[Archived] City Council Announces Intent to Appoint Phil Sunderland as Alexandria City Manager


News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date:	Thursday, February 17, 2000
Contact:	Mayor Kerry J. Donley, (703) 838-4550

City Council Announces Intent to Appoint Phil Sunderland as Alexandria City Manager

The Alexandria City Council has reached an agreement on the selection of a new City Manager. Mayor Kerry Donley announced today City Council’s intent to appoint City Attorney Phil Sunderland to the City’s top administrative post at Council’s regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, February 22.

"Phil Sunderland is known throughout Alexandria as a man of integrity, character and good judgment," Donley said. "His intimate knowledge of the City and City government, his superior intellect and his outstanding leadership abilities made him the best candidate for the job."

Sunderland, who has served as Alexandria’s City Attorney since 1986, will take the helm as the City’s chief executive officer on March 1, 2000.

As the City’s chief executive officer, Sunderland, age 54, will be responsible for overseeing the City’s $361 million overall budget and nearly 2,000 employees. As City Manager, he will prepare and submit the annual operating budget and Capital Improvement Program (CIP) and will be responsible for their administration after adoption. His new responsibilities also will include appointing all City department heads and employees, developing the City Council docket and related materials, and directing all activities of City government. He will attend all meetings of City Council and advise Council on the financial condition and future needs of the City.

Sunderland’s appointment culminates an extensive national search by the City Council to find a successor to longtime City Manager Vola Lawson, who will retire March 1, after serving 15 years as the City’s top administrative official.

In late September, City Council created a citizens’ advisory group to assist in the development of a profile of the leadership characteristics and management experience the new City Manager should possess. City Council also provided an opportunity for citizens to comment on the selection criteria for a new City Manager.

The City Council was aided by the well-known governmental executive search firm of DMG-Maximus in its search for qualified candidates.

The City Council received approximately 90 applications and considered a list of approximately 20 of the most qualified candidates. From that group, the Council selected and interviewed eight finalists. Sunderland was the unanimous choice of the Council.

"I am deeply honored by the Council’s decision," Sunderland said. "I love Alexandria. It’s been my family’s home for over 26 years. It’s been the focus of my professional life for the past 13 years. I am thrilled beyond words by the opportunity, as the City Manager, to continue working to make Alexandria one of the country’s best communities in which to live and work."

Currently, as the City Attorney, Sunderland supervises an office of seven attorneys and is responsible for rendering legal opinions, drafting ordinances, deeds and other legal papers, and representing the City as counsel in civil litigation. The City Attorney is appointed by City Council.

Since Sunderland was appointed City Attorney, he has worked actively with City Council and City staff on several major issues including the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, the development of Potomac Yard and the proposed relocation of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to the City.

Sunderland also served as the City’s chief negotiator on the innovative $33 million revenue bond financing of the air pollution control retrofit of the waste-to-energy facility on Eisenhower Avenue.

Alongside members of the City Council, the City Manager and Alexandria citizens, Sunderland helped to defeat a bid by the Washington Redskins to construct a football stadium in Alexandria --- an effort that was seen as a victory for local governments to decide their own land-use policies.

In addition, Sunderland successfully defended the City’s administrative regulation that prohibits the possession, use or threatened use of firearms in City buildings. He also has won more than $10 million in successful tax litigation for the City and, until last year, he served as counsel for the Alexandria City Public Schools Board.

Sunderland, who moved to Alexandria in 1973, has a long history of public service and community work in the City. In the mid-1970s, he served as president of the Northeast Citizens Association. He was chairman of the Community Development Block Grant Advisory Committee in the late 1970s. In the early 1980s, Sunderland served as the chairman of the Economic Opportunities Commission.

Sunderland currently serves as President of the Alexandria Bar Foundation, a non-profit organization established to expand the delivery of legal services to the City’s low-income population and to increase law-related programs offered in City schools.

From 1993 to 1998, Sunderland served on the Board of Directors for Legal Services of Northern Virginia, a non-profit corporation responsible for the delivery of legal services to low-income residents of Northern Virginia. And, from 1995 to 1997, he was a member of the Virginia General Assembly’s Local Government Code Task Force, which drafted revisions to the local government title of the Virginia code.

Before joining the City, Sunderland was a partner in a public interest litigation law firm in Washington, D.C., from 1975 to 1986. He litigated in federal and state courts, specializing in environmental, civil rights and employment law. From 1973 to 1975, Sunderland served in the Office of General Counsel for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in Washington, D.C.

Sunderland, a 1972 graduate of Stanford University Law School and a 1967 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Dartmouth College, is married to Elise Sunderland and has three children --- Mari, Anne and David.