POLL: Should Arlington Officials Accept Contributions From Developers?

The Arlington County Board has an against accepting campaign contributions from developers.

In separate interviews, incumbent Democratic board members Mary Hynes and Walter Tejada said they do not accept such donations. .

Patch asked all three if they thought the policy should be made official.

• Clement: “Absolutely. …I would certainly support that informal rule being formalized, for sure. Because I think the county board is in bed with developers – that's the centerpiece of my campaign.”
• Hynes, a former school board member: “I don’t think there’s any mechanism to make it a formal policy. There’s no enforcement, anything. But I think it’s a good practice, that’s why I do it… The county board could develop a code of ethics for itself, there’s no reason not to do that. On the school board, we had a code of ethics. It wasn’t about money, but it was about how we treated each other, and the high aspirations we had.”
• Tejada: “People have different approaches to those type of issues. As for me, if I know a developer has given me a donation, I return it, as I’ve done in the past. Anything that even has an insinuation of a conflict of interest, I don’t even want it. That’s my personal approach… Each person needs to answer for themselves and what they would do. I would never force my views and my philosophy on anybody else. For me, I don’t want contributions from developers.”

What do you think?