Sparks flew last night (Tuesday) as City Council candidates debated topics like immigration enforcement and budgeting at the Departmental Progressive Club in Old Town.
The event was hosted by DPC and the Alexandria branch of the NAACP, and it was the second debate in two days for the five Alexandria Democrats vying for their party’s nomination in the upcoming Feb. 21 firehouse primary. Independent candidate Frank Fannon, a former Republican member of City Council, also participated and received significant pushback from several candidates for his opinions on governance, housing and immigration.
The five Democrats running for the seat are:
- Sandy Marks, former Alexandria Democratic Committee chair
- Tim Laderach, president of the Del Ray Citizens Association
- Roberto Gomez, leader of nonprofit Cornerstone Craftsman
- Cesar Madison Tapia, D.C. Public Schools teacher
- Charles Sumpter, executive at World Wildlife Fund
Fannon will face the winner of the Democratic primary in the special election.
Affordable housing
The candidates were asked how they would contextualize the city’s affordable housing crisis.
Sumpter said the city needs to build additional housing at all different levels.
“In my mind, we have to build more housing stock to ensure that there’s enough for people to actually live in,” Sumpter said. “Are there buildings, office spaces, that we can use for housing? I know we’re doing that, which is great. Is there more we can do in that regard?”
Madison Tapia said the city needs to help younger residents become homeowners.
Fannon said it costs too much in taxes to live in the city. He also criticized the city’s Zoning for Housing/Housing for All reforms, which are intended to expand and diversify the city’s housing options.
“The market appreciation has been tremendous in here, but one of the unfortunate things with the value of the equity is it’s also priced a lot of people out of this community,” Fannon said.
Marks told Fannon that every neighborhood in Alexandria should bear the responsibility of building more housing, and that neighborhoods citywide should be building more housing “to drive down the scarcity prices.”
Fannon responded that residents in single-family homes suffer when neighbors live in overcrowded properties.
“When you buy in a single-family neighborhood right now, someone can build a property next door and they can put four apartment units in there,” Fannon said. “Sixteen people can live in your neighborhood right there, with no parking restrictions. We have sewer problems in this city, so it’s a big issue.”
Gomez said building more apartments and housing isn’t going to solve affordability issues alone, and that the city needs to provide housing for some of its employees.
“It’s very complex,” Gomez said. “People have to have jobs in this city to afford to live in this city. You know, I champion ideas like making sure that we have workforce housing for our first responders and other critical staff.”
Laderach described himself as one of the more “YIMBY” (Yes In My Back Yard) candidates. He said the city needs more housing at all price points.
“I believe that affordability is an equation with many different factors,” Laderach said. “It’s also the cost of transit … It is also the cost of health care if the house is not safe, clean and without termites or anything that would keep someone from being able to feasibly live in that home without extra health care costs.”
The Departmental Progressive Club’s City Council candidate forum, Feb. 17, 2026 (courtesy James Minichello Photography)
Accountability at ARHA
The candidates were asked about controversies surrounding the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority, and specific reforms that they would like to support to bring greater accountability to the housing authority.
Over the summer and fall, ARHA’s former CEO was fired for living in a public housing property, followed by the full resignation of the board and appointment of a new board by City Council. With tenants protesting living conditions, delayed repairs and eviction practices, Mayor Alyia Gaskins said the organization needed a system reset.
Fannon said ARHA’s new board of commissioners needs to keep a close eye on the books with financial audits.
“ARHA is a multimillion dollar organization with money flowing in and out on construction deals all the time,” Fannon said. “We need to be very careful who they’re bringing in. They’re not giving jobs to friends, they’re not giving jobs to family members, and it has to be a tight operation… I think audits and good accounting is a very important step to prevent financial fraud at ARHA and all city operations.”
Gomez said the city needs to carefully select board members.
“I think City Council did the right thing to remove ARHA board members,” Gomez said. “We need to sit down, thoroughly go over the responsibilities of what it means to sit on a board like that, where you’re overseeing hundreds of millions of dollars of assets, and ensure that we have somebody that not only can we trust the leader as the CEO, but responsible folks who can oversee the responsibilities of the organization.”
Madison Tapia apologized and said he is learning about issues affecting the city. He was not familiar with ARHA.
Laderach, who chairs the city’s Economic Opportunities Commission, said Council needs to improve communication.
“From my perspective, we could do better about consolidating our boards and commissions, finding better synergies, and making sure that we do have time for members of council to exercise that oversight,” Laderach said.
Marks said the ARHA situation was “terrible and unfortunate.”
“I think the greatest resource we’ve added is a fresh start with a fresh board of people who now understand what went wrong and can be committed to protecting the program for the future,” Marks said.
Reducing crime
The candidates were asked about strategies to reduce crime throughout the city.
Laderach said the chief of police and his leadership need to maintain communication with community groups and neighborhood organizations.
Gomez said one of the reasons he got into the race was because one of his teenage apprentices at Cornerstone Craftsman was recently shot.
“I’m in favor of community policing, building relationships with the communities who need the help,” Gomez said. “We need to start building trust in communities that traditionally do not trust police for systemic reasons. We can rebuild that trust that would lead to preventing crime from happening in the first place and solving crime faster when it does.”
Fannon said he thinks police have been demoralized over the past several years.
Fannon said that “a bad cop in Minnesota” is “in prison where he should be,” before adding that “98% of the police are good people, and they’re there for law enforcement.”
