On January 26, 2009, Albemarle County Supervisor
David Slutzky (D-Rio)
appeared on WINA’s
Charlottesville Right Now
radio program and announced he had decided not to challenge
Delegate Rob Bell (R-58)
for his seat in the Virginia General Assembly. Slutzky told host Coy Barefoot that he intended in 2009 to remain focused on the priorities in his work before local government.
Slutzky did not announce whether he would seek re-election for a second term on the Board of Supervisors. In an open seat election,
Slutzky defeated Gary Grant (R-Rio) in November 2005
after the retirement of David Bowerman from the Rio District seat.
Earlier this month
, Slutzky was elected by his colleagues to serve as Chairman of the Board during 2009. His current four-year term on the Board ends on December 31, 2009. The seats held by Supervisors Sally Thomas (I-Samuel Miller) and Dennis Rooker (I-Jack Jouett) are also up for re-election in November 2009.
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“My role on the Board of Supervisors has gotten interesting,” said
Slutzky. “I’ve got a lot of things that we are dealing with that are
very important to the community…and [I am] very interested in and
engaged in some of these topics, and to take on a major campaign at a
time like this…would be very distracting.”
Coy Barefoot asked Slutzky to name the top issues on his local
government agenda. “Right now, front and center is the issue of
transportation. We have serious transportation challenges in Albemarle
County and Charlottesville right now,” said Slutzky. As a Supervisor,
Slutzky also serves as Chairman of the
Metropolitan Planning
Organization
(MPO) and has represented Albemarle on a task force
related to the formation of the
Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional
Transit Authority
.
Slutzky described two bills (
HB2158
and
HB2161
) introduced by Delegate
David Toscano (D-57) that would allow the community to form the joint
transit entity and, separately, to hold a voter referendum on a local
sales tax increase to fund both transit and transportation needs.
Slutzky said that if the local sales tax was raised by a penny the City
and County would raise close to $25 million a year which could be
applied to the community’s approved list of priority transportation
projects.
Supervisor Slutzky identified two other priorities that will get his
attention in 2009. First, efforts to address climate change and reduce
the community’s ‘carbon footprint,’ and a proposal to allow for the
transfer of development rights
in Albemarle County.
Brian Wheeler
