By Brian Wheeler
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Ivy resident
Philip Melita (R)
has announced he is seeking the Republican Party’s nomination for election to the Samuel Miller seat on the
Albemarle County Board of Supervisors
. Incumbent Supervisor, Sally Thomas (I),
announced her retirement last month
. Joining Melita in the contest for the nomination will be
Duane Snow (R)
who told Charlottesville Tomorrow he has submitted his paperwork to the Republican Party and will announce his campaign officially on Thursday.
County Republicans will have their nominating caucus on Tuesday, May 26, 2009. Samuel Miller Republicans will select either Melita or Snow to face
Madison Cummings (D)
and
John Lowry (I)
in what is shaping up to be a three-way contest. Independent candidates have until June 9, 2009 to get on the ballot.
“Now that I’m retired, I have always had an interest in civic duty,” said Melita in an interview. “I have some concerns with fiscal issues. [Albemarle County] is not as out of control as the federal and state government, but it is heading down the same path. We need some more fiscal sense.”
Melita said he was running to preserve the quality of life in the community while not over taxing the residents. He expressed concern about Albemarle’s rate of spending exceeding population growth and inflation. “Why is that? I don’t know the answer, but it doesn’t make any sense to me,” said Melita.
Melita has been a resident of the Whippoorwill neighborhood since 1983. On election day he will be sixty-six years old. Melita currently teaches at the University of Virginia as an adjunct faculty member in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies where he focuses on the human resources field. Melita worked at GE Fanuc until 1988 spending 20-years in GE’s human resources division. After GE, Melita and his wife did a weekly commute to McLean, VA while she was teaching at Prince William County Schools and he was working for several firms in Northern Virginia.
Melita and his wife have three grown children. Melita earned a BS degree from Queens College, an MBA from Adelphi, and his Ed.D. from George Washington University.
Challenging Melita for the nomination will be Duane Snow, a former member of the County’s Architectural Review Board and retired owner of Snow’s Garden Center. Snow’s Garden Center, now run by his sons Corbin and Jonas, has been a family business in Charlottesville since 1912. Snow told Charlottesville Tomorrow he would share more information about his campaign at an event later this week.
See Charlottesville Tomorrow’s
Election Watch page
for complete coverage of the County’s 2009 elections.
