by Neil Richard
Introduction
The basic idea behind this interview series is to interview local leaders that live, work, or have an important impact on King George County. We have asked various citizens for recommendations on who they see as a local leader. Additionally, we feel that everyone has a story and it deserves to be told. So we want to know their story. As you can see with the questions below, we want to share their story with the rest of the citizens in King George County. If you have somebody you would like to nominate for a future interview, please contact us.
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| Mike Bennett sharing his view of the Potomac River. |
Editor's Note:
As with my interview with Mike Muncie, some of our conversation was not included in the final product as it didn't necessarily pertain to the questions asked. Mike Bennett is great at telling stories as they pertain to the questions asked but I didn't feel all were necessarily relevant. And just like Muncie, Bennett is somebody that you can easily find yourself sitting down and having a pleasant conversation with.
Basic Biographical Information
I grew up in Montgomery County, Maryland so I went to high school there. The school is no longer in existence. Went to the University of Maryland and got an undergrad degree in government and politics. Then I went to law school at Catholic University although I'm not Catholic. Not that I have any problem with that it's just that most people when they hear that they assume I'm Catholic. I went to law school at night while I was working full time for the D. C. Superior Court. And then when I graduated I took the bar exam in both Maryland and D. C. and passed both. So I was licensed to practice in both Maryland and DC. I'm no longer licensed anywhere. When I moved to Virginia I was not licensed here and you can't waive into Virginia unfortunately. And I didn't want to take another bar exam and learn the law here. And besides, I was retired by the time I moved here full time. So I let both of my licenses lapse there so I didn't have to pay the annual dues.
I spent most of my career with the Federal Government. I did work with the D. C. government for about eight years then I switched over to the VA [Veteran's Affairs]. I had basically three jobs in the VA. It was then the District Council's Office and they represent the local agencies in D. C. I did a lot of real estate there. Then I went to the General Council's Office. It was too bureaucratic for me. Then I found a job as an attorney in the Inspector General's office and so I ended up in the office of investigations there. I represented 150 special agents around the country and I worked with them as an in-house council for investigations. The VA is an interesting agency and they have a great mission. I'm not a veteran myself. I was just too young for the Vietnam War but I did have a draft number but they never got to that for my year.
But my father was in Iwo Jima with the Army. But the VA is a great agency. They do education benefits, medical, disability, medical care, so it touches on all aspects of society. Homelessness, there's just so many different things you can do in the VA. However you want to serve.
For Boards and Committees, I'm the Chair of the Service Authority Board of Directors. I'm the President of the Fairview Beach Resident's Association. I'm on my second two-year term. Vice President for at least two terms and I've been on the Board since about 2010. We've lived here full time since 2010, that's when I retired. I was on the YMCA Board. I just got off that this year. Being head of two other boards was enough. I feel like I'm failing retirement as it is. My wife and I joke about that but I am not joking when I say I've never worked this hard in my life for so little money. But we're blessed and fortunate to have two Federal pensions that are generous enough that we can live here. We were very lucky to get the house. We never thought we could afford waterfront property. We're both middle class kids. But the house kind of fell into our laps.
In the past I served on a number of boards for the church I was active in. I was in various roles from the church trustees to the deacons to building committee. All kinds of stuff. When you're a lawyer, you're in some demand to help out on smaller organizations' boards. They had a Christian school and I was on the school board there for a number of years.
Personal Questions
What do you remember about your grandparents?
My mom was from Johnstown, Pennsylvania. My grandfather on my mother's side died when I was two. He worked at the steel mill in Johnstown so I didn't really know him. Although we found some articles about him recently and he was apparently really a big deal in the community. He was in the American Legion, he was in World War I, and he was in a lot of civic associations. He was valedictorian in his class. I saw a newspaper article about the speech he gave about the dangers of Hitler in the mid-30s. Apparently he was a huge sports fan and when I was a baby took me to football games. So I'm sorry I didn't get to know him. My grandmother, she died when I was maybe nine or ten. She was a great lady.
My dad was from South Carolina. Charleston. So we kinda had the North and the South in my family, the Southerners and Yankees. My grandfather, my father's father, was sort of the family scoundrel so I don't know much about him. My grandmother on my father's side was the one that had the biggest impact on me. She had a house in Seat Pleasant, Maryland and she had a giant garden. She grew her own peanuts. Her own grapes and made jelly from them. She cooked her fried chicken in Crisco, probably a heart attack on a plate. But she was also just a great lady. She survived on Social Security after my grandfather died. He had cancer for most of my life and he really wasn't able to get out and about much. She took care of him but then when he died, I think I was fourteen, she kind of spread her wings and was active in her church and was in a bowling league and did all kinds of stuff. I remember we went to see her once and we couldn't find her. She was 88 years old and she was on a ladder in the back of her house cleaning out her gutters. She was a tough old gal and a real sweet lady. Not very well off financially but had a ton of dignity and honesty. Of all my grandparents, I knew her the best. She lived to be 93 or so. She lived the longest so I knew her the best. No pretensions, just a good person.
