CBC Nominates 3 Council Candidates for May Election

They, together with the Falls Church School Board candidates selected, will run as a CBC-endorsed slate in the election. No other candidates have yet announced, but rumors abound. A hotly contested election is expected. The deadline for filing to appear on the ballot is March 4.

Saturday's convention was held in the cafeteria at the George Mason Middle/High School and the smaller than usual turnout was probably due to the fact that no competition for the CBC endorsement was expected. Gardner and Hockenberry announced at a CBC function last November they intended to seek re-election, and when fellow incumbent Ron Parson dropped out last week, the CBC's "candidate search committee" was quick to come up with Chavern as a replacement.

It did turn out, however, that the bid for the School Board nomination was contested with the last minute inclusion of a fourth candidate for consideration. Falls Church Elementary School PTA president Cecily Shea decided to jump into the fray as a write-in candidate Saturday against incumbent Kieran Sharpe and newcomers Craig Cheney and Joan Wodiska, whose names were printed on the prepared CBC ballots.

Shea failed in her bid, however, although it was announced that the final vote was very close. With 89 ballots submitted, each of the candidates received at least 80 votes, but Sharpe, Cheney and Wodiska had the highest numbers, in that order.

The convention was opened by remarks from former Falls Church mayor Brian O'Connor and the loudest ovation of the day came as the venerable Lou Olom came to the microphone to ask a question.

The founding meeting of the CBC was held in Olom's living room in the mid-1950s. The first CBC convention drew over 350 people, Olom said. :Last Saturday's was the 22nd biennial nominating convention of the body.

The three City Council candidates spoke to the need for continued mixed-use economic development to lighten the burden on real estate taxpayers. Gardner and Hockenberry spoke to their accomplishments on the current Council to bring the Broadway, the Byron and an initial OK for the Pavillion, all on West Broad Street, and in getting the ball rolling for a new City Center with the approval of the Akridge firm as the prospective "master developer" for the project.

When first elected in 2000, it was the first pursuit of public office for both Gardner and Hockenberry. Gardner, a working mother of two, is employed as a business development professional by ITS Services, Inc., a government contractor in Springfield. Hockenberry caught in the Falls Church City Public School system for 31 years before retiring in 2000.

Chavern will running for public office for the first time this spring. He has resided in Falls Church for eight years and is the Deputy General Counsel for the Export-Import Bank of the U.S.

Sharpe is the only incumbent running again for the School Board as Sarah Hassan and Robert Storke decided not to run again. Sharpe served four years on the Falls Church City Council from 1994-98 and on the School Board since 1998. He is an editor of pension law publications for the Thompson Publishing Group in Washington, D.C.

Cheney is a seven-year resident of Falls Church and is an environmental and management consultant and director of the Project Performance Corporation in McLean. With three children in the schools here, he is an avid youth basketball coach, and following his endorsement this Saturday, stepped out of the meeting to coach his youth team at the high school's auxiliary gym a few feet from the cafeteria. He came back, having suffered a close defeat, just in time for the picture taking at the end of the meeting.

Wodiska is the director of federal legislation for the National School Boards Association, advocating on behalf of the nation's 95,000 school board members before the U.S. Congress and Administration.

A long list of CBC loyalists constituted those who ran the many aspects of the convention, including the following: Richard Maynard (coordinator), Jody Acosta, Marty Behr, Bob Burnett, John Butler, Tom Clinton, Carol DeLong, Cathy Kaye, Ed Strait, Phil Duncan, Stephen Spector, Annette Spector, Susan Burnett, Joan Lewis, Kathy Allan, Richard Allan, Ted Metzler, Jane Metzler, Sally Phillips, Russell Wodiska, Susan Earman, Sarita Gopal, Joan Huber, Ellen Salsbury, Jane Scully, Bob Storck, Michelle Black, Peter Corbino, Susan Maynard, Meredith Morrison, Leah Porzel, Ruth Rodgers, Thomas Smolinski, Joan Clinton, Connie Kuilk, Jim Trollinger and