Clear Divide Among Council Candidates on Referendum Question

3 of the 6 Candidates for City Council do NOT support the proposed Charter Change Referendum which will be on the ballot May 6th for City voters. The CBC Candidates: Robin Gardner, Lindy Hockenberry and Lawrence Webb are clearly against the Charter Change Referendum.

Nader Baroukh, Margaret Housen and Ed Hillegass have all declared they support the Charter Change Referendum.

Gardner, Hockenberry and Webb give reasons why they don't support the Charter Change:

• "The proposed Referendum would restrict the ability of City Council to seek and approve commercial developments (which ultimately places more of a tax burden on residential homeowners)."
• "It's bad government to start changing your City's Charter of Government; it should only be done for very compelling reasons and when there are no other governmental tools available, and that is not the case here."
• "The proposed Referendum would create a hostile climate towards developers seeking to build any commercial development in our City - and would actually drive projects away. Again, without the much needed commercial tax base, the tax burden of supporting our schools and city services would fall squarely on the backs of the residential homeowners."

Nader Baroukh finally gave a clear YES answer in support of the controversial Referendum when put on the spot by Mayor Gardner at the Chamber of Commerce's Candidate Debate Tuesday night at the Falls Church Community Center. Baroukh had formerly been vague on the Yes or No question of "Do you support the Referendum?", at both the Chamber debate and the League of Women Voter's Debate last week, by sidestepping actually saying Yes, he supports the referendumb.

Margaret Housen had already declared her support for the Referendum at the LWV Debate. Ed Hillegass, the perennial No-Show Candidate (he did not show up at either the Chamber or LWV Debates), declared his support for the Referendum in flyers which he handed out around town.

Patrice Lepcyzk stated she did NOT support the Referendum, for many of the reasons cited above (bad government, too restricting, would increase taxes, etc), at the LWV Candidate Debate as well.