Friday, December 14, 2012
Outgoing Councilman Frank Fannon hints at making a return to elected office; Vice Mayor Kerry Donley says it's time "to do some other things."
Vice Mayor Kerry Donley and the other outgoing members of Alexandria City Council were awarded proclamations for their service to the city on Tuesday night. The evening marked their final legislative session on the dais at City Hall. The new council will be sworn into office on Jan. 2 at T.C. Williams High School. Donley, who has served 18 non-consecutive years on council including two terms as mayor, chose not to seek re-election this year to focus on his health. “It’s time to do some other things and take care of some other business,” the Democrat said. “The nicest part I’ve maintained about local government is that you get to see the fruits of your labor. You can say, ‘I had a role.’ You can drive down the street past a library and say…
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Victory Center on Eisenhower Avenue considered an "emerging possibility."
Could the FBI move its headquarters to Alexandria? On Tuesday during a City Council meeting, Mayor Bill Euille asked city staff what could be done to put Alexandria in contention to land the agency. The General Services Administration announced last week that it is reviewing sites for a new FBI headquarters. U.S. Rep. Jim Moran (D-8th) and several other local lawmakers then sent a letter to the GSA administrator urging him to consider Northern Virginia. Euille said Tuesday that Moran mentioned the vacant Victory Center on Eisenhower Avenue as a possible location for the FBI at a meeting of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties in Tysons Corner. “Where are we and what can we do to be in line to be considered to be one…
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Former Alexandria City Councilman David Speck will finish out Rob Krupicka's term, which ends on Jan. 1, 2013.
David Speck is the appointee to fill the vacancy on Alexandria City Council, he told Patch on Thursday afternoon. The vacancy was created on Sept. 11 when Rob Krupicka resigned from City Council following his election to the House of Delegates. Alexandria Circuit Court Judge Lisa Kemler made the appointment. He will take the oath of office Thursday and will be on the dais this evening for council’s second legislative meeting of month. Speck will serve out the remainder of Krupicka's term, which ends on Jan. 1, 2013. Speck served on council from 1991 to 1994 as a Republican. He switched parties in 1995 and served as a Democrat from 1996 to 2003. A longtime Alexandria resident, Speck is a managing director of investments with the Speck-…
Eric Nelson, owner of two small businesses in Alexandria, received the Alexandria Convention and Visitors Association's Partner of the Year award for his efforts in boosting tourism.
Del Ray business advocate Eric Nelson received the David G. Speck Partner of the Year Award on Thursday morning from the Alexandria Convention and Visitors Association during its annual meeting. A surprised Nelson, a board member of ACVA and owner of Artfully Chocolate in Del Ray and Artfully Gifts and Chocolate in the Carlyle district and a former Del Ray Business Association president, accepted the award from its namesake, former City Council member David Speck. Speck said Nelson “richly deserved” the award for his passion for Alexandria, ACVA and Del Ray. In turn, Nelson said: “It hasn’t been a job, it’s been a pleasure,” speaking of his work with Alexandria. Speck told the packed house at Metro Stage on Royal Street that nobody should …
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Rob Krupicka's victory Tuesday creates a hole on Alexandria City Council.
Delegate-elect Rob Krupicka is expected to call Virginia Speaker of the House Bill Howell on Wednesday to determine when he will be sworn in as representative to the 45th District. That decision is ultimately the governor’s, and it will set off an interesting couple of months for Alexandria City Councilman Krupicka and the City of Alexandria. “I am going to talk to as many people as I can [before heading to Richmond]. I’m going to do more listening than talking,” Krupicka said Tuesday night at his victory party at Fireflies. “It’s a small time to put together a legislative agenda.” Krupicka has to resign from City Council and the State Board of Education before being sworn in to his new job, which must take place within 30 days of Tuesday’…
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Independent mayoral candidate Andrew Macdonald says incumbent Mayor Bill Euille is leading the city in the wrong direction.
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Thursday, August 16, 2012
To the Editor: I don’t know anyone in Alexandria more adept at spinning a political yarn than former councilman Mr. David Speck (D). In a recent letter, he offers readers and would-be candidates for local office this sage political advice: “If someone is not mad at you all the time, you are just not doing your job.” In other words, he’s saying that local officials are elected to make the tough decisions and if you (citizens) don’t like it, it’s not because the Council is not listening to you. Rather it’s mostly a matter of people “not agreeing” with each other about the waterfront plan or the redo of the West End and its impact on extant neighborhoods. Disagreements among people in the context of working together to find common ground are …
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
David Speck says there's no greater challenge to Alexandria's future than its ability to grow from within without jeopardizing the quality of life.
To the Editor: I read with great interest the thoughtful letter recently co-authored by Gant Redmon about the state of politics and governance in Alexandria. Although it has been more than 17 years since I changed parties, I was a beneficiary of his efforts so when I write to offer an alternative perspective to Gant’s concerns about the dominance of the Democratic Party in Alexandria it in no way lessens my respect for him or my genuine friendship with him. A law of physics is that nature abhors a vacuum; politics is no different and the fact that it is mostly Democrats in elected office may have less to do with Democratic domination and more to do with Republican abdication. For the benefit of newcomers to Alexandria (i.e., less than 30 …
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Former Councilman and local PAC member David Speck responds to comments made by Katy Cannady in a recent letter to the editor.
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Tuesday, June 19, 2012
To the Editor: I’m not sure how I got so lucky as to warrant a special shout-out from Katy Cannady, but the quote she refers to was not from me. It was part of a flyer produced by the Securing Alexandria’s Future PAC that had a sentence about each of the endorsed candidates, and I am part of that PAC…along with Vice Mayor Kerry Donley, Councilman Rob Krupicka, former Councilman Lonnie Rich, former City Manager Vola Lawson, former Housing Authority Chair Melvin Miller and many other civic, political and community leaders. To just mention me is to do exactly what Katy accuses others of doing and that is to make an issue about the person and not about the substance. Let me assure you that this was not the first attack piece—not by a long shot…
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Carol James weighs in on her support of PAC Democrats for a Better Alexandria and voting in June and November.
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Thursday, May 24, 2012
To the Editor: As David Speck, a former member of the Alexandria City Council and Virginia House of Delegates, said in this space: "(W)hen a group of us came together to form Securing Alexandria’s Future, we were looking for candidates who had positive, strategic, long-term, big picture views of the city and were willing to make tough (i.e., occasionally unpopular) decisions about our city’s future." In joining an earlier political action committee—Democrats for a Better Alexandria (DBA)—I was motivated to provide voters with information about candidates (accessible on the website democratsforabetteralexandria.blogspot.com). DBA's endorsements—Boyd Walker, Arthur Peabody, Sammie Moshenberg, John Taylor Chapman, Tim Lovain and Justin Wilson…
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Former Councilman David Speck discusses the impact of PACs, including his participation in Securing Alexandria's Future.
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Tuesday, May 22, 2012
To the Editor, I have been following with interest some of the letters and blogs about the various Political Action Committees (PACs) that have been formed to endorse candidates for the June 12 Democratic primary for City Council. (Disclosure: I am part of one of those PAC’s, Securing Alexandria’s Future). The genesis of these groups is the unprecedented nature of the election: So commentary from various people about which PAC was started first or denigrating people who are involved with one of them accomplishes very little other than contribute to some of the less than civil discourse that is permeating too much of our community these days. The fact is that every PAC formed is meeting a need that many voters have asked for—to provide …
Michael Josef Basl
5:30 pm on Sunday, December 23, 2012
http://www.michaeljosefbasl.blogspot.com more ›