Council Members Criticize Behavior at Waterfront Hearing

Alexandria City Council members delved into a heated discussion Tuesday about the conduct of speakers at .

More than 100 people spoke at the hearing, after which the city . At council’s Tuesday night meeting, Vice Mayor Kerry Donley said some comments from plan opponents bordered on slander of public officials, notably comments likening city staff to “trained seals” and calling the decision “genocide.”

“I hope that is the last we’ll see of such embarrassing behavior,” said Donley, who voted for the plan. “ … It’s fine to have a difference of opinion, but let’s have the debate on the merits.”

Mayor Bill Euille, who also voted for the plan, echoed Donley’s sentiments.

“I think folks who really feel that they have a question about something, I think they have a right to come to the sources and ask, as opposed to creating the answers and distorting it,” he said. Waterfront plan opponents didn’t consult with local businesses and others most affected by the plan, he said.

“Hopefully, it’s a discourse that we’ll never see again,” Euille said.

Councilman Frank Fannon, who voted against the plan, said the whole city was divided over the matter and that Donley was giving a false impression that only a small number of people opposed it. More than half of the 100-plus people who spoke Saturday were against the plan, he said.

“Yes, some of the tactics might not have been appropriate, but to make it sound like there were only a few people in the community who were against this very controversial plan is not correct,” Fannon said.

Donley countered that he never said only a few people were against the plan but that some comments were off-base

“We weren’t proposing to put National Harbor in Old Town, like the opponents said we were,” he said. “We never proposed to ‘Disney-fy’ Old Town, like the opponents said we were. Nobody was sitting here auctioning off the waterfront.”

Fannon replied, “There’s hundreds of people in this community. Everybody has different thoughts and opinions. We work for them. They can yell at us. We can’t yell at them.”

Euille banged his gavel. “Mr. Fannon, they can’t yell at us," he said. "Civility is the rule of the day.”

Councilwoman Alicia Hughes, who voted against the plan, then advised council members to have a meaningful conversation about civility. Hughes said she had endured character assassinations and personal attacks during her two-and-a-half years on the board.

“I can’t compare myself to Jesus, but they say, ‘She never uttered a word.’ … I hope that all of us, in our private lives, when we’re walking out and down the street, are adhering to the same standards that we’re telling the public they should be adhering to also, be it you’re speaking about another person that sits on this dais with you or be it you’re speaking about somebody in the community,” Hughes said.

She added: “We do live by example, and this is not the way to do business.”