Published September 22, 2005, in issue 0438 of The Hook

BY LISA PROVENCE

Cyanide poisoning ultimately proved to be a good thing for David Slutzky, and led to the formation of his successful environmental clean-up company.

In the early 1980s, he was working for a commercial real estate company in Chicago. A colleague did a walk-through in a plating plant-- then spent the next three days in the hospital with cyanide poisoning.

"I figured out a whole industry was needed to clean up these sites," says Slutzky. And he wanted to go a step further than standard EPA practice, which at the time was to clean up Superfund sites and leave them. "We argued you should clean them up and make them available for re-use," he explains.

Slutzky is walking the walk: He's getting ready to move his environmental consulting company, E2 Inc., to the Frank Ix Building-- even though that former industrial structure is not contaminated. He checked.

And after working with government throughout his career, including a stint as a senior policy advisor during the Clinton administration, Slutzky wants to shift from the appointed to the elected.

His flip answer to why he's running for the Albemarle Board of Supervisors: "I got tired of people misspelling my name."

More seriously, "I've been in Albemarle long enough to see things," he says of his decision to run as the Democratic candidate for the Rio seat, the county's most urban district. He's facing Republican Gary Grant and independent Tom Jakubowski.

Slutzky thinks his experience, which includes lecturing at UVA's Department of Urban and Environmental Planning, makes him well suited to shepherd Albemarle through its inevitable growth.

Like so many others, Slutzky and his wife fell for the area's charms and moved here in 1993. They'd sold their business in Chicago (that scrubbed contaminated buildings), and were looking at three years of a non-compete clause.

His wife, Melissa, a horse person, found Chicago too cold, says her husband. Cincinnati-born Slutzky, a self-proclaimed city boy, admits that when they first moved here, living in the middle of the country "scared me."

Now he wants to protect the same pastoral areas that used to give him the willies. Albemarle's comprehensive plan is "a very strong signal the community wants to preserve the rural area," he says.

The problem, he believes, is that the comprehensive plan doesn't spell out in detail what's required of developers, other than density, and it takes so long to get approval in a growth area, that it's easier to build by-right in the rural areas.

"We don't make it any easier for a developer," he says. "I don't want to see tract McMansions in the rural area."

Age: 49

Why here? Paris is too expensive, and San Francisco is going to fall into the ocean.

Worst about living here? Having to deal with the local phone company

Favorite hangout? Gravity Lounge

Most overrated virtue? Being thin

People would be surprised to know: I sew my own bowties.

What would you change about yourself? My last name­ people always misspell it.

Proudest accomplishment? When I worked at the White House, I persuaded the administration to withdraw its support for an international trade agreement that was bad for the environment and unfair to workers.

People find most annoying about you: My sense of humor

Whom do you admire? Jimmy Carter-- his commitment to human rights was the basis of his foreign policy.

Favorite book? Grapes of Wrath

Subject that causes you to rant? Corporate polluters

Biggest 21st-century thrill? Advances in medicine due to mapping the human genome

Biggest 21st-century creep out? The lack of progress in handling poverty-- especially in the U.S.

What do you drive? Subaru

In your car CD player right now: Elephant Minor

Next journey? Hopefully serving on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors

Most trouble you've ever gotten in? Winter camping in northern Michigan. Our equipment was only good down to ­25 degrees, and the temperature fell to ­40!

Regret: Not learning to play a musical instrument

Favorite comfort food: A cold glass of milk

Always in your refrigerator: Very cold air

Must-see TV: West Wing

Favorite cartoon: Ted Rall

Describe a perfect day: 75 degrees, sunny, low humidity

Walter Mitty fantasy: You keep asking people that! Who the heck is Walter Mitty, and what was his fantasy?

Who'd play you in the movie? John Cusack

Most embarrassing moment? I don't embarrass very easily.

Best advice you ever got? Don't tell people what they want to hear-- tell them what you really believe.

Favorite bumper sticker? Slutzky for Supervisor

PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO

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