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Alexandria council schedules special meeting after eight ARHA commissioners resign
Summary
After an executive session, Mayor Aliyah Gaskins told the City Council that eight of nine Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority commissioners had resigned. Council scheduled a special meeting for Oct. 15, 2025, and will consider an emergency City Code amendment to allow immediate appointments to the ARHA board.
Mayor Aliyah Gaskins told the council reconvening from an executive session that the city had received a letter in which eight of the nine Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority commissioners resigned, creating an operational emergency for the housing authority.
The city will hold a special City Council meeting on Oct. 15, 2025, at 6:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers to consider an emergency amendment to City Code sections 2-47(b) and (c) to remove the current 21-day advertisement requirement for appointments and to make immediate appointments to the ARHA board.
Council had earlier convened a closed executive session under Virginia Code §2.2-3711(A)(1) and (A)(8) to discuss prospective appointments to the ARHA board and to consult with legal counsel. The motion to convene the executive session was made during the meeting and carried; when the council reconvened in open session it voted to adopt the previously circulated resolution regarding the closed session.
Mayor Gaskins said the resignations “constitute an emergency requiring the council to take immediate action to ensure the continuity of ARHA operations” and that the city code amendment was necessary so the council could fill vacancies without the usual 21‑day public advertisement period.
The council did not make appointments at the legislative meeting; it scheduled the special meeting to act on the code amendment and potential board appointments.
What happens next: the council will consider the proposed code change and, if it adopts the emergency amendment, may make appointments at the Oct. 15 special meeting. The council’s authority to alter city‑level appointment procedures for emergencies was cited as the basis for the planned action.
