Leland G. Jones is a candidate for Virginia Beach City Council – District 8. His name will appear on the ballot on November 5, 2024.
Jones is running against three challengers for Virginia Beach City Council.
The first day of in-person early voting at your local registrar’s office for this election is Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. Click here to see who is on your ballot.
10 On Your Side reached out to all of the candidates running in this race, with a request for a bio and a list of questions to answer. If you do not see the candidate listed with a profile, we did not receive one.
Candidate Name: Leland Jones
Age: 25
Candidate Website: www.electlelandjones.com
Biography:
Leland Jones is a proud resident of the King’s Grant neighborhood in District 8. As a small business owner, Leland started a two-man detailing business out of his garage and has grown Ceramic Kings Coatings of Virginia into a national leader in the automotive detailing and coating industry. In addition, Leland is a national executive distributor for Icon Rocklear coating products nationwide. Leland is an Eagle Scout and comes from a Navy family where he is active in the community supporting charitable organizations that support youth programs and military veteran issues. Leland is a youth mentor and has written several books dealing with entrepreneurship, finance, and marketing. Leland is a family man, married with three young children.
Why are you running for this office?
As a small business owner and a concerned citizen, I am running for office because the Virginia Beach City Council continues to overspend our taxpayer money without any fiscal restraint and their actions have made it tough on residents of Virginia Beach. This City Council and decisions in the past have shown a propensity for chasing the shiny new toy meanwhile neglecting what they have already committed too. It shows with many of our public-partnerships and city assets underperforming including the Sports Center, Convention Center, Performing Arts Center. Now our current City Council has invested over $153 million of taxpayer money into a Wave Park at the oceanfront without any independent economic analysis. In my conversations with my neighbors and residents throughout Virginia Beach and District 8 feel like our city has become unaffordable, that taxpayer money is spent frivolously, and that City Council attention is focused on the Oceanfront. Our residents both young and senior, need tax relief. Our working class families are struggling with inflation. We need to control spending, provide tax relief, and diversify our economy beyond tourism. We need to hold our leaders accountable and be open and transparent. As a successful small business owner, I know first hand the struggles we face having to deal with supply chain issues, employee retention, and profitability in a high inflation climate. I will use my experience and dedication to the people being a leader that will listen to the people and not special interests.
What is the top challenge facing Virginia Beach, and how would you address it?
The top challenge in Virginia Beach is that we have over $1B unmet necessary capital improvement projects like flooding, road improvement, and school modernization not just in District 8 but throughout all the districts. Our City Council boasts that we have the lowest real estate tax burden in the region, but yet they have increased our water, sewer, solid waste, and curbside recycling. We have over a dozen major city assets that have been audited and are underperforming where expenses exceed revenues including our Sports Center, Convention Center, and Performing Arts Center. Aging infrastructure at the Aquarium is nearly $300m and yet the City Council has invested over $140m in the Oceanfront Wave Park hoping to get its return on investment in the next decade. As the District 8 Councilman, I will implement fiscal accountability in attacking the budget in prioritizing our spending, examining these underperforming assets and looking for private management who can cut costs and find profitability where the City has not. Savings and prioritization, implementing a budget where we live within our means and providing real tax relief will be my first priority while investing in the core sectors of government public safety, schools, and neighborhoods.
What is your view on preserving agricultural land while also addressing the affordable housing crisis?
These are two separate issues that are interconnected because the development in the North is scarce and that any development in the South where agricultural preservation must be maintained because any development below the greenline will impact our already strained operating and capital improvement projects. We need leadership that will take action and not just say lip service to affordable housing. With our already high tax burden and inflation, current homeowners are being priced out of their homes. The data shows that young people aren’t pursuing homeownership like they used to and senior citizens are going back to work because they can’t afford not to work anymore.
