Manassas residents afforded few chances to hear from city council, school board candidates this year

MANASSAS — Historic Manassas, Inc., is planning to host a Manassas City candidate forum on October 24 at City Hall.

The event will run from 6 to 9:30 p.m. Historic Manassas, Inc. Executive Director Debbie Haight said that the event will give candidates two and a half hours to answer questions and a little time in the end for a meet and greet.

Questions from the public will be gathered from Facebook and each question will be answered two times — once by a Democrat and once by a Republican. Each candidate will also have time to summarize their platform.

Three city council seats are open for election this November 6. The council is the city’s top governing body dictating the direction of the community on issues like transportation, taxation, education, and economic and residential development.

Three Democrats — Ken Elston, Michelle Davis-Younger, and Rex Parr — and three Republicans — Amalfi Arias, Marc Aveni, and Theresa Coates Ellis — are running for those seats.

The Historic Manassas Inc. forum is the only formal public event of its kind planned, a departure from two years ago when council candidates seeking office during that election cycle participated in multiple campaign forums around the city.

“I think the NAACP is trying to schedule one, but as of now, I don’t know that that’s been scheduled,” said Manassas Democratic Party Chairman Mike Vreeland.

A candidate forum was scheduled for September 25 at City Tavern, by Manassas Tea Party chairman Dan Arnold. All six candidates were invited to address the Manassas citizenry. Five days prior, Arnold canceled the event, citing scheduling conflicts with some of the council members as the issue.

“Due to scheduling conflicts with 3 of the 6 City Council candidates, we are forced to cancel this event and look for another date prior to the November 6th election,” Arnold wrote in a post dated September 20.

All three Democratic candidates declined to attend.

Prior to that, multiple candidates took questions during an event at a private residents’ home hosted by Equality Prince William on September 16. Amalfi Arias, Ken Elston, Michelle Davis-Younger, and Rex Parr attended. Representing Manassas Park city council candidates were Alanna Mensing and Preston Brooks. Prince William County School Board candidate Babur Lateef also spoke.

A series of informal meet and greets will be held at the Wellington Community Center, at 9700 Wellington Road, on Oct. 10 and 24 for school board candidates and city council candidates, respectively, said manager Lisa Mulloy.

Potomac Local will post Project: Election survey responses from candidates running in the city elections on our website, in our Breakfast Links email, and in a special voters’ guide email on November 5.