Slutzky says he'll seek to keep supervisor seat

David L. Slutzky announced on Wednesday that he’s seeking re-election to the Albemarle Board of Supervisors.

Slutzky, a Democrat who is serving as the board’s chairman this year, was elected as the Rio District representative in 2005. So far, he’s unopposed for the Democratic Party nomination. But Republican Rodney S. Thomas — a former Albemarle Planning Commission member — plans to challenge Slutzky in the November election.

“I’m absolutely convinced I’d be miserable if I wasn’t doing this,” Slutzky said at Wednesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting.

In his campaign announcement, Slutzky said that he’s proud of his leadership in working to solve transportation challenges, fund infrastructure projects, address affordable housing needs and protect rural areas.

Thomas, on the other hand, has said that he would bring fiscal conservatism to the board and protect property rights. He also said in February that the board appeared too ready to increase taxes for rural landowners and to restrict development rights.

A vocal member of the board, Slutzky said that his aggressive style may damage him politically sometimes but being straightforward and speaking his mind is part of “his nature.”

“There’s some benefit to the community knowing where their leaders stand and why they stand there,” Slutzky said. “My honesty has perhaps hurt me politically, because I tell people what they need to know, not necessarily what they want to hear.”

In the early stages of creating a fiscal 2010 budget, Slutzky would have likely supported a real-estate tax rate of more than 80 cents per $100 of assessed value, he said, up from the 2008 rate of 71 cents.

Leaders of the Albemarle Truth in Taxation Alliance, a local government watchdog group, made Slutzky the poster child in the alliance’s message that the county appeared too anxious to raise taxes.

However, Slutzky ultimately reversed course and called for a tax rate no higher than 74.2 cents — at that rate, the average county homeowner would pay the same real estate taxes this year as last. Supervisors unanimously approved the rate.

“I resisted my temptation to try and raise taxes, because of the concern about the near-term economic crisis,” Slutzky said. “But in the long-run, I still feel responsible local electives have to address the infrastructure needs of the community far better than we’ve been doing.”

Slutzky said that he considers himself fiscally conservative and is focused on belt-tightening and cutting unnecessary spending. However, he said that he thinks the county also has an obligation to fund infrastructure projects that have long been promised, for example, and that the county also has an obligation to provide adequate funding for social services and affordable housing.

He said that he has consistently supported economic development and job creation, and he identified education and protection of ecological systems among his top priorities.

Slutzky, 54, is an owner of E² Inc., a Charlottesville-based environmental and economic policy firm, and he’s an adjunct professor at the University of Virginia in the Urban and Environmental Planning Department.

Late last year, Slutzky toyed with the possibility of challenging Republican Rob Bell for his seat in the Virginia General Assembly’s House of Delegates. He said that he believed he would have beaten Bell but that he wanted to focus on serving Albemarle.

He said Wednesday that he has no intentions of challenging Bell, now or in “the foreseeable future.”