• Home
• Contact

Getting Results

Rob believes in getting things done.  He works for practical solutions for all of us:

    * Fighting for Children & Schools
    * Expanding Transportation Options
    * Improving our Neighborhoods & our Environment
    * Strengthening our Economy and Ensuring Budget Discipline

Rob is a leader in working to improve early childhood education and implement pre-school programs for all children.


o    Rob helped Governor Tim Kaine develop his statewide pre-kindergarten program. Rob led the effort to write Virginia’s official goals for school readiness so that every child shows up for Kindergarten ready to learn. 

o    Rob has won and continues to fight for additional local funding to support high quality early childhood and pre-school programs so that Alexandria children are prepared to take advantage of everything available in our city schools.

o    Rob sits on the City-School coordinating committee where the city and school organizations coordinate their efforts to improve student performance.

o    Rob has worked hard to ensure our schools have the resources they need to succeed.

 
o    Rob has successfully worked to make it easier for childcare facilities to locate in Alexandria so that Alexandria remains a great place to raise a family.

o    Rob is a strong supporter of youth sports programs.

o    Rob has been a leader in efforts to expand playground space, include indoor playground space, in Alexandria.  He fought successfully for indoor space to use as a children’s “soft” playground.

 

Expanding Transportation Options

Rob has been a leader for mass transit, pedestrian and bicycle alternatives to cars.  He strongly supports the need for new state transportation funding to fix our transportation system.

o    Rob is chair of Virginia’s Safe Routes to School program to help ensure more children can safely walk and bike to school, saving fuel costs, keeping the environment cleaner and keeping the children healthier.

 

o    Rob is on the executive committee of the Virginia Municipal Leagues transportation committee where he lead the 2008 effort the draft the core transportation principles for municipal governments in Virginia.

 

o    Rob was one of the first, in 2003, to call for a new Transportation Master plan for Alexandria that focused on mass transit.  He was proud to support Alexandria’s new Transportation Master plan and he successfully fought to ensure a Potomac Yard metro station was a part of that plan.

 

o    Rob was a leader in the creation of the Community Pathways Program, designed to make walking and ride bikes safer and more convenient throughout the community and for reducing cut-through and speeding traffic in our neighborhoods.

 

o    Rob has worked for an expanded Bus Shelter Program to make our transit system more user-friendly and convenient.

 

o    Rob was a leader in the development of a new city taxi ordinance that has brought new competition and taxi services to Alexandria.

 

o    Rob strongly supports innovative transportation approaches that provide alternatives to cars, like zip-car and bike sharing.

 

o    Rob strongly supports increased funding for the regional Metro system.

 

o    Rob supports improved traffic signal timing through new technology

 

o    Rob has been a strong supporter of bikers, obtaining new bike racks at City Hall and working for new bike lanes throughout the City.

Improving Our Neighborhoods and Our Environment

Rob is a strong neighborhood advocate and environmental leader in Alexandria.  He has taken the intiative to make Alexandria a cleaner, greener and safer city.

o    Rob is a co-chair of Alexandria’s award winning Eco-City project to make Alexandria one of the greenest cities in the country by creating a comprehensive approach to energy, water, air and recycling.

 

o    Rob successfully fought so that Alexandria buys some of its energy from clean sources and keeps pushing for more.

 

o    Rob successfully fought to expand hazardous waste recycling in the city so more residents and businesses could properly dispose of their waste.  And he pushed for new commercial recycling rules and resources to help ensure every building in the city can recycle.

 

o    Rob successfully fought for the new, recyclable, leaf collection bags used in Alexandria.

 

o    Rob has been a leader in efforts to help teachers, police offices and other hard working members of our workforce as well as our invaluable senior citizens afford to live in Alexandria through affordable housing programs.

 

o    Rob has worked hard for neighborhood pocket parks to provide open space in the City's neighborhoods where green space is lacking

 

o    Rob was a leader in the creation of the Community Pathways Program, designed to make walking and ride bikes safer and more convenient throughout the community and for reducing cut-through and speeding traffic in our neighborhoods.

