Young Visits With Del Ray Citizens Association

New Alexandria City Manager Rashad Young characterizes his transition into his job as “fast and furious” with a focus primarily on creating a city budget for fiscal year 2013.

But in the process, Young is taking time to get to know the ins and outs of the city by attending things like police roll calls and city board meetings.

On Monday night at , Young met with the Del Ray Citizens Association—his first meeting with a citizens' group in the city.

Young spoke of his “wealth of experience” in serving different communities in Ohio and North Carolina and fielded questions on everything from equipping public safety personnel to supporting the arts in the city.

He said he was drawn to Alexandria by many factors, including its urban and cosmopolitan makeup, history and engaged citizenry.

“My wife and I really liked the schools. Alexandria has a good school system, despite some of the criticism. And I’m not just saying that because a member of the school board is here,” Young said, commenting on the attendance of Alexandria School Board Chairman Sheryl Gorsuch. “I’m very impressed with the progress in the school district and where the city wants to go in education.”

Young, who most recently served as city manager in Greensboro, N.C., said he’s shared with the city’s department heads his aim to create strategic planning and to align work toward goals with an action plan.

Last week, Young made some organizational changes inside City Hall to “create reporting relationships that are more thematic and support a ‘line of business’ structure” and to create an “organizational structure that can help reinforce our ability to focus on implementing” strategic goals and objectives, he wrote in a memo.

Among the changes is the creation of a chief of staff position, who will assist Young with docket preparation and requests from council. , who served as acting city manager following , will serve in this role until his planned retirement sometime in the next year.

“My focus is on the budget right now, what we’re looking at going into 2013,” Young said on Monday evening.

In terms of finding places to save money, Young spoke of an equipment replacement program with first-responders in the city, including better training and maintenance.

"That's a cost driver within the city's control," he said. "If they maintain it better, it last longer and costs less. ... I want public safety workers to be fully equipped."

Young was asked about supporting the city’s library system, which has seen significant cutbacks in recent years. He said he had visited with the city’s library board and was planning on making a trip to Dallas later this month to attend a meeting of the Urban Libraries Council.  

“I think libraries do a lot in terms of social capital, quality of life… education. All of those things are important for our community,” he said.

When asked about growth and development in Alexandria, Young said it is primarily a policy decision from council. He said the relatively small geographic size of the city presents some challenges.

“It’s going to be hard because we can’t grow out,” he said. “But I do think we have an opportunity to do things smarter.”