To the editor:

As a resident of the City of Alexandria, I am casting one of my six votes for City Council for Patrick Moran, and here is why I think he should earn one of your six votes as well.

Patrick comes from a family who passionately believes in the commitment of service to the community. His father, former U.S. Congressman James Moran, Jr., served as our city’s vice mayor and mayor, and his uncle, former Virginia 46th District Delegate Brian Moran, is currently our Commonwealth’s secretary of public safety and homeland security.

As we come out of the pandemic and begin to adjust to a new normal, Patrick wants to see Alexandria City Public Schools open for all students, so they have the option to resume their in-person classroom instruction five days a week. He feels resuming five-day options in schools and recreation centers is critical to restoring economic prosperity and equity for children throughout Alexandria.

With safety in mind, Patrick wants to see the School Resource Officer program fully reinstated at our middle schools and T.C. Williams High School to ensure all Alexandria students are safe. He wants to work with the Alexandria Police Department to enhance community policing.

Strikingly, for seven years, our city has not funded body cameras, despite repeated requests from APD. Patrick wants to work to fund and fully implement body cameras for APD, as soon as possible, in order to ensure safety for citizens as well as officers.

As an environmentalist and entrepreneur, Patrick owns and operates his Alexandria-based business, Tactical Land Care, where he has created jobs and is an expert in stormwater management, ecological restoration and green building, all of which are major issues that our city has been confronting in neighborhoods for many years.

Patrick is the chair of the Alexandria Citizen Corps Council, where he is advancing infrastructure resiliency. In 2020, he led the unanimous adoption of the ResilientALX charter, which audits our city’s resilience amongst all schools, civic associations, businesses, nonprofits, churches and temples.

Alexandria needs a councilor as well as a visionary community-builder who can and will provide skillful leadership on City Council that is so desperately needed, someone who was born in the city, is an ACPS alum and truly has the heartbeat and pulse of the city running through his veins. Patrick Moran is that man we can all vote for on June 8.

-Patrick J. Malone, Alexandria