What historical events influenced your life the most?
I'm a little older than you so I'm going to go back to some things you probably learned about in History. Probably the first thing that influenced me a lot is the assassination of JFK. I was only a kid then, I was only about eight or nine, but I remember how the whole country seemed to stop. We only had three or four TV channels then and every one of them was on Kennedy assassination coverage every day and the whole country seemed to come to a stop for a while.
Then of course the Vietnam War was the next major thing in my life. I graduated high school in 1972 so the war was probably winding down a little at that point but it was, again, on TV every single night for years and years and years. Hugely controversial. A lot of distrust in the government. A lot of bad feelings towards veterans, unfairly enough. Sort of shaped my view of veterans down the road that no matter what they needed to be treated better than they were treated after Vietnam. I think we've tried to make amends there but the damage was done in a lot of cases.
Then of course Watergate would have been the next major one for me. Nixon's impeachment and resignation. I had already sort of thought that being a lawyer was where I wanted to go. So I remember vividly, I was at the University of Maryland, I was literally taking the course The Presidency when Nixon resigned. So it was a pretty good teaching tool. We read the headlines every day to see how that fit in with historical understanding of the Presidency and the government.
Not recently but more recently than all of those is 9/11 that had the biggest impact. I saw that Mike Muncie had mentioned that and he's right, I remember the day. I was at work when the first tower was hit. The Assistant Inspector General for Investigations had a TV in his office and everyone was in there, gathered around, word had spread and all 25 of us were there. We saw the first tower smoking and watched live as the second tower was hit. Then we got sent home and everyone was in a panic. Riding Metro then was worse than any snow day. We were jammed in like sardines and the panic in the air was really palpable. It's probably the last time I remember the country really pulling together which is kind of sad since it's been 18 years. But everyone pulled together for awhile and tried to make the changes that were necessary as a nation whether it was airport security or homeland security or whatever the changes were. Government agencies began to cooperate better. It's a shame that it takes something like that to get us to work together. As Americans we don't make changes a lot of times unless we have to.
Outside of work and home, what is your favorite place in King George?
Probably my favorite place is here in Fairview Beach. I think this is one of the prettiest spots for hundreds of miles and we get to live here.
My favorite place to hang out in King George County lately is the Administration Building. I'm spending an awful lot of time in meetings. Five or six last week. A little less this week. So my hobby at the moment, pathetic I know, is the Service Authority. Just in the amount of time spent. Is it my favorite? I don't know that i would go there.
We have a bunch of grandkids that live in Frederick, Maryland. It's a bit of a hike but we love to hang out with them. Or they'll come here and we'll do water stuff every year.
I like King George, the vibe, I actually like Fredericksburg too. The downtown area, restaurants, the symphony at the college. I like the college town vibe of Fredericksburg. I would like to spend in the not too distant future a little less time on County business.
I think there's a lot of neat places you can get to in King George for a day trip.
What person, place, or thing do you think is the most underappreciated in King George County?
That's a tough one. I mean, obviously I'm a Fairview Beach fan and I could argue that a lot of people don't know much about it. I remember a former Supervisor when we first moved here full time, we had been weekend folks for ten years before that and Gloria [his wife] has been here since 1989 as a weekender, but one of the members of the Board of Supervisors who had been on for multiple terms had never been to Fairview Beach. And I know most people know it either because of Rick's or Tim's and that's one aspect of it. But it's not what I like the most about it. I don't think that's the best of Fairview Beach. It's fun to party but a weekday in the summer and you get on the water and there's nobody around you, I think that's the jewel of King George County. I like the Rappahannock too. Like I say, I'm a water guy, but I haven't spent much time over there. I'd like to spend more time over there, maybe kayak.
Professional Questions
Who is your inspiration or mentor?
Professionally or in life?
I would say number one on my list would be my father. He was probably the most honest person I ever met. The story I would use to illustrate that is that we were going on vacation one year and we got got up real early and loaded up the car. I don't remember where we were going but he stopped at a local 7-11 on the way to the Beltway and he went to get a Washington Post, which we read religiously every morning. I still do. He always gave me the Sports which was fine by me. But what happened was we went to the 7-11 and it wasn't even open yet. But the newspapers had been delivered. So he took one out and left a dime which is what it cost at the time. And I remember I was maybe 8 or 10 and at that age, I said "Dad, you could just take the paper and nobody would know." And he said "Mike, I'll know." Then he said "And now, you'll know." So he said "It's only ten cents and it's the right thing to do. If I didn't do that I'd be stealing and I'm not going to do that." I hadn't really looked at it that way. Obviously that's a long time ago and I remember that. I think throughout his life he was the most honest, decent person I've ever met. I just think he was a reasonable guy and I think today's a good example of everybody yelling and screaming at each other. Reasonableness is in short supply. He cared about trying to get things done. I would say he's the number one positive influence in my life. Good sense of humor. Corny as hell.
