Angela Kelly-Wiecek: 1. The primary challenge facing the Chickahominy District is the same facing all of Hanover County. Our current board has maintained the high standards of service we have come to expect despite the languishing economy and shrinking revenues through sound financial management.
2. We must strategically attract new businesses in the areas we have set aside for such growth. Once example includes the office park where Owens and Minor and the Times Dispatch building are currently located.
3. Specifically in Chickahominy, there are some concerns about road improvement projects related to the new Atlee Road extension and the "S" curve on Cool Spring Road.
Angela Kelly-Wiecek: 1. We must continue being fiscally conservative in our expenditures and focusing our energies on the core pillars of local government: schools, public safety and community services (health department, disabled, etc), while making sure we apply as many efficiency-centered private sector principles as possible to the everyday operations.
2. We must leverage all that we already offer here with great schools, safe communities and sound financial management to help attract these businesses. Further, we need to ensure that we don't just SAY "We are open for business." We must BE "Open for business" by ensuring our processes establishing a business here are streamlined and user-friendly, and never cumbersome.
3. I want to keep clear communications open with the status and progress of the Atlee Rd/Atlee Station Road interchange. In addition, one of the first items I want to address concerns the “S” curve on Coolspring Road especially in consideration of the new Coolspring West development that will surely be completed in the next four years. We must take immediate steps for interim safety improvements, and we must ensure that this area gets on the VDOT plan for permanent improvements.
Angela Kelly-Wiecek: I have a Bachelor's of Business Administration Degree and 20 years of experience in the private industry where I focused on providing measurable results and return on investment.
Gov. McDonnell appointed me to the GenEdge Alliance Board of Directors in 2010.
I am a graduate of the Citizens Planning Academy and have served on Hanover County Citizen Committees studying "Purchase Development Rights" and high speed Internet access.
I have worked for the cause of good government and conservative values for over 10 years, and during that time I served as Chairman of the Hanover Republican Committee for three years.
Angela Kelly-Wiecek: I have 20 years of experience in doing more with less, and where possible we need to insert sound, effective policies like continuous improvement and return on investment into the day-to-day operation of our local government. I believe in focusing government spending on the core pillars of local government and where ever possible reducing the tax burden on individual citizens.
Angela Kelly-Wiecek: I do not plan to implement any new programs requiring tax payer dollars. My primary strategies include injecting private sector principles where possible to make us more efficient, and focusing on economic development.
James Ellis: (1) Closing the gap between government and the citizens it serves. Hanover county government is very responsive to direct citizen requests for information, but elected and appointed representatives are perceived as being out of touch with citizens’ concerns.
(2) Practicing sustainable growth including supporting publicly-owned open space and green infrastructure, linking development decisions to school enrollment and school construction planning and balancing individual property rights with the rights of communities to enjoy their properties and protect their quality of life.
(3) Dealing with the increasing amount of funding issues being passed down from higher levels without raising the tax burden on citizens.
James Ellis: (1) If elected, I would proactively seek citizens’ views in the first stages of conversation about development and other issues rather than waiting until the public hearing stage. I would support televising or webcasting Board meetings, and facilitating the development of a Hanover citizens’ council.
(2) I would support establishing a county fund to purchase open space with available matching state funds and private donations, allocate county staff resources to facilitate private owners’ decisions to place land in conservation easements, and support the economic development of local agriculture and historic tourism.
(3) We need to re-tool Hanover County’s economy to be recession-resistant and we need to play to our unique strengths, including agriculture and history. At the same time, we need to think regionally because a stronger Richmond City makes for a stronger Hanover County. We should also push for aggressive county facilitation of (not paying for) better high-speed Internet access countywide through public-private partnerships – and we are doing so through the county’s High-Speed Internet Committee, on which I currently serve.
James Ellis: (1) Most importantly, I would come to the job as a lifelong learner with an open mind and a fact-based, non-partisan approach to making good public policy.
(2) I worked in the private sector early in my adult years, but I have worked in the public sector for all of my professional career, so I understand and respect both. They must work in a partnership with the right amount of creative tension.
(3) I have a good skill set for this job: knowledge of survey research and data, knowledge of GIS, team player, a service leadership approach, a generalist’s interests and background in architecture, literature, journalism, survey research methods, education, sports, military history and more, the ability to absorb, synthesize and summarize information accurately and usefully, a desire to increase the influence of regular people’s voices in our government, the time, commitment, and energy to work on behalf of citizens, the understanding and support at home and at my full-time employer to give me the leeway I need to fulfill the many responsibilities that come with the job.
James Ellis: Government spending should be as efficient as possible. Methods borrowed from the private sector can help to accomplish this. But I do not view taxes as some sort of unjustified taking. Government should use tax revenues to create the conditions in which businesses can flourish and private citizens can enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In its best form, government protects our rights and embodies the values of all of the governed. We spend money on public education because we value it. We spend money on public parks because we value them. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to put a comprehensive, all-inclusive dollar value on public goods and services. We do them because we decide as a society that they are the right things to do – not because they make the biggest profits.
James Ellis: Yes.
(1) Work with the county Planning Department to develop and institutionalize community-based planning and design charrettes for larger development proposals and for the county’s Comprehensive Plan update process.
(2) Fill a limited number of internships for local high school and college students to work with me as supervisor.
(3) Televise Board meetings – Hanover is the largest locality in Virginia (by population) not to do so, and some localities that are much smaller already do it.
(4) View every large development proposal as an opportunity to establish small public parks and/or greenways, particularly on the perimeter of the development. See http://jimellisbos.com/campaign2011/issues/22-giles-farm for more about parks.
(5) Proactive communication with citizens – why knock on doors only during election season? Why not find those teachable – and listenable – moments in our constituents’ daily lives rather than making them attend a meeting at 7 pm? I see outreach and education as key components to my job as supervisor and I know that the traditional methods do not work well. We need to experiment with and borrow new methods for rebuilding government’s relationship with the citizens it serves.
Campaign Address:
PO Box 2291
Mechanicsville, VA 23116
Campaign phone:
(804) 550-5655
Campaign Email:
angela@angelaforsupervisor.com
Phone (direct):
(804) 550-5655
Incumbent?:
Open seat. Endorsed by incumbent.
Age:
40
Career:
I have worked for 20 years in the private sector handling marketing and communications. I currently own 3C Marketing, LLC a consulting business specializing in industrial marketing.
Campaign Address:
Citizens for Jim Ellis
9167 Odey Dr
Mechanicsville VA 23116
Campaign phone:
(804) 263-8936
Campaign Email:
jimellisbos@comcast.net
Phone (direct):
(804) 263-8936
Incumbent?:
No
Age:
51
Career:
Public opinion researcher with UVa Center for Survey Research 2007-present
Public opinion researcher with VCU Survey and Evaluation Research Laboratory, 1986-2007
Various jobs prior to 1986 going back to being a newspaper carrier in the mid-1970s..
Biographical Information
