Thursday, December 24, 2009
Blogger planning bid for city council seat
Valerie Garner ran for Roanoke City Council in 2008, finishing fifth out of six candidates.
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From The Roanoke Times
Three Roanoke Democrats have already started their campaigns for May's city council election, and more may be coming before the Jan. 4 deadline to register in the party primary.
Countryside neighborhood advocate and blogger Valerie Garner wrote on her Twitter account Friday that she's collecting signatures to get on the primary ballot, and she confirmed that by phone Wednesday.
Former councilman Bill Bestpitch will also run for council, and incumbent councilman David Trinkle formally announced his re-election campaign last week. Both will run as Democrats. Councilwoman Gwen Mason, also a Democrat, hasn't yet announced whether she will seek re-election.
Three council seats will be open for the general election on May 4. Democrats will nominate their candidates with a primary on March 2, while Republicans will nominate theirs through a mass meeting on Feb. 16.
Garner unsuccessfully ran for council as an independent in 2008, finishing fifth out of six candidates for three open seats. Since then she's remained engaged in the civic process as a blogger, covering city news on her Web site www.roanokefreepress.com.
"Since in the last two years I have attended almost every briefing and council meeting and am familiar with plans and challenges the city faces, there will be little if any learning curve upon taking office," Garner said.
Some of her 2008 opponents criticized her as a single-issue candidate, because she'd first become civically involved largely as a result of the city's proposed development of Countryside Golf Course, which her home abuts, starting in 2005.
Garner said she wasn't a single-issue candidate in 2008 and she won't be one this time, either.
"My campaign last time was built on the overage academy" in the former Forrest Park Elementary School, Garner said. "I was the first candidate to support that. I want to toot my own horn that it was a success."
Garner said she fully supports the city school board and its efforts to increase the graduation rate. She said she will also campaign to make city government more transparent and will press the council to provide more specific reasons for its closed sessions.
By the time the primary rolls around, the Countryside issue may well have been resolved. City officials have been negotiating a five-year management deal with Meadowbrook Golf, a Florida-based company that is the former owner and current manager of the course.
City spokeswoman Melinda Mayo said that officials are "still wrapping up some final details" on that deal, which has been in the works for months. An agreement would at least temporarily resolve questions about the course's fate that have lingered since the city purchased that land with the intent to develop it back in 2005.
Still unresolved is the question of the course's tennis building. In November the Blue Ridge Junior Tennis League pitched a plan to the council to provide a youth tennis program at the facility, assuming the city repairs the building. Assistant City Manager Brian Townsend estimated that renovations could cost up to $295,000, not counting work on the adjoining parking lot.
The council has not discussed the idea since the estimate was provided, and a tough budget year ahead could keep the tennis building's repair on the back burner for the foreseeable future.
