SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: At the end of 2024, I will be stepping down from elected office. My heart and my head have told me that 28 years of elected public service and about 17 primaries and general election campaigns are enough for me. It is time for me to pass the baton. I still love my work, and am looking forward to accomplishing a lot for Arlington in the next 11 months. This includes completing our visioning process, “Arlington 2050”, and making our community more energy resilient.

 
As I enter my 28th year of elected service, it continues to be an honor and a privilege to serve Arlington County on our five-member County Board.

In 2020, when I began my last chairmanship of the Arlington County Board, we faced the first global pandemic in a century. Both our local government and residents pivoted from our usual jobs and lives to meet the needs of our community. Now, four years later, we are continuing to transition as we discover the new normal. I am hopeful it will be better than the “old normal,” but I believe we have some fairly unsettledyears ahead for Arlington, the nation and the world before life feels stable again.

Traditionally, the poorest people suffer first and most and recover last and least after a crisis. We need to change that. With the help of the American Rescue Act (ARA) and other Federal money, we were able to make progress toward a stronger safety net. During the pandemic we protected many in our community changing the job focus of many employees to food, shelter, and vaccinations. We strengthened our safety net first spending reserves (which were later reimbursed by the Federal government) and then used ARA funds to meet the housing, food and health needs of most of our residents. However, while that Federal assistance is almost used up, many of the needs remain.

We need more permanent ways to support our most vulnerable residents who, as we all learned, are often our essential workers. Arlington cannot thrive without the people who cook meals; clean our homes and hospitals; care for the elderly and young children; and build our homes and infrastructure. I am hopeful there will be a better Federal safety net for families so that the burden of supporting needy residents and families falls less on local resources and becomes a national commitment. But I realize that will not happen for a while and we face major challenges ahead. Good local government is more important than ever.

I hope this website is helpful to anyone interested in Arlington or local government. Local government is often ignored by the national media, but it is, literally, where the rubber meets the road.

If you would like to stay informed about our County Board work, you can sign up for my regular newsletter that is a brief summary of each monthly meeting and goes out after each monthly set of meetings. On occasion – outside of the monthly cycle – I send out other information when I feel it is important for my readers to know about it. Those newsletters (under the News section) are posted to this website as they come out. The Issue pages are updated less frequently.

All best,

Libby