I had a minister that was also a mentor in some ways. He confirmed a lot of the lessons that my dad taught me throughout life. When I was out on my own but still there was a lot of the same lessons. The main lesson I remember from him was that the ends do not justify the means. He used to say that it doesn't matter if you're trying to get the right thing done, if you do it in the wrong way then it's not right. I think he probably said it was a sin to do it the wrong way. It's not just what you do but how you do it. I think that's a lesson that's valuable in both work and life. It's not what you say, it's how you say it. It's all sort of the same philosophy. You can disagree with people without having a fight. It's harder these day but it's still something we ought to do, especially in a place like King George County, and on a smaller scale Fairview Beach.
So this minister and my dad were real examples of trying to figure out a way to work together, band together. Let's find out what people can do. Treat them with respect. It's actually worked out for me pretty good. I don't agree with everybody. I'm sure everybody doesn't agree with me. But I can normally work with almost everybody. We don't have to be friends. We don't have to have a beer together. But we do have to accomplish things together sometimes. I think between my dad and that minister, you've really got to figure out what other people can do well and what their motivation is. Just try to work with that as best you can and come out with a win-win for everybody.
Another big influence on me has been Gloria, my wife. She's one of the smartest people I know. We've been married 14 years now. What I've learned from her, which proves that old dogs can learn new tricks, is that she's a really good listener. I'm not saying I'm as good as she is but I'm better than I used to be. Sometimes it's better to just let other people talk and see where they're coming from. It gives them the opportunity to talk and ask questions. Just get them talking. It's not necessarily my natural inclination but I do think it's valuable and I think it's important. It makes the other person feel respected and valued. Then lo and behold they have something to say and you can look at it differently. It works out in the end.
I had a boss who was a really strong influence on me for all of the wrong reasons. She did not listen well. She was extremely judgemental. She was hyper-critical. She did not work well with others. Even though she was extremely smart and incredibly hard working, she was not a team player at all. She was a level above me and obviously my boss but I never would have traded places with her. I would much rather have my career and the teams I was a part of. I enjoyed that. Even our Citizen Advisory group at the [Service Authority] budget work sessions. There have been a couple meetings where I felt like we really came together as a team by the end. We tried to listen to everybody and everybody's got something to say. I think it's been a good experience. I think it's good to hear from people not on the board and have an outsider's experience. Citizens that are active in the community. I think we need to do that. I like being part of a team. I've played a lot of team sports in my life. I'm not the world's greatest athlete. Sometimes you can be more than the sum of your parts.
What is your ideal vision for King George County in the future?
The future of King George is tricky. I think a lot of us like it pretty much the way it is but we all know that things change. You can't stop it. The best you can do is manage it. So things are going to change and they are going to be different. So how do we allow those differences to take place and still preserve what we like about King George. The lack of traffic. The accessibility to public officials. The small town feel to it. And still get the kind of development that we need to be able to fund the services we want. So I think it's a challenge. The Service Authority is a perfect example. We have to have more customers. We will gradually. But we need more customers to spread out the financial burden of the system but we don't want to be Prince William County. So there's a happy medium there obviously. We don't have to be Prince William County. I happened to be there yesterday and the traffic was unbelievable. We don't want that in King George County but with the 301 bridge coming, change is coming. There's no way around it. We have to manage it, control it, in a way that preserves what we like about King George County. I don't know that we're going to be this sleepy, rural county forever. But I think all of us like that about King George, most of us anyway. We like that small town atmosphere and you want to be able to preserve that but you have to be able to grow. You can't stay still or you'll be a dying town. So King George has to somehow grow and stay strong and meeting our challenges without losing our identity. I think that's a hard needle to thread. I've talked to Dr. Young and I think he understands that clearly. And I think the Supervisors do too. But there are different points of emphasis. It's just a hard challenge.
What do you feel are the top 3 issues to address in King George?
I think one is medical obviously. I think everybody would say that. Coming from suburban Maryland and then Northern Virginia, there's a million doctors and great hospitals. It took us a while to find a good doctor in Fredericksburg. But it's in Fredericksburg, not in King George. My dentist is in Fredericksburg. They're fine. I have no issue with them. But if I could drive 15 minutes instead of 30, then I would. And I live on the west end of the County. If you live on the east end of the County, it's an hour to Fredericksburg. And I know maybe people go to La Plata but who wants to go across the bridge. So I think medical care is key. I reported on the Hertenstein development and plans and it's the first time I ever met him but I'm certainly rooting for him. He's got some interesting ideas and plans that would really be helpful for King George.
