Five incumbents are running for re-election to the Alexandria City Council on Tuesday, and another familiar face — former Mayor Kerry Donley — has also thrown his hat into the ring.
Donley was elected to the City Council in 1988 and elected mayor of Alexandria in 1996. He served as mayor until 2003, then served as the chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party for two years before becoming athletic director at T.C. Williams High School from 2005 to 2008.
Donley, who toyed with running for the Virginia House of Delegates last year, said he enjoyed his time on the council. Simply put? “I missed politics,” he said.
He considered running for the Virginia state legislature, but once the economy turned, he said he thought he could better effect change as one of seven members of the council than one of 100 members of the House of Delegates.
“When I boiled it down, it sort of became a simple decision,” he said.
Mike Kochis, president of the Alexandria Police Benevolent Association, which has endorsed Donley, said the former mayor was “very impressive” when he went through the association’s candidate screening process.
Kochis said that a big issue for the APBA was the fact that Alexandria police officers are the lowest-paid in Northern Virginia, while Alexandria property taxes are also the lowest in the region.
“[Donley] does have a plan — he’s very sympathetic to our needs,” Kochis said.
Donley said the biggest issue facing the city today is its tax base. When he was mayor, the split between residential and commercial taxes was about 50/50, but now it’s grown to about 2/3 residential, he said.
“You’ve got to get this balance back — otherwise we’re going to tax people out of the city,” he told a small group of supporters Saturday morning.
Donley said that if elected, he would focus on the redevelopment of Landmark Mall in the city’s west end, as well as the development of the Potomac Yard area in order to diversify the tax base.
