"EXPERIENCE, VISION JOIN IN TOSCANO

By returning David Toscano to City Council, Charlottesville voters will retain the intelligence, experience and concern of one of their best leaders.

In the new council, Mr. Toscano would be the senior statesman – if the term "senior" can be appropriately applied to this vigorous baby-boomer. But the fact is that with Mayor Kay Slaughter retiring this year, Mr. Toscano would be the most politically seasoned voice in the group.

He already has served for eight years and has been mayor for two of those. They've been industrious ones, as Charlottesville has had to grapple with issues ranging from police dissatisfaction, to school quality, to projected budget declines. Yet Mr. Toscano has been instrumental in enabling council not merely to react to problems thrown its way, but rather to pursue positive change aggressively. Among the initiatives he has been involved with are economic development and restructuring of government to save money and enhance creativity.

He also has a positive and realistic attitude toward regional cooperation, one of the most critical issues for anyone in any of our area's governments. He is on record against reversion as the mechanism by which to enforce cooperation because – and this is an important distinction – he believes it is counterproductive to real teamwork. Specifically, he believes using reversion as a threat against Albemarle County will push the county into a defensive posture, will polarize city and county positions on related issues and will prevent free and honest dialogue between the two on joint ventures.
So far, he's been proved right.

Meanwhile, he believes strongly in regional cooperation and is frequently at meetings where this vision is being pursued and mplemented.

But he's not just a big-picture guy. He also has a reputation for involving himself with neighborhood meetings as well as regional ones, for carefully listening to constituents.

Sometimes people who enjoy a long tenure in government begin to take their power and their constituents for granted. That does not seem to be the case with Mr. Toscano. He continues to listen, to seek the opinions of residents.

Mr. Toscano says he's like another term on council to see the reversion issue through and to continue to encourage attractive development on West Main Street.

He also wants to encourage economic development overall by creating opportunities for clean, high-tech businesses, supported by good infrastructure (such as fiber optics), a skilled workforce and a quality school system.

He wants to protect neighborhoods and promote improvement of the housing stock, since he understands full well that without attractive housing Charlottesville cannot lure the kinds of residents it needs to support this economic and educational development.

Mr. Toscano brings seasoned experience to council – but experience that is tempered with a willingness to learn new things, consider new points of view, find new ways of doing things – and doing them right. He thinks his way through problems, he doesn't just blindly react to them.

He is generally a consensus builder, which is what Charlottesville needs in this potentially divisive time of considering reversion. Consensus needs to be developed with Albemarle County – and perhaps among factions within the city itself.

In short, David Toscano knows and loves Charlottesville, he knows how to lead – and he knows where to lead. " (Editorial, Daily Progress, April 26, 1998)