Alexandria City Manager Jim Parajon will be able to order around all City employees under his purview, not just department heads, if City Council approves one of his latest requests at their meeting on Tuesday (March 11).
At that meeting, Parajon is asking Council to amend and approve an ordinance to “increase interdepartmental enforcement flexibility,” as it’s described in a staff memo.
As it deliberates its Fiscal Year 2026 budget, the Alexandria City Council, on Tuesday, will set the ceiling for a tax rate increase.
This time last year, Council set a 4-cent tax ceiling, eventually deciding on a 2.5-cent real estate tax increase.
Alexandria City Public Schools Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt will unveil her fiscal year 2026 budget this week, and the city is asking the school division to keep the budget increase over last year’s budget modest.
In his budget presentation to the City Council in November, City Manager Jim Parajon outlined a 2%, or $5.5 million, combined funds budget increase for ACPS amounting to $278.5 million.
Without getting into specifics, Alexandria’s new Mayor Alyia Gaskins says that the city has to be intentional and take “big, bold swings at economic development.”
More than 80% of the city’s revenue comes from residential real estate taxes, versus about 19% from commercial properties. The issue was a major political conversation from council candidates leading up to the Democratic primary in June and general election last month.
Surrounded by city leaders, Alexandria’s new Police Chief Tarrick McGuire was sworn in on Tuesday (Dec. 10).
McGuire is the third permanent chief of the Alexandria Police Department in three years. The city’s Chief Circuit Court Judge Lisa Kemler swore him in onstage at the amphitheater of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Old Town.
Alexandria City Manager Jim Parajon has hired Tarrick McGuire as Alexandria’s new police chief.
McGuire, the assistant chief of police in Arlington, Texas, has been with that department since 2003 — just three years before Parajon started working in that city government in 2006. There was no mention of their relationship or knowing each other in the release to the public.
Personal property taxes, also known as car taxes, are due today in Alexandria, and new penalties make late payments pricey.
City Council approved City Manager Jim Parajon’s proposal in the spring to increase the late payment penalty from a flat rate of:
Cupcakes, music and fireworks punctuated Alexandria’s 275th birthday on Saturday.
It was a clear night for a party at Oronoco Bay Park (100 Madison Street) along the Potomac River. Mayor Justin Wilson and city leaders spoke onstage before handing out thousands of birthday cupcakes.
Alexandria is experiencing a shortage of mental health staff, and City Manager Jim Parajon is asking City Council for $900,000 to solve the problem.
Tonight Council will consider releasing the funds from contingent reserves to pay for strategies to hire and retain the city’s mental health staff.
Alexandria Interim Fire Chief Jim Schwartz has put a departmental redeployment on hold that would have replaced fire engines with ambulances.
Former Alexandria Fire Department Chief Corey Smedley announced his AFD Forward plan in September. The plan would have replaced fire engines at Station 204 (900 Second Street) in Old Town North and Station 205 (1210 Cameron Street) in Rosemont. Using 2022 data, AFD found that 72% of their calls for service (out of more than 27,000 incidents) were medical and rescue-related, while just 15% were fire alarm and fire-related.
Alexandria residents and businesses are facing a large increase in financial penalties for zoning violations.
On Saturday, City Council will consider a recommendation by City Manager Jim Parajon and the Department of Planning and Zoning to increase violations by hundreds, and, in some cases thousands of dollars.
