that sickle cell is a disease that stems from a disorder which is hereditary. Our red blood cells are formed in the form of a disc, and they are responsible for carrying oxygen in our arteries and veins. And their form, which scientifically is called the biconcave disc, is such that they can slip easily and carry as much oxygen to our vital organs, to our head, to our brain, and to our organs. If…
And now on to the last proclamation for today, which is a particular honor, especially for somebody who is an immigrant in this country. It is a proclamation on the occasion of Constitution Week. For those of us who weren't, who didn't have the the honor and the privilege to be born under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of our country. The Constitution really, the Bill of Rights and all the amendments, really constitutes the famous, if you read the famous poem under the Statue of Liberty, The New Colossus, it's literally the lamp beside the golden door. This is the document that has…
Chair, I think this concludes the reading of proclamations.
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All right, thank you. So no bad surprises for anybody. No. Calm facing a challenge that we will face many times in Arlington. So thank you for this work.
This is a very big topic. Thank you for the thorough expose. I cannot stress enough that if there is one thing that we have all, you know, collectively learned here is that transparency helps people to understand what has happened the last few years. You mentioned that we have a license plate reader since 2008. I remember when the first license plate reader technology was launched, which was after the London attacks in 2005, a huge terrorist event. you know, triggered the implementation of a technology like that abroad and then it was brought here for similar reasons. But there was back then…
Yeah, so is that the only system or do we have another one that's permanently recorded?
But are the action license plate readers permanently on? Or are they on a police cruiser, for example? It's on a police cruiser. So that's a random. I see what you're saying. That's a purpose-driven random recording. It's not a permanently indiscriminate recording. What I'm after is to say FLOC was the one system that was permanently indiscriminately recording. It was privately owned, nationally networked, and full of backdoors. And this is why we didn't want to continue the work with them.
Is that correct? Yeah, if we could clarify.
Yeah, so Mr. Chair, just to systematize that, there are systems that are permanently, indiscriminately recording. They are very, they're high, I mean, they are really five alarms for me. There are systems that are purpose recording, and it's random, and it's on certain, you know, very identifiable means, and there are event-triggered systems like red, red. Photo, red, photo, something happens. Yeah.
Thank you mr Karen tonis thank you mr chair let me first say that I I fully agree with you that we as a board we probably I wouldn't say underestimated but did we didn't estimate correctly the implications of you know stacking new technologies as we go And we didn't calibrate properly a public consultation on this. And so this mistake we are not going to repeat. The second thing, though, is what we need to discuss as a community is what is privacy, what are private data, how should publicly collected data sets be managed, guarded, stewarded and audited, which we do already in a vast, in a…
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So Mel and Ken, I actually knew for your intentions, right? We had a conversation. And since then, I mean, the thing that didn't leave me and I always carried in the back of my head is what dimension, moral dimension of public service is necessary to understand in order to describe what you're doing. And I'm telling you, it's not about the dollars or the technicalities of the endowment, et cetera. It's about the fact that public servants in this organization here have been so invested in the mission of serving the people of Arlington that literally, literally gave it…
I know, I was kind of like, we didn't. That's a lot for a daughter.
So I will. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will try to be brief. I need to understand a few things. And that's for staff first. So an application for a use permit was submitted at the beginning of March and was paid at the beginning of April.
So what happens between, let's say, April, 9th of April and July that we have a citation by the police, a photo by the police? So there are three months. Is it normal that it takes like three months to process a use permit like that?
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But normally, how do we handle that? Because, you know, you probably see that the business is really eager to get their, you know, application approved. Do we warn them? Do we give them any, do we hold any hands here to help them endure the time?
Just to editorialize a little bit on that, this is exactly why we wanted a more nimble and agile handling of that. And that's the reason. I mean, here it's an obvious problem that you have somebody who is after all, not organically, but after all, trying to do the right thing, but then it takes too long and then they say, okay, let's roll with what we have and basically roll the dice and then it goes wrong. So that's how I interpret that. So thank you.
I wanted to ask if there is a motion on the table, because if there isn't, I wanted to make a motion myself, but not the motion to deny, rather a motion to approve with conditions, similar to the next item that we say that we will approve, but we will check. on compliance in a reasonable number of months.
So colleagues, I have zero objections to the tone and intention of the motion. It is very clear that Big Tonists knew better and didn't follow the rules. And I fully agree with what I share, Kofi, that rules are there for a reason. And the biggest reason is that everybody else is following the rules, by the way. It's just a matter of fairness. What I'm trying to figure out here is that it is a lengthy process. intuitively a business-friendly process. If we want to be business-friendly, we have to be a little bit more nimble in this. That doesn't give anybody a free check to do whatever they…
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I don't know, I'm reading what the board report says. So this is why we're a little conflicted here.