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Agenda

Strong and Committed Leadership

Herndon needs a strong and diverse town council that is open to discussion of new ideas and committed to proactively seek solutions, a town council that challenges the old and outdated processes, codes and norms and finds way to improve. Herndon needs a leadership which supports transparency, keeps the residents informed and seeks relentless improvement in the delivery of services to the constituents.

Traffic Calming and Pedestrian Safety

As the population is growing, the traffic speeding issues, parking issues and pedestrians safety issues within our residential streets are growing. I commit to work on finding short term mitigation and long terms solutions to speeding, parking issues and safety issues to pedestrians. I will be advocating to ensure all the residential streets have ADA compliant sidewalks on both sides that is safe to walk with strollers, wheel-chairs and with kids. Also, I will be pushing for keeping the utilities (electric wires and cables) underground making the side-walks safe and wide.

Improving the ratings of our local schools

We will be working with Herndon Schools, Fairfax County school board and local volunteers to improve the rating of our schools.

Although school is not on direct purview of the town, there is so much we can do to help improve our schools’ ratings. We may not have one size fits all solutions. However, we can implement number of potential ideas to help improve the ratings.

Work with the town to provide transportation for students to join extracurricular activities outside their schools.
Help create a non-profit at community level with the purpose of introducing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) with coding involved at every level.
Work with corporations around Herndon (small, medium and large) to provide apprenticeship to our high school kids.
Work with the corporations (small, medium and large) to raise funds to help meet the goals of introducing STEM and other activities in our school. Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, AWS, Man Tech, Booz Allen Hamilton, AirBus, Peraton, General Dynamics are just to name a few. I am sure many of these organizations will be willing to invest in our kids' education as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility. I do not see funding being an issue, just a commitment and willingness to make that happen.
Work with schools and school board to introduce more extracurricular activities within the school.
Community outreach to involve volunteers.
Work with volunteers to establish “Adopt-A-Brain” program so that we can get a volunteer to work with one or few children teaching them coding, other soft skills and value of education.
Engage with parents to ensure their commitment towards their child’s education.

Being a parent of three kids (one is first grader at Herndon Elementary, another starting kindergarten next year and another in 4 years from now), I am committed to work with all the parties to ensure we have enough engagement when it comes to our kids’ education.

Diversity and Inclusion

I am proud to announce that we have established Herndon Diversity, Equity an Inclusion Committee (HDEIC) as an advisory committee to the town council. As a Chair of HDEIC, I commit to work with the committee to bring initiatives, events and programs to recognize, support, empower and celebrate the diversity we have in our town. This is a time to make sure we extend our community outreach and bring people from diverse background into policy making positions. The strength of the diversity can truly be realized once we have similar diversity at our boards, commissions and council.

Transparency

This is work in progress that we started few years back. This involves making the decision making process as transparent as possible. We want our constituents to know not only the decisions we make but also the process through which we reach the decision. Therefore, I worked with the council to make sure both the work session and public hearing were video streamed live through HCTV and the video recording were available afterwards.

We will also make sure the town processes and information are transparent and easily accessible to people.

Relevant updates on ordinances and guidelines

There is another work in progress and needs continuity. There are many guidelines, ordinances and regulations in the town which are less relevant than when they were initially adopted. It’s time to conduct independent studies as well as surveys to find out how these guidelines and ordinances can be updated or amended to better serve the current needs. This includes zoning ordinances, HDRB guidelines and many others.

We updated the HDRB guidelines that was not updated for the past 30+ years, amended and enacted chapter 42 related to Motor Vehicle and traffic, about parking on town streets, amended Chapter 78 (Zoning) to eliminate Special Exceptions requirement for internal or attached and detached accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in Single Family Structures.

Growth and development

With the Silver Line Metro coming, the developments including the Herndon Transit-Oriented Core (HTOC) and Transit Related Growth (TRG) area serve both the biggest opportunities as well as the biggest challenges. How we define and inspire growth in this area translates into long term fiscal viability/sustainability. By attracting businesses and employers, by providing diverse housing options to people and thus by collecting more revenues for the town, we can, in turn, invest in the neighborhood by enriching quality of life through various services we can offer.

Walkable-Bikeable Herndon

We’ve updated the masterplan adding more projects in the pipeline to add more sidewalks, making sidewalks ADA compliant and encouraging walkability and bikeability. Connecting the town to the Silverline

through walking and biking lanes is my priority.

Endorsements

Democratic Asian Americans of Virginia

John Foust, Fairfax County Supervisor for Dranesville District

I have known Pradip for several years. I enjoy his friendship, and I am proud of the professional relationship we have developed as elected officials representing the Town of Herndon. Pradip is an approachable, caring and action-oriented leader who always strives to act in the best interest of the Town and his constituents. I appreciated his outreach efforts when he initiated and led adoption of the Herndon Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. I am impressed by this important effort, and I am confident the committee will make significant contributions.

Suhas Subramanyam, Virginia House of Delegate, District 87

Pradip is the engaged and approachable leader Herndon needs. He is committed to solving issues that matter to Herndon, like cut-through traffic, and he is a result-oriented and solutions-driven person who will make sure every resident's voice is heard. I am happy to support his campaign.

Ibrahim Samirah, Former Virginia House of Delegate, District 86

Pradip has exhibited wisdom and courage as a leader on Herndon Town Council. In the last two terms, he has championed many initiatives to increase affordable housing availability and launched a diversity, equity and inclusion committee for the Town of Herndon. As a result, attached and detached accessory dwelling units (ADUs) are now allowed to be permitted in Herndon, allowing homeowners the flexibility to increase income coming from their homes while offering housing to those hardworkers in our community with limited income. I whole-heartedly endorse him for another term on the Herndon town council.

Sam Rasoul, member of the Virginia House of Delegates, District 11

I endorse Pradip for his re-election as Herndon town council member. He is a true representative of his constituents who constantly listens to his constituents for the issues, concerns and recommendations they have. He then advocates and champions those ideas to really work for the people he serves. This is the kind of leadership needed in the local government.

Pradip Dhakal for Herndon Council

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Pradip's introduction