WILLIAMSBURG — Election day is coming up and with early voters already getting out to the polls, it’s time to meet the candidates for Williamsburg City Council.
Residents will cast votes to fill two spots on the five-person council. The candidates include current council members Doug Pons, who serves as mayor, and Ted Maslin, as well as hopefuls Rick Overy and Stacy Kern-Scheerer.
All four candidates are bringing decades of experience in public service to the table.
For 12 years, Pons has served on the council, as well as making time for a range of other committees and commissions, including the Williamsburg Tourism Council, the Williamsburg Finance Committee and the Williamsburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
Pons, a lifelong Williamsburg resident, graduated from Lafayette High School before earning his degree at Christopher Newport University. Currently, he works in real estate and is seeking reelection “because this is such an amazing place to live, work and visit,” he said.
Calling the city a “model for innovation,” Pons said that his hope is to “continue the work and build on the positive accomplishments” he’s helped achieved during his tenure, including economic development and diversity, downtown vibrancy, finding innovative housing options and bringing awareness to challenging issues.
Maslin, the other incumbent running for reelection, has lived in Williamsburg since 1976. In addition to his six years on the council, he also serves on a number of other committees, including the Williamsburg Fire Department’s alumni group and the Williamsburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board of Commissioners.
He said he is seeking reelection to “continue to provide a voice for neighborhoods” as well as to “advocate for common sense solutions, programs and projects,” “maintain fiscal responsibility” and “support public safety, our local non-profits and our schools.”
For the past 13 years, Kern-Scheerer, an attorney and associate professor at William & Mary Law School, has called Williamsburg home. Before coming to Williamsburg, Kern-Scheerer spent 10 years in Washington, D.C., working as a nonpartisan lawyer in the U.S. Senate.
“Without a doubt, some of the most important decisions that have the highest impact on our day-to-day lives happen not in the halls of Congress, but in our City Hall,” she said.
Her previous experience includes serving as the president of the Alumni Association Board of Directors at Beloit College, plus current stints on the Matthew Whaley Elementary School Parent Teacher Association (PTA) executive board and as a Williamsburg citizen representative on the Colonial Community Criminal Justice Board.
As for why she keeps so busy, Kern-Scheerer said that she’s “committed to public service.”
“I love our town,” she said. “… I want to use my particular skills and expertise to serve the community.”
More than 40 years ago, Overy came to Williamsburg to attend William & Mary. Since then, he’s raised his family in Williamsburg, served as associate dean of the Law School and built his independent financial services firm, Compass Wealth Strategies. Additionally, Overy has served on the Williamsburg Development Authority, the Kiwanis Club of Williamsburg Foundation, the Williamsburg Regional Library Foundation board and as a volunteer charity auctioneer.
The reason he’s running for council, Overy said, is because he believes that “it is very important to have someone with a deep financial and budget background as we develop our spending priorities.”
“Over the next two years, I want to make sure we carefully allocate the once in a lifetime Federal COVID Relief dollars to preserve the special character of Williamsburg without further tax increases,” he added.
When asked what they believe to be the city’s biggest priority right now, the candidates gave a variety of answers.
For Kern-Scheerer, the biggest priority of the city is to “ensure that the residents of this town have a high quality of life, by preserving and building upon what makes Williamsburg a great place to live.”
To do that, she said she would “prioritize public safety, strategic and careful development, community preservation and identity, strong schools and maintenance of infrastructure.”
Maslin also chose public safety as Williamsburg’s top priority, something that includes “ensuring the availability of highly trained paramedics, firefighters and police officers to respond quickly to calls for assistance,” he said.
“Although public safety officer recruiting and retention is a challenge nationwide, it is even more critical in Williamsburg where our small departments are faced with extra demands for service related to William & Mary and Colonial Williamsburg,” he added.
Overy believes that one of the city’s biggest priorities that hasn’t gotten as much attention is the “need to build a cultural arts performance venue” to help support local arts organizations like the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra, the Williamsburg Youth Orchestra and the Virginia Regional Ballet.
One idea, he said, is to add an indoor performance venue and arts gallery to the proposed sports facility behind the Colonial Williamsburg Visitor Center “to retain the arts in Williamsburg and attract national talent for years to come.”
Pons outlined several priorities that he believes to be at the top of the city’s list, including maintaining the city’s strong financial position, finding ways to provide the best educational opportunities for students, working to provide housing across all income levels and strengthening and supporting the tourism economy as well as providing new career opportunities.
Ten years from now, all of the council candidates want to see Williamsburg even stronger than it is today.
“I hope to see a town that has met the challenges of growth responsibly, through strategic and careful development that does not compromise the community character and histories that are unique to Williamsburg,” Kern-Scheerer said.
She added that she wants to see a city “thriving with a strong local economy and top-flight school system” as well as a city “where individuals and families — no matter where they are in their lives — have access to services and spaces that help them thrive in their own chosen pursuits.”
The most important duty for council over the coming decade “will be to maintain the very special character that makes Williamsburg such a desirable place to live,” Overy said. “To move forward while preserving what is best about Williamsburg will take someone with strong relationships in the community, (including with William & Mary) and Colonial Williamsburg, but with the independence not to be influenced or controlled by any special interests.”
Overy said he wants to help create affordable housing, allow residents to maintain and renovate their homes in a cost-effective way, help grow public transportation in the area and build better relationships in the neighborhoods between students and long-term residents.
Pons would like to see “an even more vibrant, beautiful and welcoming city” in 10 years, he said, with a strong economy, a high quality education system, a strong local government with dedicated employees and neighborhoods that are welcoming, balanced and safe.
As Maslin said, Williamsburg in a decade “will be the best city in Virginia in which to work, live, visit and learn.”
Maslin said he believes that it’s today’s investments in the city’s future that will provide a city where employers want to locate, where workers and students can find affordable, quality housing and parking and where neighbors can “connect with each other to form communities in harmony.”
On Tuesday, the candidates will gather for a public forum to give voters a chance to come and hear more. The forum, which is hosted by the Williamsburg area League of Women Voters, will start at 7 p.m. at the Williamsburg Regional Library Auditorium. During the event, audience members can submit written question for the candidates. The League will hold a meet and greet for congressional candidates beginning at 6:30 p.m. just prior to the city council forum.
Another forum hosted by the William & Mary Voter Engagement Action Committee and the Student Assembly will be held between 6-7:30 p.m. on Oct. 19 at the Sadler Center Commonwealth Auditorium.
More information about the four candidates is available on their websites. To learn more about Maslin, visit www.tedforwilliamsburg.com. To see more on Kern-Scheerer, visit www.stacy4citycouncil.com/. For Pons, visit www.dougpons.com/. For Overy, visit rickforwilliamsburg.com/.
Sian Wilkerson, sian.wilkerson@pilotonline.com, 757-342-6616
