Exclusive Interviews: F.C. City Council Candidates Laura Downs, John Murphy

Ready to choose?

On Election Day, Nov. 5, Falls Church City voters will have a chance to elect a new member of the Falls Church City Council, to finish out the vacated term of Council member Caroline Lian who resigned Aug. 8 over ethics concerns. 

For the new City Council seat, voters will face a choice between former Falls Church School Board Chair Laura T. Downs and former Chair of the Board of Zoning Appeals and of the Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee for the City of Falls Church, John B. Murphy. 

The Falls Church Independent interviewed both Downs and Murphy to find out their qualifications for office, motivations for running, top policy priorities, frames of mind, and thoughts on the City of Falls Church.

Interview with Laura Downs

We met Laura Downs at the Falls Church Festival, Sept. 14, where she was helping staff the information tent for the Falls Church Education Foundation (FCEF), for which she serves on the Board. The FCEF was busy registering participants for their “Run for the Schools” the next morning. In addition to her School Board qualifications, Downs also mentioned she runs the Falls Church City Scenes Instagram account. 

What’s motivating Downs to run? “I’m a former School Board member, so I was on the School Board from 2020 to 2023 and was Chair in 2022 and 2023. So, I just [recently] rolled off. And I sort of regretted not running for reelection,” Downs said. “I was on the School Board during Covid, so I was a little bit burned out.... I had always thought about contributing to the City through the City Council, but I wasn’t sure. It’s a four-year commitment. And when this happened – when suddenly a space opened up…. and there was this special election – I thought, it’s a great opportunity for me to give back to the City.”

“Because of my experience on the School Board, I was able to really hit the ground running,” Downs continued. “And we only had about a two-week window to gather signatures and get our names on the ballot – you needed 125 signatures – getting your materials ready and all that. But, I had already done that with my School Board race, so I had some experience with that. So I thought, of all the people, I could do it quickly. It was in August and a lot of people are away in August. So I thought, ‘You know what, I’m going to give back to the City and I’m going to step up.’ 

“So, I got it all going within a couple of weeks. And you know, I’m just really interested,” Downs said. “This is a time where the City has seen a lot of growth and that helps our schools. As a former School Board Chair, I know it brings in revenue. So the schools and the City split revenue 50 percent. So any revenue that’s coming in always benefits the schools. But, on the flip side, we’re concerned about our enrollment, and most of our enrollment still comes from single-family homes. But we’ve seen these developments come up, these mixed-use developments, Founders Row, Broad & Washington with the Whole Foods – So [it’s about] just really taking a look at how those developments are going to impact enrollment.”

“As a City Council member, I would really be interested to see if enrollment is increasing, [because] we would need to fund the schools appropriately,” Downs said. “And looking at things like streets and really trying to make us a more bikeable and walkable city. Also, addressing things like congestion. I’ve heard a lot of people – because of these development projects – concerned about traffic. What can we do about traffic? And looking at City services. There are some offices in the City I think are understaffed and then I hear complaints from residents that they’re not getting the customer service they should get. So, can we add some City staff? Can we automate some more processes? I know some local business owners have complained about the permitting process. So, looking at that.”

“And then finally, looking at stewardship,” Downs continued. “You probably know… but US News & World Report named us the number-one healthiest community. So, really just doubling down and making sure we stick to those priorities so that future generations have that same walkability and health. But it’s a time of pretty quick growth with these mixed-use developments coming up. And I see both the pros and cons. I feel I’m really a centrist and a coalition builder…. So, I really am running on sort of a moderate centrist platform and really trying to bring both sides together. The buildings are up now, so what can we do to make the City as livable as it has been?”

So why is “giving back to the City of Falls Church” so important to Downs? “Well, my husband and I moved here about 15 years ago with our four boys. And so all four boys started as kindergartners at Mt. Daniel. Two are now in college. We have a high school freshman [at Meridian H.S.] and a 7th grade middle schooler [at Mary Ellen Henderson M.S.] So a lot of wanting to give back is from the schooling. And you still have that small town feel here. There are people I’ve known forever who are around to help me with my City Council race.... People love it here. And, you know, it’s the kind of place I can walk around here at the Taste of Falls Church and I know the owner of Clare & Don’s, I know the owner of Harvey’s, and I bump into people from all different parts of the town.... It’s a lot to ask someone to run for office, but since I’ve done it through the School Board, I felt like I owed it to the City to help out.”

While development projects are vital to the City’s revenue and school system, Downs is also concerned the City strikes a healthy balance between growth and sustainability. “Things aren’t perfect,” she said. “I was talking with some members of the Council when they built Founders Row.... and I think there was some regret on the City Council that they didn’t ask the builders of Founders Row to put in more trees. But when you look now at the Broad & Washington development, there are trees all lined up down Broad Street. So I think you learn. And one of the other things with Broad and Washington is that the City mandated that development to put cisterns [underneath] to catch stormwater. So I think that environmental best practices and development can coexist. And that’s my middle ground. We need the money from the development, if people want lower tax rates. You need that commercial tax revenue coming in. But on the other hand, when you build these things, you need to make sure we’re keeping our tree canopy as big as it can be, addressing stormwater and sewer [issues] and that sort of thing.”

