During the campaign in the Democratic primary for mayor, candidate Allison Silberberg said: “If I’m lucky enough to be elected mayor, I think the other members of council have to weigh in their minds what the people have expressed through their votes,” she said. “We have a democracy, and it’s a good process. I would have preferred that they agreed with me, but they caused the community a lot of strife and in the end I think they’ve caused themselves some pain. Just because it’s a 6-1 vote, it doesn’t mean that one is wrong.”
Now that the Democratic primary is concluded, and Allison won, several factors need to be looked at to speculate on what lies ahead. Having worked at a polling place part of June 6 and talking with many voters, I concluded that basically people voted for who they wanted, as opposed to voting against someone. Whoever you voted for is now past.
Some facts to think about: Allison got 37 percent of the approximately 11 percent of eligible voters who voted. (The continuing abysmal low turnout is another story.) That is not a mandate, but her quote above leads me to think that she will view it as the people have spoken, therefore you need to get in line. In her campaign literature, and entreaties from her supporters, Republican voters were actively encouraged to vote for her in the Democratic primary. I don’t know how many did, but speculation is that it is many. There is no Republican candidate in the November election. At her victory party, two Republican candidates (Bob Wood and Townsend Van Fleet) participated and congratulated her.
So, the first interesting development will be that since she won, she will be expected to fully endorse and campaign for the Democratic candidates for council. Given her apparent affinity for listening to certain Republicans, how will this play out?
A second issue is her lack of ability to build consensus. This has been pointed out in several articles in various papers, and by observation of council meetings. Go back to the above quote, ‘I would have preferred that they agreed with me (Council), but they caused the community a lot of strife and in the end I think they’ve caused themselves some pain.” In other words, I expect to get my way because the voters said so. There are some that have expressed hope that she will grow into the job and become a better consensus builder. Although largely a “ceremonial” position, the mayor can exert significant influence on issues, and has to be the leader in achieving consensus. I don’t have much hope here.
A third, and much broader issue simply put is does Alexandria want to be a “bedroom” community, or realize that the future requires acceptance of growth and encourage it. Her voting record on this is basically “no” to growth. She advertises “thoughtful, appropriate development” but although nice words, I cannot determine the meaning looking at her voting record. Fixing the fiscal issues and imbalance in property revenues will require significant effort in growing the commercial base. With limited space available, this will require strong leadership from the mayor to successfully achieve this long-standing goal of balancing the residential/commercial property tax revenue. The alternative is ever-looming tax increases to pay for city services. It appears to me that the voices she listens to the most are the ones who would rather pay higher taxes to keep Alexandria as it was. This is not the majority of citizens.
So, interesting times ahead.
Dennis Auld
Alexandria