Ed. — From the Sunday, Nov. 5, print edition.
COURTHOUSE — Four candidates have filed paperwork to run in a special election for the District 1 seat on the City Council.
They include a former city fire chief, an attorney, the former head of a nonprofit and a librarian who ran to represent the district just last year.
And there may be more to come.
The seat became vacant after Rocky Holcomb resigned the seat on Friday, Sept. 29, to become sheriff. Last month, the City Council asked the Circuit Court for a special election to fill the remainder of the term, which runs through the end of 2024. The seat would again be on the ballot in November 2024.
Only people who live within the district can vote in the race.
Circuit Court Chief Judge James Clayton Lewis set the special election for Tuesday, Jan. 9. Candidates have until Monday, Nov. 13, to file their paperwork, according to Christine Lewis, Virginia Beach’s director of voter registration and elections.
As of this past week, candidates Teresa Gladney, David Hutcheson, John Napier and Melissa Peck have filed some or all of their paperwork to seek the District 1 seat. Each had filed at least statements of organization for their respective campaigns as of Tuesday, Oct. 31.
Peck, a librarian who lives in Salem Woods, is the only one of the four who has sought public office before. She ran during the 2022 special election for the District 1 seat but lost to Holcomb. That was the first time she has run for office. The new district system was one of the reasons she ran because it provides opportunities to do so for more people, unlike a citywide race.
“I filed again because I want someone on council who care about the issues I care about,” Peck said on Tuesday, Oct. 31, adding that she has not seen the people’s interests being represented in some recent council votes. She said she wants to represent citizen interests, not those of developers, and that her issues remain consistent with ones she ran on last year.
Peck is part of a military family, and she has described herself as a lifelong volunteer.
Key issues for her include transportation, flooding and providing opportunities so young people will want to continue to call Virginia Beach home. Additionally, she said she would resign her position as a public librarian if she is elected.
“It just feels like it’s another way to serve,” he said on Tuesday, Oct. 31.
Hutcheson began his public safety career as a volunteer firefighter in Kempsville before joining the city fire department in 1988. He held a number of leadership positions before serving as chief, and he retired this past year.
Hutcheson is president of the Woodstock Civic League, and he continues to work in his family’s florist business – where he started when he was 11. He said he has experience as both a city servant and in small business.
“I’ve been on both sides of the equation of being fiscally responsible,” he said.
Hutcheson cited his extensive public safety service, which includes having overseen emergency management and in planning major events, such as the original Something in the Water festival.
He said important issues are supporting the municipal staff, supporting education and affordable housing. He said he is especially aware of issues about mental health given his background in public safety.
Gladney grew up in the city and said she was the first in her family to graduate from college before going on the earn a master’s degree in public policy. She has lived in Whitehurst Grove for more than three decades and she previously owned a small family business and led a nonprofit group, as well as serving as a volunteer.
She said she has been active in community matters, and her experiences have made her passionate about service and helping others.
“This campaign is about a purpose greater than oneself,” she said.
Issues for her campaign include what she called bringing “power back into the hands of the people” by tackling budget issues, the fight against flooding and providing support to public safety. Other issues include supporting a learning environment in while students feel supported and safe and fostering a pro-business climate.
“I just want to create a great future for the Kempsville community given the amount of time I’ve had here and the amount I’ve contributed,” she said.
Napier, an attorney and entrepreneur who lives in Woodstock, grew up in the Kempsville area after his father, an aviator, was stationed at Oceana. He is at the firm Hanger Law and runs a mediation consulting business with his wife.
“We focus on helping to resolve conflicts and disputes and training people to resolve conflicts and disputes,” he said.
Napier said that he knows members of the City Council and that he will be able to work effectively with the group on behalf of citizens.
“I’m genuinely getting in the race to serve the city of Virginia Beach,” Napier said on Wednesday, Nov. 1 “I see my role as a bridge builder. … I want to be able to bring some unity and cohesion so Virginia Beach can be the best it can be.”
Key issues include making affordable housing a priority in the city, supporting transparency in how the council operates and uses money, supporting military members and veterans and finding good business opportunities to maintain the employment base.
Ryan Gilliam, president of the Brigadoon Civic League, said he is in the process of completing paperwork to run, but he had not filed as this edition of The Independent News went to press.
Gilliam served in the U.S. Marines and is a military contractor, having grown up in Virginia Beach and returned here after his service. He said he was spurred to run for the seat after attending the contentious City Council meeting earlier this month when the council approved a rezoning request for an apartment complex near the municipal center over community objections and against the wishes of Councilmember Barbara Henley, who represents District 2, where the project is located.
“I went to that City Council meeting two weeks ago and was absolutely floored,” Gilliam said on Tuesday, Oct. 31. “I felt I needed to do something. … This was the singular event that activated me.”
The winner of the special election would effectively become the third person to hold the same seat during the same term.
Holcomb followed former Councilmember Jessica Abbott as a temporary appointee in 2021 to what was then the Kempsville District and then won a 2022 special election to remain in the seat, now District 1 under the new 10-district system.
Abbott resigned from the former Kempsville District seat in 2021 due to a health issue.
The District 1 seat became vacant again after Holcomb resigned to follow Ken Stolle as sheriff upon the latter’s retirement.
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The new election system has done precisely the opposite that those who fought for it wanted. It isolates council members, makes them responsible only to those within their own district, and completed neuters their ability to take a city-wide look at things. The result? Cartels of self-serving council members can FORCE upon other districts things that will garner them public support whilst in no way harming their own districts. Case in point: the manner in which council members forced a development upon the members of district 2, at the objection of the residents of that district, on the basis of a “need for affordable housing.” If it was so needed, why didn’t you break all the rules and put it in your own district? (That is a rhetorical question, of course, as everyone knows the true reason for their actions.)