Vienna Council Candidate Back for 2nd Shot

“When you've had a dynasty for so long and nothing's changed, we need to examine it,” Stich said of the council. “Getting studies done and looking at them doesn't really help. We need to get things done.”

Stich, 44, is one of five candidates, including three incumbents, running for the three open seats. She said if elected she would focus on traffic, parking, development and government-transparency issues. She favors traffic-calming measures on side streets, requiring developers to build adequate parking and sidewalks for new developments, and mixed-use development to make Vienna a more walkable town.

She also supports public-transportation options, and favors building a Metrorail tunnel under Tysons Corner, instead of the planned elevated lines.

Stich said she would like to attract more businesses to the town, which would ease the tax burden on residential property owners, and ensure more housing options for senior citizens and young families.

Town residents also would be better served if Vienna government meetings were televised, Stich said. The town could implement such a project for as little as $17,000, she said.

Stich received 769 votes in last year's election, finishing fourth in a five-person race and attracting about half the number of votes of the three incumbents who were re-elected.

Stich said her 2006 campaign taught her the need for more public outreach and campaign brochures.

“I learned to knock on doors, to have more face time with the voters,” she said.

Stich, who has lived in Vienna for eight years and is a stay-at-home mother, earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's in counseling psychology from Chapman University in California.

While her husband Matt, an ophthalmologist, was serving as a doctor with the U.S. Air Force, Stich began programs to support military families.

The couple's son, Andrew, who will turn 8 in May, is a second-grader at Louise Archer Elementary School. Susan Stich is involved in sports and fund-raising activities with the school's PTA and is active in the group's Safe Routes to School campaign, which focuses on building sidewalks.

Stich also is a member of the Relay for Life Committee, an auxiliary member of American Legion Post 180, a team mother with Vienna Little League and co-chair of the Wesley United Methodist Church Evangelical Committee.

Council incumbents Maud Robinson, George Lovelace and Dan Dellinger are up for re-election this year. In addition to Stich, the incumbents also are being challenged by Vienna builder and civic activist Deborah Brehony. The election is May 1; each year, half of the six-member council seats are open.

The National Association of Retired Federal Employees will host a candidates' forum on Tuesday, April 10 at 1:30 p.m. at the Vienna Community Center. The Northeast Vienna Citizens Association will hold a candidates' debate on Wednesday, April 25 at 8 p.m. at the community center.