Two major new developments have arisen so far for this coming period in Falls Church. The first is the announcement in Wednesday’s daily schools update that the proposed new Superintendent, who the school board has selected to replace departing Superintendent Dr. Peter Noonan, will be unveiled this Monday at 5 p.m.
The second is more immediate, as in tonight (Thursday, May 1) at the American Legion Hall on N. Oak, when the venerable civic association, the Citizens for a Better City (CBC) and the F.C. chapter of the League of Women Voters join hands to host a panel on how to run for the City Council here.
It promises to be interesting in Virginia this year, with one of the only significant elections nationwide for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, along with all two-year state delegate seats up for grabs.
That includes the races for the Falls Church City Council. As the final two weeks of deliberations are currently underway for the upcoming fiscal year budget, there is a looming June 17 deadline for citizens to file the necessary paperwork and 120 signatures of registered voters here, to be on the ballot for the November general election.
Tonight’s panel will be discussing the “how to’s” of such an effort for anyone thinking of throwing their hat in the ring. From what we’ve learned so far, incumbent Council member David Snyder, who has been on the Council since 1994, has already submitted his paperwork to be on the ballot, as has Laura Downs, who was elected last fall to fill a vacancy on an interim basis, but now will be seeking a full four-year term.
Other candidates have not as yet let their intentions be known. Incumbent Vice Mayor Debbie Shantz-Hiscott has remained non-committal on another run to date, and chair of the Citizens Advisory Committee on Transportation (CACT), one of the more involved advisory bodies to the Council, Arthur Agin, has been circulating petitions to run.
He was introduced to the News-Press last week at the budget town hall by Mayor Letty Hardi.
Council member Marybeth Connelly has also been circulating petitions and voters have until the end of this month to register to vote in the June 17 primary, where there will be no Republicans on the ballot, with Fairfax Supervisor Jack Herrity having withdrawn from a potential run for lieutenant governor leaving no intra-party contests to be decided.
On the Democratic side, State Del. Abigail Spanberger is the lone candidate for governor, while there are six candidates for lieutenant governor, and two for attorney general.
It is not known how the minor debates underway for how the $1.2 million shortfall now anticipated in City revenues will be finalized by the May 12 date for the final adoption of the coming fiscal year budget.
However, consensus at this Monday’s long Council meeting seemed to point to retaining a small tax rate reduction, but not at the 2.5 cent level originally recommended by City Manager Wyatt Shields in mid-March, prior to the more recent report that now anticipates a $1.2 million shortfall.
With the revenue sharing agreement in effect for the last half-dozen years, the arrangement in advance is that both the cityside and schools should enjoy the same benefits of net growth in annual revenues. The schools made a big deal of paring their request back from over a 9 percent growth request to the 5.9 percent level cohering with the overall growth actually anticipated.
But now the schools are not willing to accept a $600,000 cut below that with the revised projections, and large turnouts at Council chambers both at the town hall last Thursday and at the full-capacity Council meeting this Monday were designed to drive home that point, especially with the schools projecting an enrollment growth by over 150 next fall and having committed to the new collective bargaining agreements hammered out last year.
As of this week’s Council meeting, it appeared there is a consensus for a 1 to 1.5 cent cut in the tax rate (better than any of the surrounding jurisdictions) and some interest in only a .5 cent cut before a final public hearing is held prior to the Council’s decisive vote May 12.
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