Downs wants readers to visit her campaign website at: Votelauradowns.com. “I’m happy to talk to anyone,” she said. “And I’m happy to drop off yard signs, talk with people, have coffee. As I said, I learned on the School Board, it’s super-important to listen to all sides of an issue before making a decision. And, you know, you’re not always going to please everyone when you make that decision, but you try to make the most informed decision you can.”

Downs's Instagram site is at: https://www.instagram.com/laurataddeuccidowns/.

Interview with John Murphy

In our story, “An Invitation to Falls Church City’s ‘Mysterious’ Log Cabin Scout House,” we described our first meeting with John T. Murphy. He had sent us a  “curious invitation” to visit the Scout Building Association’s historic “Scout House” at 128 South Spring St., Falls Church, where he – now a retired international economist, former board member of the Village Preservation and Improvement Society (VPIS), and volunteer Building Manager for the site – could give us a tour. 

Murphy and his wife raised two boys in the City of Falls Church, where each attended the City’s public schools. As a youngster, Murphy was a Boy Scout himself, attending meetings and events at the very same site. During the tour, he enthusiastically showed off the many trees he helped plant on the grounds as he described his devoted stewardship to the “Scout House” and its sustainable landscaping.

We reached Murphy by phone Sept. 25 for the interview. Was he at the “Scout House”? “We got an inch of rain this week, so I didn’t have to water the trees,” he quipped, telling us he was calling from home instead.

When I told him I was surprised to see his name as a candidate for the City Council seat, he joked, “Almost as surprised as I am [Laughs].”

Murphy emphasizes he’s “not a politician” at all, just a concerned resident and neighbor with the experience and skills to make a positive impact for the City. 

Since he launched his campaign just a few weeks ago, the non-politician Murphy has been on quite a ride. “It’s been a very interesting process. I’m kind of the Candidate, Campaign Manager, Treasurer, Communications Director all in one – it’s been interesting. I’ve never made a website before. So you’ll have to let me know what you think about the one I created. I’ve had to do all the artwork for signs, camera-ready artwork, which is kind of new to me. My kids taught me Instagram, so I’m trying to do that as I go through as well,” Murphy said. “So, win or lose, this is going to be a good experience because I’m learning something and if you’re not learning something, you’re sitting, staying behind.” 

So, why did Murphy throw his hat in the ring? “That’s an interesting question and the answer is somewhat multifaceted,” he began. “I've been involved in City issues in the past with the Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee and with the Board of Zoning Appeals and had stepped back from that about 10 or 15 years ago. And this opportunity – it’s almost hard to say ‘opportunity’ – because the vacancy became available on the Council…. It’s a unique situation where I could almost try it before I buy it. I could go for a year and then decide whether I want to put a full four-year commitment into City Council, and being a politician, which is not really my forte – at least the politician part.” 

So, if he’s not naturally a “politician,” why is Murphy running? He’d like to apply his expertise to helping improve the City and solve its problems. 

“Well, I’ve spent a lot of time in the City. I’ve spent a lot of time looking at issues in the City. I’m probably one of the odd people that actually reads most of the attachments before the City Council meetings most weeks. At least if something jumps out at me I find interesting,” Murphy said. 

“And I’ve found a lot of times lately we’re not using all the data available to us when making decisions…. In some cases we have very good information and we use very good information. But, in other cases we don’t. The information is there but it’s never put out in a staff report or something for the public to digest and not have to go find,” Murphy continued. “So, a big part of it is that. A number of people in the City that I’ve talked to are somewhat unhappy with how things are going in the City. So that was certainly part of it. But, with my professional experience and expertise, I think I can provide and lend a hand to doing better.”

As an economist who spent a career crunching complex data, Murphy would like to see the City improve how it handles policy making. “I spent an awful lot of my time [as an economist] evaluating how data is collected, what’s included in the data, and what’s not included, analyzing its fitness for use, analyzing comparable data and trying to ask, ‘Okay, can we actually use these two data sources together? Do they mean the same thing?’”

Murphy gives a specific example of how confusion over data can hinder City policy formulation. “Let’s take the [accessory dwelling unit] ADU example. When somebody says ‘single-family house,’ what’s the definition? Your definition and my definition are detached single-family houses,” he said. “But, if you’re using census data, their definition of a single-family unit differs. It’s not necessarily detached. So you really have to understand what that data is made up from when making decisions. The staff report on ADUs said there are 2.8 single-family houses per acre in the City of Falls Church. That doesn’t strike me as plausible. There are certain areas where I know the residential density is probably closer to 7 over in Greenway Downs and particularly the area where I live, over here by the West Falls Church Metro. There’s just no way the average house is on more than a third of an acre. And when that’s your baseline, you begin making policy decisions based on a baseline that may or may not be giving you an accurate picture.” 

“So, it’s using data, and frankly my knowledge of the City, having lived here for so long, I know the conditions in various neighborhoods, I know the conditions in our various business districts, and a lot of our potential changes coming up recently are really one-size-fits-all,” Murphy continued. “And we’re too small a City for one-size-fits-all. We’ve got to look at particular issues in particular zoning districts and find the most practical and pragmatic ways to resolve those issues.” 

