The first of four face-to-face encounters of candidates running for seats on the Falls Church City Council this fall was held at the American Legion Hall last Friday night, and of the six contending candidates, only four showed up.

That included only one, Laura Downs, of the three who are running as incumbents, and she’s been on the Council only a year after winning a special election. The two incumbents who didn’t show were long-time Council member David Snyder, recovering from cancer treatments he says have been fully successful, and Marybeth Connelly, absent due to a scheduling conflict.

So, the job of defending the record of the Council to date fell to Downs, while the three first-time candidates wound up setting the tone with predictable, if relatively gentle, criticisms of Council performances to date.

The first-timers were Arthur Agin, Brian Pendleton and James Thompson. Combined, their issues tended to focus on a perceived need to do a better job than the current Council has done to date.

The event was hosted by the F.C. chapter of the League of Women Voters (LWV) and the Village Preservation and Improvement Society (VPIS) and veritably all the seats were filled in the Legion Hall. The forum was conducted in a Q an A format with questions from the hosting groups and then some read by the hosts from among written submissions from the audience. The candidates were offered opening and closing statements.

The LWV Voters Guide for this fall’s election appears elsewhere in this edition of the News-Press.

The News-Press is the only organizational entity that has endorsed candidates in this election (see P. 6 this edition). Early voting is already underway with votes being cast at City Hall or by mail ahead of the Nov. 4 Election Day. Not only F.C. Council candidates, but ones for the local school board, for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general and State Delegate will also be on the ballot, along with F.C.’s three “constitutional officers” – sheriff, treasurer and commissioner of the revenue – all running unopposed.

According to Falls Church Voter Registrar David Bjerke, in the first week of early voting, ….. ballots have already been cast.

The remaining opportunities for the public to see all the candidates together include an informal “meet the candidates” event hosted by the VPIS on Oct. 9 at the Founder’s Row community room, a forum hosted by the Citizens for a Better City (CBC) on Oct. 16, a luncheon appearance hosted by the F.C.Chamber of Commerce on Oct. 21, and a CBC-Falls Church Forward event on Oct. 22.

All of the candidates have been campaigning actively, with the tried-and-true door to door method within the City’s 2.2 square miles, as well as by appearing at public events like the weekly Farmer’s Market, by planting yard signs, doing mailings, placing ads in the News-Press, and button-holing citizens wherever the chance presents itself.

In this context, all of the four candidates present last Friday said they’ve found potential voters concerned about the impact of the robust economic development that has occurred in the past two decades, with all of the new challengers, and especially Thompson, arguing it is time to “pause” the development. 

(Other candidates, including ones running for School Board, going door-to-door this fall, the News-Press has learned, say they’ve had a different experience, that many citizens like the new amenities that the development push has brought to the community, and especially the easing on the residential real estate tax rate that that has resulted).,  

Thus, Downs, challenged with speaking for the whole current Council, was the only one to point out that the developments have achieved great results for City residents, including a 14 cent reduction in the tax rate while a state-of-the-art new high school was built and major renovations made to City Hall and the Mary Riley Styles Public Library.

Thompson, a former Marine and 12-year City resident, now president of the Winter Hill Homeowners Association (one of two Winter Hill groups made up of residents of the large townhouse development originally built as GI Bill housing after World War 2), attended Rev. Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University. He reiterated his anti-further growth theme numerous times last Friday night. In the LWV Guide, he is quoted as placing at the top of his “desired achievements list” a call for a “strategic pause in new development.” 

Downs focus on neighborhood concerns, including traffic calming and installation of new sidewalks, timely installation of speed bumps and expansion of tree canopy requirements. She said she wants to find better ways for the City Hall to communicate with the citizens. Elected in a special election to the Council just a year ago, after being elected and serving as chair of the School Board, she is seeking her first full four-year term on the Council.

Agin has served as chair of the Falls Church Citizens Advisory Committee on Transportation, one of the City’s most active and influential citizen volunteer groups, said that service has given him “a deep understanding of our city’s streets, neighborhoods and development.”

Pendleton, who has served on the City’s Board of Equalization and has been president of the Falls Plaza Condo Association, has focused on the need to improve the permitting process at City Hall, and the need to improve traffic and pedestrian safety. He’s called for the formation of “preservation district” to limit the style and height of new buildings in its area, and to attract professional services away from Arlington and Tysons.

In Connelly’s absence last Friday night, F.C. Treasurer Jody Acosta spoke briefly at the opening of the program on her behalf. Connelly, a former Vice Mayor, is seeking her fourth term on the Council.

In Snyder’s absence, his son, Richard Snyder, spoke briefly on his behalf. Snyder has been reelected repeatedly since first being elected to the Council in 1994, and has often been the City’s representative on regional bodies.