Congratulations to all who were voted to the leadership positions in their respective City of Falls Church bodies as the new year got off to a robust start this week. Letty Hardi becomes the first new mayor in a decade with Debora Schanrtz-Hiscott as vice mayor of the 6-1-majority-women-led City Council, while Tate Gould was elected chair and Kathy Tysse vice-chair of the School Board. Other newly-electeds included Bob Young, repeating as chair, and Ross Litkenhouse, repeating as vice-chair of the Economic Development Authority.

All the electeds named above won without a single “no” vote, although in the case of the new Council leadership, two Council members failed to vote for the otherwise unanimously elevated choices. It suggests this may be a contentious year ahead for that body, even if it is coming from only two of the seven members. Apparently the decision to not vote for the two leaders was a holdover from what became an emotionally charged vote to modify the City’s transitional zones ordinance last year.

Councilmember David Snyder’s remarks were particularly troubling, as he accused his colleagues, including Hardi and Schantz-Hiscott, of divisiveness and “belittling citizens” in their handling of the issue, adding that they were “too close to developers at the expense of citizens” resulting in little transparency and a fraying of trust. Schantz-Hiscott objected to such insinuations that Council members acted unethically, saying the charges were “upsetting and untrue.” She noted that the t-zone issue took over two years to be resolved due to the patience and willingness to listen of the Council. In the end, it wasn’t that the majority on the Council didn’t hear what citizens on the other side of the issue were saying, they simply took those remarks into account and didn’t agree.

But while there is still ample time for a spirit of concord to prevail on the City Council, two other developments of wider significance promise to make a major difference in 2024. They include the upcoming legislative session in Richmond, where Democrats now have slim majorities in both houses and our new State Sen. Sadam Salim has just been seated for the first time.

Salim was feted with a rousing reception on the eve of his first Road to Richmond at Clare and Don’s last week. His delegate counterpart Marcus Simon had his own event a couple days earlier, and there he said the challenges facing the Democratic majorities will be to upend Gov. Youngkin’s proposed budget that includes a tax cut that would overwhelmingly favor the top one percent by an average of $9.6 thousand each compared to those in the lower 20 percent who would gain only $44.

But maybe the biggest news of all comes from our U.S. Rep. Don Beyer who writes an exclusive commentary in this edition of the News-Press on the awesome, globally game-changing potential of nuclear fusion energy. We are incredibly fortunate to have Congress’ foremost proponent of fusion representing this very district.