Marks said the answer is not more police officers.
“I think that distrust of police in many of our communities is a rational reaction to what they’ve seen on the news, elsewhere and sometimes at home,” she said. “I would like to see more community networking [with police].”
ICE and law enforcement
The candidates were asked, “The Trump administration has made mass deportations a top policy goal, and that has led to ramped up ICE activity in communities across the country. The Sheriff’s Office and chief of police have maintained that they do not voluntarily cooperate with ICE, but some community advocates dispute those claims. How would you ensure that there is appropriate oversight for law enforcement within the city and their interactions with ICE?”
Fannon elicited boos from the audience for his response to the question.
“Why is there even a second Trump administration?” Fannon asked. “The four years before, when Joe Biden was the president, he opened the borders to the United States, 11 million people walked into our country … Now, if someone were to walk into your house, okay, would that be appropriate?”
Laderach said he agreed with City Council in asking Sheriff Sean Casey to not collaborate with ICE, and questioned whether the Alexandria Police Department should be called if federal agents come to the city’s neighborhoods.
He also criticized Fannon’s opinion.
“You put yourself out there as somebody who wants to think differently, be an independent thinker and not be somewhat part of this ‘group think,’ but respectfully, what you said sounds like the MAGA group think that has led us to where we’re at,” Laderach said.
Gomez said he’s attended anti-ICE protests in Alexandria, most recently after the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis in January.
“There’s entire communities that aren’t going to work,” Gomez said. “Their kids aren’t going to school. I think that our officers here in the City of Alexandria are sworn to protect our citizens, and to me, that means our civil and constitutional rights. That’s what they should be doing, including if another federal agency or officer is committing a crime against another human being.”
Madison Tapia said that as a U.S. Army veteran, ICE is the “most unpatriotic organization I have ever seen in my life,” and that Casey should not turn residents over to federal officials, regardless of whether his staff are presented with federal or judicial warrants.
Sumpter said he agreed with Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s recent executive order directing Virginia’s law enforcement agencies and divisions to end all existing agreements with ICE.
“I think accountability for me looks like Sheriff Casey coming before Council to explain his views on the law and the interpretation for all citizens to see whether you agree or not,” Sumpter said. “I think that’s about accountability, and as elected officials, that should be number one.”
Marks said she feels passionately about the issue, and that she’s talked with Casey and members of the state legislature on the issue.
“I spent a good deal of time on the phone with Sheriff Casey talking about this,” Marks said. “I can pitch a fit. I can drag him before Council. What I’d really like to do is get to work, and I’m glad to see the folks up here embracing this idea that the way we do this, the way we change Sheriff Casey’s actions are by changing the law that he has sworn to follow.”
Budget priorities
The candidates were asked about their single largest budget priority.
Fannon said the city needs to cut the budget for Alexandria City Public Schools.
“We need to support the children, but how much money is being spent in the schools that don’t need to be?” Fannon asked.
Marks pushed back, and said the city needs to work with the state legislature to get more funding for public schools.
“We need to be bringing more money into our schools,” Marks said. “You think we’re spending too much on children? It costs $2,500 extra to educate each English language learner in our system, who we want to have here.”
Madison Tapia and Sumpter said they are prioritizing affordable housing above all other issues.
Gomez, who runs a nonprofit teaching the trades to underserved youth, said his top issue is workforce development.
“I think workforce entails, you know, helping young people that are going to be here, going to high wage careers and skilled trades,” Gomez said. “If we can get it right, and adds money to our budget to spend on additional services.”
Laderach said the city needs to bring in more commercial tax revenue to offset the city’s budget revenue imbalance.
“We also need to really lean into whatever it is that we can do here to actually see the commercial development that we need that unlocks the ability to fund schools, to fund housing, to fund the transit that we need to see in the city,” Laderach said, “because we are a progressive city that is looking forward, not looking behind.”
School transportation
Candidates were asked whether the city should revisit putting Alexandria City High School students on DASH buses.
Fannon supports the idea.
“When I’m on the City Council, I would definitely look at that, and yes, use DASH busses to get the students around,” Fannon said.
Madison Tapia said he thinks putting kids on DASH buses can be dangerous.
“Yes, it sounds like a great idea, but it also screws our workers here, the bus drivers,” Madison Tapia said. “Right now with the sad reality that we live in, we’ve got to prioritize our kids safety.”
Sumpter said he thinks students are safer on school buses and not riding to school with strangers.
“Right now, the world is crazy,” Sumpter said. “I think we can keep a little bit of safety by having them on school buses.”
Gomez said he wants to know more about the issue and the safety concerns.
“There’s a lot of things going on that need to be considered that I don’t think are fully considered, including bus routes being diverted for whatever reason that make people’s lives difficult in general, where they have to take multiple busses to a route where they it was just one before,” Gomez said.
Marks said she wants to hear more about the proposal.
“I am really interested in creative solutions to large scale problems, and I would like to hear more about this,” Marks said. “I would like to see it discussed transparently and openly, and I would love to be a bridge between Council and the School Board to facilitate these conversations so we can have them.”
Upcoming forum
The public has one more chance to see the Democratic candidates together before the primary. The Alexandria Federation of Civic Associations is holding a forum at its monthly meeting at 7 p.m. tonight in the Parish Hall at Immanuel Church on the Hill (3606 Seminary Road).
