[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 120 (Wednesday, September 15, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10953-S10954]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        ON THE RETIREMENT OF ALEXANDRIA CITY MANAGER VOLA LAWSON

 Mr. ROBB. Mr. President, I take this opportunity to honor an 
outstanding public servant. Recently, Vola Lawson, the city manager of 
the City of Alexandria, announced her retirement. During her fourteen 
years as city manager, Ms. Lawson provided the City with solid 
leadership and opened the doors of City Hall to all Alexandrians. I'm 
proud to add my name to the long list of those who are praising Vola 
Lawson. Her distinguished career offers the ideal model for public 
officials, and inspires confidence in our public institutions. I ask 
that yesterday's article from The Washington Post on Vola Lawson's 
retirement be printed in the Congressional Record.
  The article follows:

               [From the Washington Post, Sept. 14, 1999]

   After 14 Years, 4 Mayors, Alexandria Leader To Retire--Fiery City 
                  Manager Lawson in Office Since 1985

                           [By Ann O'Hanlon]

       Vola Lawson, the tough veteran city manager of Alexandria, 
     announced yesterday that she will retire in March, marking a 
     major transition for the city she helped define during the 28 
     years she worked for it.
       ``I think this city is one of the greatest cities in 
     America,'' said Lawson, standing in the City Hall lobby that 
     was named for her this year. ``This is a very bittersweet day 
     for me.''
       Lawson, who turns 65 today, has been city manager since 
     1985, a tenure more than twice the national average. During 
     that time, the city has lured or endured major new 
     development, including the planned U.S. Patent and Trademark 
     Office and a planned 300-acre residential and commercial 
     complex on an abandoned railroad yard. Under Lawson, 
     Alexandria also turned away a bid from then-Gov. L. Douglas 
     Wilder and then-Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke to build a 
     football stadium there.
       In her 14 years, Lawson served under four mayors, all of 
     whom stood with her yesterday, singing her praises.
       ``Vola has never met a stranger,'' said state Sen. Patricia 
     S. Ticer (D-Alexandria), one of the former mayors. ``She is a 
     shining example of what a public servant should be.''
       Although her retirement was expected, a murmur still ran 
     through the city of 122,000 yesterday.
       ``Boy, that's going to change the city more than anything I 
     can imagine,'' said Katherine Morrison, executive director of 
     the Campagna Center, a prominent local charity. ``I don't 
     know anyone who knows Alexandria better or has devoted more 
     of their life to Alexandria.''
       Lawson worked her way up in Alexandria, blazing a path for 
     women and minorities that some say is her prime legacy. As 
     city manager, she has transformed City Hall from

[[Page S10954]]

     a largely white bureaucracy to an institution that better 
     reflects the city's 40 percent minority population.
       ``I think her legacy in the city and in the minority 
     communities will be absolutely enduring,'' said J. Glenn 
     Hopkins, executive director of Hopkins House, an agency for 
     children and families. ``Her ability to be compassionate and 
     to create a compassionate government, her ability to manage 
     and her ability to be accessible to black people, to Hispanic 
     people, to old people, to everybody, regardless of their 
     background or their history or their race, is exceptional 
     among people of her level.''
       Among today's city and county administrators, Lawson's 
     professional pedigree is unusual. She attended George 
     Washington University part time but dropped out when she had 
     her first child. She plunged into community activism, and as 
     a campaign organizer helped elect the city's first black 
     council member in 1970.
       Her entry to City Hall was with the anti-poverty program, 
     and she later worked in the housing office. She quickly rose 
     to assistant city manager and found time to initiate the Head 
     Start program and after-school child care at every elementary 
     school.
       Lawson said she became an Alexandrian by accident. She and 
     her husband, David, a psychiatrist, had planned to move back 
     to Chevy Chase, but she got hooked on the community.
       ``We'll live the rest of our lives here,'' she said. ``We 
     never planned to live here. We fell in love with 
     Alexandria.''
       Praise gushed from all corners yesterday, but there were 
     criticisms, too: of an overbearing management style and a 
     temper.
       ``She's very controlling, and that probably is her 
     downside,'' said Jack Sullivan, who heads the city's civic 
     federation. Nonetheless, said Sullivan, she has ``a marvelous 
     personality'' and is ``one of the ablest public 
     administrators I have ever met.''
       Lawson's wrath is ``legendary,'' said a close friend, Rep. 
     James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), who as mayor hired Lawson. But 
     the source of the anger, he said, is unselfish.
       ``If you have acted in a way that hurt the city and you 
     should or did know better, then you're dead meat with Vola,'' 
     he said.
       William H. Hansell Jr., who heads the International City/
     County Management Association, said her 14-year tenure is 
     ``remarkable,'' especially in a community as ``diverse and 
     challenging as Alexandria.''
       She accomplished it by reflecting the values of the city, 
     he said, laughing that ``there are not too many city managers 
     who tell a billionaire and a governor where to stick their 
     stadium.''
       Lawson put the city on firm financial footing, twice 
     achieving the Aaa bond rating and significantly lowering real 
     estate taxes.
       Her retirement will take effect March 1, after which she 
     plans to see more of her two grandchildren, enhance her 
     reputation as a movie buff and read the three stacks of books 
     she bought at yard sales.
       When people walk into the lobby that bears her name and 
     wonder who Vola Lawson was, Moran said, they should be told, 
     ``She was a woman who chose to devote her mind and her heart 
     to all the citizens of this community.''

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