To the editor:

When city issues find residents on one side and partisan-minded advocates on the other, the city has historically favored this latter group. This tendency eats away at accountable government, encourages the growth of cliques of influence and degrades trust within the community at large.

Successful governance on the other hand requires humility, accountability and flexibility. As such, our former mayor, Allison Silberberg, proves a compelling candidate for improving governance in Alexandria.

Too long has transparency and accountability been sacrificed for the imperative to develop and reengineer community space without regard for the unique identity of our city or the popular will on key issues.

Silberberg has proven her ability to use balanced methods of management to evolve our city while safeguarding and building upon its great strengths. She has initiated ethics reforms, objected to unchecked and bad development practices and her focus on green space has helped preserve the eco-infrastructure that supports quality of life for all residents.

While residents can disagree on what the path ahead should look like, considerate, approachable and transparent leadership is a necessary component for any future solution. I believe Silberberg understands this.

Current Mayor Justin Wilson, on the other hand, doesn’t even mention collaboration, ethics or transparency, directly or otherwise, in his most recent magazine-sized campaign literature. Some of his choice words are “build,” “invest” and “implement” – speaking more like an industrial engineer bending inert objects to his will than a leader solving give-and-take problems in a dynamic social environment.

Therefore, this primary cycle, I will be voting for Allison Silberberg, and I would like to ask you to consider doing likewise.

-Kevin Dunne, Alexandria