Statement of Deborah A. Vollmer
Candidate for Town Council, Town of
I am Deborah A. Vollmer,
candidate for the Town council, for the Town of Chevy
Chase. I was born January 15, 1948, and grew up with my
parents and my older sister, Susan, in the house I still call
home. I attended Chevy Chase Elementary School, Leland Junior
High School, and B-CC.
After graduating from Bethesda-Chevy Chase
High School in 1966, I attended and graduated from Clark
University in Worcester, Massachusetts, with a B.A. in
Government, which I received in 1970. I attended the
University Of Maryland School Of Law, obtaining my J.D. in
1973. I moved to California, where I worked as an attorney
for the United Farm Workers of America. I worked for a
legal aid office in Bakersfield, California. Then I went into
sole practice which consisted primarily of court appointed
criminal cases, representing low-income clients.
In 1997, I moved back to my childhood home,
to stay with my father who passed away in 2004, at the age of
98. I have continued to live in our family home. I have
served on the Town’s Land Use Committee, and I currently serve
on the Town’s Long Range Planning Committee.
Over the years, I have actively opposed current plans for the
Purple Line; I do believe that improving public transportation
is important, but the current plans are unacceptable, as they
would destroy the canopy of trees in what is really a linear
park, cause other environmental damage, and cause negative
impact to all residents, especially those living at the Town’s
borders, close to the rail line.
I am concerned that neighborhood character and the environment
are being sacrificed to the greed of developers, who turn a
profit when older, modest-sized houses in our Town are
demolished to make room for new construction. I favor a
new moratorium on building, with a provision for hardship
exceptions, and the implementation of a number of revisions to
the building code. I also favor limiting the use of
pesticides in our Town, as is being done in Takoma Park, to
preserve our environment, including the bees and the
butterflies, and to protect water quality. I would also revise
the electoral process to make the Town Manager more accountable
to both the Town Council and the residents, through a Yes/No
vote on the ballot on the Town Manager’s performance and
contract, every few years.
Maintained by Imad-ad-Dean, Inc.