Washington Post: Influence of Developers, Allies Runs Deep (Loudoun County, VA)

[Penndems]

By Michael Laris and David S. Fallis
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, January 21, 2007; Page A01

Six months after they took office in 2004, members of the Loudoun Board of Supervisors demonstrated in a single afternoon their ability to help a friend.

First, they voted 6 to 3 to boost the number of homes that could be built on the family farm of Dale Polen Myers, a former supervisor who had been instrumental in getting many of them elected. The next month, a builder bought the property from Myers's family for $12.2 million -- four times its assessed value before the zoning decision, records show.

Next, the board agreed unanimously to authorize the county to purchase a different parcel for $13.5 million, once again helping Myers, who was acting as the real estate agent. That earned Myers and her boss a commission that by industry standards would range from $270,000 to $675,000.

Such coziness has become routine among some Loudoun officials and a group of politically connected developers, landowners and others in the real estate industry, The Washington Post found in a year-long investigation.

Link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/20/AR2007012001493.html?referrer=emailarticlepg
********************************************************************
Dale Myers, the members of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, and the developers they shill for should be thrown in jail. :mad:

[Penndems]

1. Part Two of this investigative report is running in Monday's Washington Post:

"Official Backed Plans Of Business Connections":

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/21/AR2007012101258.html