 

o    Rob has successfully worked to improve crime reporting and comprehensive approaches to crime so that every neighborhood can be safe for its residents.  He has also fought for new street lighting and police activity in areas of the city with higher than normal crime activity.

 

o    Rob helped create Alexandria’s Gang Prevention Task force and led the effort for a new, more proactive graffiti removal program which has been recognized throughout the state.

 

o    Rob co-led the effort to improve emergency preparedness for Alexandria.

 

o    Rob has worked to expand and improve City libraries and is particularly proud of the new Duncan library with one of the first green roofs in the city.

 

o    Rob is working with the rest of Council to ensure that Alexandria maintains and supports important historic districts from Old Town to Parker-Gray to Del Ray, Beverly Hills, Park Fairfax and more.

 

o    Rob has been a strong supporter of the City's efforts to clean up the Mirant Power Plant.

 

o    Rob has been a strong supporter of efforts to closely regulate and monitor Virginia Paving so that it is a good neighbor, to improve community health and reduce nuisance issues and so that it is a model for environmental stewardship – Rob is also an active proponent for long-term planning that leads to VA Paving moving to another location so that Alexandria can make the best economic use of the Van Dorn Metro Station.

 

o    Rob successfully advocated for the creation of the city’s new Energy and Water Efficient Green Building Policy that helps the air and water and saves the City money. This has already led to the creation of two energy and water efficient green roofs on City buildings (Duncan Library and the Health Department on King Street).

 

o    Rob took the initiative to establish an Urban Forestry Task Force designed to increase the City's population of healthy trees and plants.

 

o    Rob has worked to ensure that new construction in the City uses energy efficient and environmentally friendly technologies whenever possible and he continues to fight for expanded green building requirements.

 

o    Rob worked for the purchase of new parks and supported bonding for open space to make the best use of the City's purchasing power.

Strengthening our Economy and Ensuring Budget Discipline

Rob uses his business background to ensure our government is efficient and effective and to work for a strong economy that keeps our tax rates low.

o    Rob is co-chair of the economic sustainability implementation task force that is working to ensure Alexandria is implementing its economic sustainability plans in order to bolster our economy.

 

o    Rob has consistently pushed to lower the tax rate as far as possible without compromising education, public safety and other valuable city services.  Alexandria now boasts one of the lowest tax rates in the region as well as one of the lowest overall tax burdens in the region.

 

o    Since he was first elected, Rob has championed the use of performance audits of city departments. To ensure accountable performance, Rob and Councilman Smedberg have worked for City Departmental Audits and Benchmarking. These efforts have improved city operations and saved taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

o    Rob created the City-School Collaboration Initiative with then School Board Member Art Schmalz. This initiative has saved taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars by combining city and school resources.  He continues to push for better collaboration and savings between city and school operations.

 

o    Rob has been a champion of the city’s new budget process (as of FY 2006), playing a lead role in drafting the new process to give the community more insight and input into our budget efforts, to add accountability metrics for all programs, to push city staff to find all opportunities for efficiency and to maintain Alexandria’s AAA bond rating.

 

o    Rob successfully pushed so that parks and recreation and other services could be accessed and registered for on the city web site.  He has worked to expand access to City services on the City's website so that businesses and the community have easier access to rules, regulations and services.

 

o    Rob has successfully worked for easier and more predictable business regulations for Alexandria small business; Rob has successfully fought for simplified SUP and Code procedures to help small business in Alexandria.

 

o    Rob successfully pushed for a new, Simplified Tax Structure for new, local businesses.

 

o    Rob has successfully worked for resources for the Small Business Development Center, which helps small businesses get off to a good start and, in turn, is a good investment for the City.

 

o    Rob has supported increased City marketing funds to help local small businesses and non-profits work cooperatively to market themselves and our City.

 

o    Rob has successfully worked for a job-training program so that Alexandria residents can get high paying high tech auto repair jobs. The City is working with auto dealers, NOVA and others to create this exciting new program.

 

o    Rob was an early champion of outdoor dining on King Street and throughout the City.

 

o    Rob has personally helped a number of new small businesses in Alexandria work through the City process to get established.