I am running for Town Council, and ask for your vote.  The Town is my home; I live in the same house where I grew up, with my parents and my sister Susan, attending Chevy Chase Elementary, Leland Junior High School, and B-CC. I am a retired lawyer, and after practicing for years in California (having worked for the United Farm Workers Union, a legal aid office in Bakersfield, and having a sole practice focusing on criminal defense), I returned to my childhood home in 1997 to live with my father, Erwin P. Vollmer, who passed away at the age of 98 in 2004. In his younger years, my father, whose day job was as an endocrinologist on the Breast Cancer Task Force at N.I.H., was a model of civic engagement; he was one of a group of individuals who helped to make possible the annexation of our neighborhood to the Town, and also helped to make possible the creation of the Leland Community Center (now Lawton Center) and Elm Street Park.  He was a role model for me, as was my mother, Aline Fruhauf, an artist.
 
         Since returning to the Town, I have been active on Town committees.  I currently serve on the Purple Line Mitigation Committee, and on the Long Range Planning Committee.  Previous assignments have included the Town’s Special Committee on the Bethesda Sector Plan, the Land Use Committee, and the Climate and Environment Committee.

The Town is facing some serious issues. The implementation of the Bethesda Sector plan and the construction of the Purple Line create continuing challenges.  I was against the Purple Line project from the beginning, because of concerns that I have for the environment generally, and for quality of life in our Town.  Now, as the project goes forward, we must focus on holding the powers that be to the letter of the law, with respect to environmental protection. 

I favor slowing development in Bethesda, preserving some of the surface level parking behind the Farm Women’s Market and Tudor shops, and converting the parts of those lots closest to our Town to green space planted with trees, a linear park.  I would like to see the Tudor Shops marked for historic preservation, to help preserve the buffer between downtown development and our Town.

            I welcome the opportunity to discuss these and other issues with voters in the course of this campaign.

Sincerely,

Deborah A. Vollmer
7202 44th Street