Seeking city council seat, Clark says Manassas has ‘appetite for high taxes’

He’s been politically active in numerous parts of the city for decades but has never run for office.

He’ll probably never do it again, he says.

For now though, “I’m really enjoying himself,” said Harry Clark, a candidate for the Manassas City Council.

He’s running for the council as a Republican and is the secretary for the city’s GOP committee headed by former city council member Andy Harrover.

Clark serves as the Chairman of the city’s Planning Commission charged with hearing land-use cases and making recommendations to the City Council. He’s also chairman of the Board of Equalization – which hears appeals to property assessments and sits on the Freedom Aquatic and Fitness Center Advisory Board, and the Manassas Regional Airport Commission. Clark has also been volunteering to keep score for the Stonewall Park Swim Team since 1997.

“I try to keep busy,” Clark said.

Clark and his wife, Debra, moved to Manassas in 1990. They’ve been married for 35 years and have two daughters. Their daughters went through Manassas public schools. His wife is a retired military police officer, and he is a retired military intelligence agent. Growing up, his children couldn’t get away with anything, he joked.

Clark analyzed intelligence budgets at the Pentagon for 19 years. His office was located where a Boeing 757 crashed into the building on September 11. He was not in his office that morning.

“I got lucky,”  Clark said.

But Clark says the thinks the city is turning the wrong direction politically, and that the government has an increasing “appetite for high taxes.” Eight weeks into the pandemic, the city council this year hiked taxes, raising the average homeowner’s property tax bill $220 more than last year, to an average of $4,295.

At a town hall meeting at the city’s airport on Monday, September 21, he said it was apparent that the people in Georgetown South don’t like the Grant Avenue Streetscape project. The $8.1 million project aims to reduce the number of lanes on South Grant Avenue that runs past their neighborhood, from four to two lanes.  The reduction will make it more difficult for residents to travel in and out of their neighborhood and will lead to traffic backups.

Higher tax rates are also driving out the city’s most poor and vulnerable residents, he said. He is also worried about increased taxes driving businesses out of the city.

“I’m retired…I plan to stay in the city,” Clark said. “It’s a vibrant and diverse community, and I want it to stay that way.”

The city has been doing a good job with its response to the coronavirus pandemic, but he thinks the local government needs to be more proactive about businesses getting the relief available from the state and the federal governments. The city’s economic development department had provided multiple grants to city businesses and has partnered with Prince William County, and Northern Virginia Community College to provide job retraining skills.

Clark said he wants the business community to have more interaction with the school system, too. While the school system has a vocational program that works with local businesses to train students, many business owners don’t understand how to access the program. He wants to aid business owners in the process of filling out the required forms and completing the background checks needed, he said.

There are four open City Council seats on the November 3 ballot, to include the mayor. Clark is joined by Republican incumbent councilman Ian Lovejoy and Lynn Forkell Greene. Incumbent council members Mark Wolfe and Pamela Sebesky are running for re-election, alongside newcomer Tom Osina, for the Democrat ticket.

Two incumbent council members, Theresa Coates Ellis and Michelle Davis Younger are seeking the mayoral seat for the Republican and Democrats, respectively.

“I know all those people, and I like them. Nobody’s getting really nasty about things [during the campaign],” Clark said. “It’s a small town, we’re all friends.”