Homeowners, small business owners, parents, elderly and youth will have a champion for their concerns if Kevin Dunne is elected to city council on Nov. 6.
Dunne has spent the last year listening to Alexandria’s civic associations and has heard many stories of the city’s current leadership, elected and unelected, and their failure to align their actions with the voiced wishes of the electorate.
He has heard the concerns of homeowners who fear that rising taxes will force elderly, longtime citizens to leave the city. He has met with more than 100 small business owners in Alexandria and heard about the disincentives that exist for keeping these important employers located in Alexandria. And he has heard parents’ concerns that untethered multi-family housing development has resulted in overcrowded and under-performing schools.
Still in his twenties, Dunne knows that the future is at stake in the decisions that will be made by our council. He wants youth to have a reasonable voice to represent them and ensure our future city is livable, rather than saddle them with daunting levels of city debt.
Dunne promotes the concept of increasing personal financial independence and dignity with new vocational training programs – reducing financial dependence on taxpayer-subsidized programs. This view has earned him the endorsement of the Keystone + Mountain + Lakes Regional Council of Carpenters, a group that represents carpenters in Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, and recruits T.C. Williams students.
Dunne supports residential and commercial growth for Alexandria if it is smart, rather than haphazard growth with surprising associated, unfunded costs. He has attended many city listening sessions and seen and heard the arrogance of city representatives who are checking a box, and not really listening. He believes that city council members have abdicated their authority to unelected staff, many of whom may not even live in Alexandria. He wants to change city administration from being staff-led to staff-guided.
Dunne is campaigning to bring innovative, integrative technologies to the forefront in evaluating and addressing our city’s problems. He will be an energetic, intelligent, articulate voice for fiscal responsibility, limited borrowing and judicious financial decisions. Kevin Dunne is a smart choice for Alexandria City Council.
-Linda App, Alexandria