"A voice vote was all it took Saturday for Charlottesville Democrats to nominate their two candidates for the May 2 City Council election.

A little more than 150 people filled the Jackson P. Burley Middle School auditorium and, amid some hoots and hollers, enthusiastically shouted a collective 'Yea' when asked if they supported retired Fire Chief Julian H. Taliaferro and homeless shelter director Dave Norris for council.

Since there are two candidates running for two open seats on the council, there was no need for a formal vote this year.

Norris and Taliaferro said increasing affordable housing, improving education and reducing the city's dependence on real estate tax revenues would be their primary goals if elected.

They will face first-term Republican Councilor Rob Schilling, who will be formally nominated for a second term today by the local Republican Party.

No other Republican has entered the race. But today's Republican meeting could still end with the nomination of a running mate for Schilling.

Councilor Blake Caravati, who holds the other open seat, will not seek a third term.

Taliaferro, who stepped down as fire chief last July after 33 years on the job, said witnessing a fatal gas explosion as a child spawned his 'passion for public service.'

Seeing the firefighters tend to the wounded and put out the fire made an impression, Taliaferro said.

'Right then I knew that I was going to be a firefighter,' he said. 'The desire to help people in need by serving as a firefighter was born that day.'

Norris serves as the executive director of People And Congregations Engaged in Ministry, an interfaith ministry that shelters and feeds the homeless. He said his father, who served as an Army intelligence officer, the late U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone and Robert F. Kennedy taught him the importance of taking a stand, no matter the consequences.

'It is time to take a stand for fighting poverty and reducing racial disparities,' he said. 'It is time to take a stand for affordable housing.'

Tossing a little red meat to the party faithful, past city councilor and Democratic Party Chairman John Conover said Schilling's days on the council are numbered.

'Four years ago we had an unfortunate experience in Charlottesville,' he said, recalling Schilling's historic victory, the first for a Republican in Charlottesville since 1986. 'We're living that out now, but we only have three more months to go of Rob Schilling.'" (John Yellig, The Daily Progress, March 6, 2006)