So what are Murphy’s top priorities? “Housing is an issue for everybody. My personal concern is we have added an awful lot of housing units to the City of Falls Church but we haven’t really added anything other than very expensive housing units, whether that’s townhouses, or apartments, or condos, or what have you,” he said. “If we’re serious as a community, we need to look at bringing about a diversity of housing opportunities. Not just styles but opportunities. Then we need to take concrete action to actually do that. Relying on the market is not going to work very well. And a few units here or there – 5 here, 5 there, 6 there in some of these new projects – isn’t really meeting the middle on housing.”

“You know, we have a green vibe and a nice small town community vibe we need to maintain,” Murphy said. “But, because we’re so small, at 2.2 square miles, we don’t really have some of the economies of scale of some of our surrounding jurisdictions, such as Fairfax or Arlington. So our choices are more limited and have to be more concrete. We can’t do everything. So, what are the community’s priorities? And by that I mean for all the residents. What are our priorities and how do we allocate our finite funds to try to meet those priorities? It could be housing, it could be social, it could be traffic, it could be schools, it could be police, but we really have to set our priorities and figure out how to address them because, frankly, we can’t do everything.”

On housing, Murphy differentiates his views from those of the missing-middle advocates in Arlington. “What I’m more interested in and what I would be very interested in the City studying is actually creating a Housing Authority, where the Housing Authority could go ahead and develop, or purchase and operate middle income housing and low income housing. It’s not an inexpensive process and that would probably have to go to a referendum so the citizens could speak if this is a priority,” he said.

“So there are a lot of important issues and certainly housing is an important one. Seeing as I have two sons who have moved home who work in the area but can’t afford to live in the area,” Murphy said. “But, it’s overall. It’s City services. Do we actually have enough staff for our Urban Forestry crew that handles parks and maintenance and all kinds of things? Do we have enough staff in other areas to cover the basic needs of a growing population? And have we planned going forward? We’re supposed to pick up somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 to 30 percent population over the next 20 years. Have we planned to expand the capacity of our city services and infrastructure to meet those projected needs?”

When I asked Murphy about his work on VPIS and for the Scout Building Association, he stressed that he has resigned from the boards of each so as to “avoid any conflicts of interest,” but is continuing to volunteer for them.

On issues around development projects in the City, Murphy carves out a seemingly centrist position. “On a personal level, there are some projects I like and some projects I don’t. I was asked by a group of people in one of those projects, early on in this process – so a couple of weeks ago now [Laughs] – exactly what I think is best about what’s been happening in Falls Church,” Murphy said. “And I would say that after living here for so long, I’m seeing an awful lot more people out walking. And I’m seeing an awful lot more people out biking. There are concentrations of business that are forming communities, particularly our downtown business district – with coffee, with food, with Mr. Brown’s Hardware, with other community staples in that area – and one thing I think we could have done a better job on is tying together a lot of these projects to create a larger destination point.”

Murphy would like the City to have better longterm development plans to try to make all of Broad Street vibrant, walkable, and connected. "How can we expand the walking from one section of town to another? And frankly, the entire length of Broad Street would be wonderful.... Is there a way we could have, and as we move forward in the future, try to focus on, creating areas of more intense business?,” Murphy asked. “Whether that’s retail, or food, or what have you, something that’s going to draw more people?....We’ve created pockets, but not really a coherent total.” 

Murphy would like residents to know he not only listens to people’s concerns, but thinks carefully about the underlying causes of problems residents face. “I’m here to listen to all the citizens of Falls Church. And not only listen, but hear,” Murphy said. “When I get a complaint about predatory towing, is the complaint really about predatory towing, or is it that the businesses in an area don’t have enough parking? And then how do we tie that in with potential changes to business partner requirements going forward into the future? Or, when I hear a complaint about aggressive drivers on Route 7 – and certainly you hear a lot of those – how much of that have we created on our own by closing large sections of the road for months at a time when people are trying to travel? They’re going to get frustrated. And is there a way to handle that in a less disruptive manner? Or, is there a way to stop trucks from stopping on Route 7 for deliveries when all of these projects have delivery days?.... So, oftentimes, when you get a complaint, you really have to look deeper to see exactly what the problem is and whether there a practical solution to that problem." 

Finally, how does Murphy think about the City of Falls Church as he runs for City Council? “Oh, this is my hometown. I love the City of Falls Church,” he said. “I've thrown my hat in the ring as a volunteer before. Now I’m throwing my hat in the ring as an elected official because I do love the community I live in. I’ve spent years and years and years volunteering in all kinds of efforts within this community, from helping neighbors, through helping some of the nonprofits in the area, to helping the athletic teams, and the robotics team and the stage crew and all kinds of things, because if somebody needs something and they ask, I’m generally there to do it…. Basically, I love the community I live in and I feel like I have something I can offer.”

Murphy encourages residents to visit his campaign website at murphy4fcc.com which includes an email address for the campaign. 

See you at the polls!

By Christopher Jones