Julian and Dave

I am thrilled to soon be serving on City Council with Julian Taliaferro and Dave Norris. I think they both bring some real strengths to council - Julian the experience of creating one of the top fire departments in the country, Dave the energy and ideas of a community activist.

One of the reasons I was elected Mayor (the Mayor in Cville is picked every 2 years by Council) was in hopes I could bring some civility and cohesion to what had been a fractious Council. I was at most only partly successful, and on a few evenings not successful at all. But with the addition of Julian and Dave I think the next City Council can function well. Doesn't mean we will agree on everything - I already know that Dave differs with me on the Parkway and the Mall crossing - but that we will be able to disagree without being disagreeable.

While I was confident that the Democratic ticket would win, I was predicting a 400 vote margin - not the 1200 votes that separated Julian and Rob Schilling. A significant part of the margin was the young (18 - 30 or so) voters that were excited by Dave Norris.

Last year, my first on Council, was just plain hard, with the Scottie Griffin controversy. This year has been smoother. Next year could be great.