February 4 - 10, 2016
Fa lls Chur c h, V i r g i ni a • ww w. fc np. c om • Fr ee
Fou n d ed 1991 • Vol. XXV No. 50
Falls Church • Tysons Corner • Merrifield • McLean • North Arlington • Bailey’s Crossroads
Inside This Week West St. 7-Eleven Robbed Last Week
Falls Church Police are on the lookout for two men who they say restrained an employee at the 7-Eleven on West Street in Falls Church last week and made off with money. See News Briefs, page 9
F.C. Firm Looks at Little City From Above Falls Church’s Digital Design & Imaging Service specializes in aerial photography, landscape imaging, image and crowd analysis, panoramics and even pollution monitoring.
Auditor Gives Thumbs Up to F.C., Says Financial House in Order Says Only Locality in State With Surplus In Pension Fund
by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
he passed on, and his final one, entitled, “Heroes of Weakness,” is posted in its entirety on the News-Press website at fcnp.com this week. An obituary submitted by his parents, Jim and Claire Waters of Falls Church, is printed elsewhere in this edition. A commemoration of Waters was published in this Monday’s Falls Church School System daily e-mail, and it stated, “Samuel Waters, a member of GMHS Class of 2011, passed
With the presentation of the 154-page annual audit of the City of Falls Church’s financial operations, Billy Robinson representing the certified public accounting firm of Brown Edwards, told Monday’s meeting of the Falls Church City Council, “You are in a strong position, especially given the (small) size of your staff, and have done a good job given your resources” for keeping the City’s financial house in order. He said that since the Council had voted to add $9.2 million from the sale of its water system to Fairfax County in 2014, the City’s position with respect to its pension fund is at a plus 115 percent, and he said “I know of no other locality in Virginia” whose position is as strong. The report identified “one significant deficiency relating to the audit of financial statements” that dealt with “internal control over financial reporting and on compliance and other matters,” and Robinson explained to the Council that this dealt only with a potential risk, and was due to the small size of the Falls Church finance office, having nothing to do with any suspicions. “This merely acknowledges that an opportunity exists, with no evidence anything has happened.” City Manager Wyatt Shields further explained to the NewsPress Monday that this has been a long-standing issue that has been identified and watched carefully for many years and is due to the limitations of staffing. When asked by Council mem-
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See page 8
David Brooks: The Manners War
Somewhere in his marketer’s brain Donald Trump intuited that manners are more important than laws and that if you want to assault the established powers you have to assault their manners first. See page 12
Press Pass with Bebel Gilberto
Bebel Gilberto is doing something special for her fans for Valentine’s Day. She’s going on an intimate Valentine’s Day tour throughout February and coming to The State Theatre in Falls Church on February 13. See page 21
BILLY ROBINSON (center right) of the CPA firm of Brown Edwards, auditors for the City of Falls Church, gave a very positive report on the City’s financial position at Monday night’s Falls Church City Council meeting. He’s seated with Melissa Ryman of the City’s Finance Office. (Photo: News-Press
Samuel Waters, Memorable Valjean In GMHS’ ‘Les Mis,’ Dies at Age 22 by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Index
Editorial..................6 Letters..............6, 17 News & Notes.10-11 Comment......... 12-15 Sports..................18 Food & Dining......19
Calendar.........22-23 Classified Ads .....24 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword...........25 Business News....26 Critter Corner.......26
Samuel J. Waters died last week at his parents’ home in Falls Church after a long, five year battle with cancer. He was two months short of his 23rd birthday. He mesmerized and delighted an entire community with his powerful and moving tenor singing voice, including in a performance that won first prize for the Washington D.C. Metro area in the George Mason High School production of “Les Miserables” in November 2010. He was also
beloved by his family, friends and classmates at Mason and Rice University, where he was in his senior year as a vocal performance major, for his generous and empathetic personality. In his last days, he gripped the community with his unique combined spiritual and reality focus expressed by his literary skill, writing of his confrontation with ultimate things as experimental therapies were exhausted and chances for his recovery dimmed. The News-Press published those entries the last three weeks. Last week’s appeared just hours after