As an aside, if he's looking at 100 homes for 55 plus age homes, that's a good thing for a county to have because you don't tax the schools. So you have these residents who are paying taxes but are less of a burden on the system. It's a service that isn't required for those residents. So I think that would be a good thing to have in the County. I know a number of people from La Plata and Charles County moved here because taxes are lower so maybe Hertenstein is on to something there.
To get back to the question, as I said before, I think managing the change in development is key. 301 corridor is going to get complicated. Some of that is a good thing but how you get it done is complicated. When the base changed their crazy rules for getting on to the base in the morning, we were going somewhere, north on 301, I don't remember where but we couldn't get out of King George for an hour. That's enough to tear your hair out. So if it's that bad for such a small change, imagine doubling or tripling the number of cars coming through there. It's not all bad, it could be a good thing but it's really going to take skill to manage that.
And I'll throw in the Service Authority as a third one. It may not be on everyone's list but we have so many challenges before us just across the board. Our customers deserve high quality water and good customer service and it would be nice to make that whole system more sustainable and more functional. Spread the cost a little bit with more customers. That's going to be a factor, meeting the needs of the County going forward as development comes and changes occur.
I don't know if those are the same three issues all the Supervisors would agree with but those are the ones I would choose.
What do you feel are the top 3 successes in King George?
From what I know, the schools have improved over the last few years. I've seen T. C. Collins' presentation numerous times but his statistics are impressive. The schools have improved dramatically. I know there's still a fight over teacher compensation although to some degree that's a national problem. So I don't know where King George schools rank, I don't have kids here but my sense is they have improved and I think that's important to the County as a whole.
I think the improvements made to fund the Sheriff's Office and Fire and Rescue have been significant for the County. We now have a working firehouse in Fairview Beach so we know first hand what the advantages of that are and how much of a difference it makes. We now have working fire hydrants which we didn't have when we first moved down here. We didn't have enough water pressure to sustain that. Those are real dramatic changes to the quality of life for the people that live here. When you have Fire and Rescue and Police staffing improving and all of those things.
From the Fairview Beach perspective, I would say the third major improvement I've seen in my time here is that the Board of Supervisors is far more helpful and willing to work with us than they were in the past. I'm not sure what happened with the Board that predates me but somehow the County and Fairview Beach got off on the wrong foot or weren't working well together. I don't know about the prior Supervisors and the rest of the County, I only know about the prior Supervisors and Fairview Beach and we just didn't seem to be able to cooperate on many things. The FEMA grant for the riverbank stabilization is a perfect example. If Ruby Brabo had not supported that as a Supervisor, it never would have happened. And there was a chance for a FEMA grant ten or twelve years ago before I got here. I've seen the documentation and the County didn't support it. Which is kind of insane when the government is going to give you 75 percent of the money and the state is going to give you up to another 20 percent. It's just not even in the County's interest not to do that but for whatever reason that support was lacking. So that's been a difference that I've seen in my time here as a full time resident. I think the County has been much more responsive to Fairview Beach and much more helpful with our problems. I don't know if that's a county-wide success story or not.
What person, place, or thing do you think we lack in King George?
We lack a really good steak house. We lack a really good seafood restaurant. If you want a really good steak, if there's one in King George County, please let me know but I'm not aware of it. I think we're getting more and more fast food restaurants but I think a nice place to go get dinner would be nice. You know, you go through so many small towns and we don't really have a downtown area. We don't have a central meeting place, location point, or whatever. Fairview Beach is kind of better because it's so small. You go for a golf cart ride and you're gone for an hour and a half because you stop and see everybody. King George doesn't really have a central place like that. Dahlgren is getting to be a place where you can run a bunch of errands. You can go to Walmart. There's a bunch of stuff you can do down there. You can grab something to eat. But it's not really like a nice downtown area. It's gotten more convenient I think, you don't have to go to Fredericksburg for a lot of things but if you want a really nice restaurant, it's sort of not here.
Colonial Beach even has some nice restaurants but I think King George is missing that. Maybe King George has failed to take advantage of the two rivers it sits between. Between the Potomac and the Rappahannock, I think they're both beautiful. They both have many, many options for tourism and recreation. Before we were blessed enough to have a house on the water, we would go to a place on the water. We would drive there. Even in Florida where we stay, it's not on the water but we manage to go there. Maybe not everybody likes water as much as we do but I think those are incredible resources in King George County and I don't think they've taken advantage of that.
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