As the District 8 City Councilman, I will utilize a multi-prong approach and utilize existing city owned property in the Interfacility Corridor, the abandoned Southeastern Expressway right of way, and the Princess Anne Commons Area as first step. I will take bold leadership and champion affordable housing where currently the majority on Council missed an golden opportunity to build affordable homes, they instead listened to special interests and built luxury apartments and not affordable homes Non-profit organizations and churches also have the opportunity to be part of the solution in building affordable housing. Next, I would work with all the stakeholders, developers and citizens; in repurposing underutilized shopping centers and building affordable housing. As for preserving agricultural land, we should maintain the current strategy and engage the public in updating our Comprehensive Plan. I will follow through on our affordable housing options, provide better coordination, and give direction to the City Manager and our Planning Commission. We need leadership that listens, leadership that acts, and leadership who works hard to find solutions. Vote Leland Jones – District 8 Virginia Beach City Council.
How do you view Virginia Beach’s continued growth strategy? What would you change?
Our growth strategy is centered along the I-64 corridor with strategic growth areas and these plans have languished with the exception of the Resort Area where a lot of our revenue funds that are supposed to be spread fairly and evenly are not. As the city councilmember, I will prioritize our spending and focus on underutilized, redeveloped, and emerging growth areas by putting a hold on our shiny new strategy with the Oceanfront’s Wave Park and investing our economic development money in helping small businesses grow and expand. I would also work with small businesses who are the backbone of our economy and streamline bureaucracy, lower taxes and fees, and involve small business stakeholders in finding growth opportunities. Unless you’re politically connected and can meet subjective criteria (recent audit findings have shown the Development Authority and the City do not hold businesses accountable who have been given financial grants and who do not deliver and ask them to return money). I would work with non-profit groups, vocational and trades businesses and invest with them to help them find workers where they continue to have shortages. One area we have not talked about because our current city leaders have been afraid to take leadership is in the gig economy and in the short term rental market. Our antiquated business development strategy stymies small business growth. Our anti-short term rental policies hurt military families who have property they can rent along with picking winners and losers. (winners being people who live in the Oceanfront and Sandbridge where short-term rentals are permissible but only on certain streets?)
What is your view on changing the operational model of the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center?
As a small business owner, I look at profit and loss every day, sales metrics, employee productivity, trends, and variables that will impact my business and return on investment. If the trends and data say things are at loss then I will need to adjust accordingly and make some sound decisions, this is basic business 101 that our current City Council does not practice.
As the District 8 City councilman, I will implement fiscal accountability and transparency and it’s apparent we/the citizens have a major problem here with the viability and sustainability of the Aquarium.
What is your view on taking money from individuals who will likely have business before the city?
I’m not part of the political establishment, politically connected, or part of Virginia Beach’s high society; I am a small business owner who lives in a great middle class neighborhood with a young family. We have one candidate in our race who has raised over $140K (see the Virginia Public Access Project) where tens of thousands of dollars have been contributed from developers, bankers, hoteliers, and special interest folks in a district race. A closer examination of political contributions show that the incumbents along with the candidate in my race have some of the same contributors. As a City Councilman, I will propose a new ordinance first limiting campaign contributions to $500 from people who have business before city council. I will sponsor an ordinance similar to the one Chesapeake Councilman Robert Ike proposed that requires full disclosure of people who do business with the city and who have hired any lobbyist, failure to disclose would invoke fine. I will also sponsor an ordinance that prohibits the appointment of people who have business before the city and that includes their employer from being appointed to the Economic Development Authority, Planning Commission, and boards that decide on any grant, loans, or funding on behalf of the city. We need to be fair, impartial, and we need to rid the appearance of any impropriety or conflict. I am Leland Jones – I will listen to the people and not special interests.
If we have over $300M Aquarium deferred maintenance needs, building expansion, and new exhibits; and we have over $990M in unmet Capital Improvement Projects throughout the city – we need to be innovative and bold on our approach while working with the Aquarium Foundation that needs to be more transparent in the books and financial dealings.
How will you still value constituents with whom you disagree with?
As a small business owner and an employer, I listen and deal with customers and my employees on a daily basis. I listen to them and try to find common ground and build consensus. If a solution cannot be made for a specific problem, I will still be respectful with the people I disagree with.
As a City Councilman, I will be elected to uphold my promises to the citizens of District 8 and our Virginia Beach residents. I will be trustworthy and accountable for my actions. I will be open, honest, and transparent in my actions protecting the District against overdevelopment, and investing in priorities like schools, roads, and public safety versus special interest projects.
Vote Leland Jones, a leader who listens to you, leads, and gets results on your behalf.