The Valley Improvement Association, or VIA, which is nonprofit corporation managing property in the areas most commonly referred to as Rio Communities and Rio del Oro, has appeared on Valencia! various times in what are sometimes critical articles.

We wanted to take a brief moment to explain why we would care to focus any attention the VIA.

Valencia! sees its job as taking a critical look at government in Valencia County, publishing what other publications — needless to name — won’t.

We often choose to first stand on the side of the people, asking questions and gathering information on behalf of the citizens of Valencia County, before we stand on the side of government, merely listening to and conveying the official government position on issues.

That’s not to say the people are never wrong. They are, and when they’re wrong, we’ll say so.

What role does VIA play in our loosely-worded mission statement?

We view the Valley Improvement Association as more than just a nonprofit corporation. It’s a pseudo-government, having the kind of jurisdiction over properties and people lives that every one of Valencia County’s governments has.

For example, take the article on Las Maravillas we recently published. In that story, it’s clear VIA does many of the things that governments do — it provides amenities, or what a government might call services, to members, or what a government might call constituents, after assessments are paid, or what a government might call taxes.

In our best judgment, VIA looks and acts like a government, even though it’s not legally defined that way.

We call it a pseudo-government and we’ll continue to take as critical a look at it as we would any government in Valencia County.

This page was published on October 26, 2009 at 8:37pm and is filed under Rio Communities, Valencia County. You may copy and paste this page's link to email it.