Dear Friends,

Thank you for the kind notes last week and welcome to all the new readers! This will be my last post for a few weeks as we head into our summer recess. City Council meetings will resume on September 3.

We will be holding a special election on November 5, 2024* to fill the vacant City Council seat. We heard from the court yesterday afternoon approving our petition. Note that the paperwork deadline has been extended to August 30. More information is available here. Given the compressed timeline, if you are interested – please reach out. I’m happy to answer questions or share my learnings as a former newbie candidate with no political experience! While elections take a lot of the community’s attention, we will remain focused on the community’s priorities we adopted this spring.

Read on for quick updates on an eminent domain case (something we never take lightly) and the Smart Cities pilot we unveiled this week. Both are examples of our continued commitment to modernize infrastructure and improve safety and accessibility.

To all the kiddos heading back to school next week, have a great school year! And congrats to fellow parents for making it through the summer.

https://www.lettyhardi.org/updates-from-letty-august-16-2024

Best,
Letty

*PS – let’s learn from the past: while I was weighing the options in front of us for the vacancy, I researched the 2010-2011 era when Falls Church moved local elections from May to November, then reversed, then finally approved in referendum to move to November elections as we know them today. Reading the old arguments and seeing the much higher turnout since 2013 has reinforced my belief that any option with an off-month election is bad for democracy. Kudos to those who pushed for this move 15 years ago! (Others agree: Richmond passed a 2021 law mandating all localities move to November elections. And Governing Magazine noted that stand-alone municipal elections typically “aren’t representative of the electorate as a whole, dominated by whiter, more-affluent and older voters.”) While I share some of my colleagues’ concern that the compressed deadline at the end of summer impacts the likely candidates who could run, I am reassured that high turnout in November will mean more people get to weigh in and candidates will have to broaden their appeal.

Blog posts are the personal views of Letty Hardi and not official statements or records on behalf of the Falls Church City Council

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Letty Hardi

Mayor, City of Falls Church

Email: lettyhardifcc@gmail.com, lhardi@fallschurchva.gov

Blog: www.lettyhardi.org/category/news/