We recognized 9-11 this morning as we always do at Courthouse Plaza with a simple ceremony by our public safety officers. The flags were lowered to half staff for the day. On this 17th anniversary, we were joined by members of our General Assembly delegation, Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, and Congressman Don Beyer. We all will never forget where we were that day and remember the bravery of the first responders and of so many common people who showed uncommon courage that day. I am sure everyone is aware that Hurricane Florence will likely affect us quite a bit. Governor Northam and … [Read more...]

The 5th Annual Kennan Garvey Memorial Ride is coming on Saturday, August 25th. If you’ve already signed up or sponsored me or another rider, thank you! If you haven’t yet, I hope you can join the ride or sponsor me for this great local non profit. I encourage anyone who likes to ride a bike or likes to support great programs for young people to sign up. You can ride for as little or as far as you like on a great bike path that Kennan and I loved and rode often. Although I’m very close to being able to ride my bike again, my new knee isn't bending quite enough for me to ride this year…but … [Read more...]

We needed three days to complete our July agenda. Several difficult issues prompted a lot of community involvement: one was complicated with no clear “right” answer; one was somewhat misunderstood; one was, in part, a County-created problem. After all of the conversation and engagement, I think we all understood these issues better in the end. The 2019-2028 Capital Improvement Program (CIP) was the major item on our July agenda, but perhaps the least complicated. The 10-year CIP determines what projects we will fund over the next two years and for what bond referenda residents will vote in … [Read more...]

In May, the Board considered an important project, and heard the Manager’s presentation for capital spending, and remembered. Four Mile Run Valley The Four Mile Run Working Group presented their draft plan, which we adopted. This is a long overdue plan (to get an idea of how long overdue, the article on planning for the area pictured here is from 1949), and it’s a big step forward. There were many different stakeholders, which led to some contentious meetings over a number of thorny issues. These included whether to make changes to the very popular dog park (no changes will be made because … [Read more...]

FY 2019 Budget We adopted our FY 2019 budget on Saturday. This was one of the tougher budgets in my 23 years of public service. Our Manager did a good job reorganizing and trying to focus on core government services when he developed his recommended budget. But when the Board voted to advertise no tax rate increase this year, our ability to adapt to changing needs was very limited. The major issues were money for schools, as our student population continues to grow, and public safety salaries. Our pay for sheriff, police, and, fire—particularly for new recruits—is significantly below … [Read more...]

I’m writing this on Wednesday as the snow continues to fall and pictures of my grandchildren playing in the snow come on my phone. Being snowed in for a day has been a nice break! I hope everyone has been able to enjoy the day. This month’s meeting agenda was extraordinarily light, which was nice given the heavy schedule of budget work sessions we have. The few significant items we addressed were: Westover Beer Garden Our discussion on outdoor seating for the Westover Beer Garden was yet another example of how we need to balance the interests of a local restaurant/bar and those of the … [Read more...]

Can you please help? I’m reporting early this month because your Arlington County Board needs some quick help with our Virginia delegation on a bill which is important to Arlington and is coming up on Tuesday morning. This bill will lower property taxes on our two golf clubs by about $1.5 million per year. This would take away tax revenue that home owners will have to make up. I hope that you will join me in asking our Senators to vote no on the bill. The bill, HB 1204, has passed the Virginia House and is before the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday. It would forbid us to use “fair … [Read more...]

January’s Agenda January’s Board meetings were very light, with just three non-controversial regular items besides our consent agenda: 1) The naming of Short Bridge Park and approval of the design guidelines for the park; 2) Various approvals and a loan to allow the renovation of Culpepper Garden to begin; and 3) A rezoning and other approvals to allow Phase II of Market Common to move forward. Short Bridge Park is right on the boundary between Alexandria and Arlington and will be a good improvement for the area—and even better when Alexandria improves its portion. Culpepper Garden … [Read more...]

Happy New Year! Last night, the County Board held its annual Organizational Meeting. As expected, we unanimously elected Katie Cristol to serve as our chair and Christian Dorsey to serve as our vice chair this year. We also welcomed our newest colleague, Erik Gutshall, to the Board table for the first time. I was happy to congratulate Katie and Christian on their leadership elections and Erik on joining the Board; and to welcome back fellow returning member John Vihstadt. A summary of my remarks is below. You can read my full remarks, or watch a recording of the meeting including all … [Read more...]