Del. Patrick Hope is pushing legislation to change the current Arlington County governance structure which he says was set up in the 1930s to disenfranchise Blacks and when Arlington’s population was 25,000. “It has grown to over 240,000, and the current structure is no longer relevant.”
HR 2768 has passed the House of Delegates and Senate and is sitting on Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s desk. Youngkin has until March 24 to sign or veto it.
“I haven’t had any indication of which way it will go,” Hope says.
The Arlington County Board has not supported the legislation stating, “This bill was not solicited by the Arlington County Board. The County Board believes there should be a thorough and inclusive public process, led by Arlington County, on our form of government. The County Board has not reached a sufficient threshold or completed the necessary due diligence on behalf of our community to support this bill at this time.”
The legislation would allow several changes in the current structure and operation of the board including expansion of the current board of five members to include up to eleven members. In addition, it would allow some or all of the board members to be elected by district within Arlington instead of the current process of all members elected at large.
Hope says that “If your major issue was speeding on Langston Boulevard and I was your district representative, I would put this at the top of my list and I would talk about it at every single meeting whereas it might not get much attention for a board member who had been elected at large to represent all the constituents across the county.” He adds, “For many years S. Arlington thought they were underrepresented —schools and roads not as good, mail delivered more slowly. They could feel this would give them a stronger voice.” But he says if we were to elect some board members by district, “Cross your pearls; some are afraid we could elect a conservative or Republican.”
In addition, the legislation would allow the Board chair to be elected for a four-year period instead the current rotating one-year process. “This would give the chair more power when dealing with regional issues with Fairfax, Loudoun and Alexandria who all have elected chairs serving multiple years. Currently we have less power in these situations. Everyone knows that.”
Julius (JD) Spain, Sr. disagrees. “I am liaison to a number of regional boards. We have a lot of leverage.” Spain, who points out he is speaking on his 77th day as a new board member, says he supports a robust community conversation about changes in the board. “This deserves a conversation with community and business leaders, faith-based organizations. I seem to encounter the same 500 people who make things happen. I’d love to know what a young family with school age kids knows about Arlington government — the roles and responsibilities and what they might think about these issues.”
A group of neighborhood ladies meeting at a monthly get together respond they don’t really know anything about the county government and don’t really care. “We’ve always done pretty well here, haven’t we?” However, as the discussion continues they do admit they care about certain issues like property taxes but don’t relate it to personalities or the position of individual board members.
Spain says as a leader he doesn’t want to tell people what is appropriate, to get out in front of his constituents. Spain would like to see a blue ribbon commission talk about the pros and cons, the history of our government. But he says there are other pressing priorities right now with what’s going on in government.
A Democratic precinct captain from the Crystal City area agrees, wondering why we are spending time on this when there are so many more important issues out there now that need addressing.
Board Chair Takis Karantonis says, “This conversation is running parallel with serious Federal events that will change Arlington as we know it. What is at stake is the function of our republic, the division of powers. We are witnessing a clash with an Administration that doesn’t obey the rule of law and uses methods of political change that infringe on the Constitution.”
He continues Arlington has a lot to be concerned about with funding reductions as well as 30,000 Federal employees and a significant number of very highly skilled people prepared for public service who work as contractors. ”In addition, we have unprecedented conflict right now, and we are at the brink of a constitutional crisis.”
Arlington Board Member, Matt de Ferranti, says, “I do believe we need to have a broader conversation about these issues. But we need to ask when is the appropriate time for this conversation. I think later this year due to the challenges facing the Board right now posed by the new Administration with all of the funding cuts and the ways they are impacting our community.” de Ferranti adds, “We are super busy trying to figure it all out.
“We want to be sensitive and caring when things are happening so fast and furious — how do we respond to do the right thing?” He adds, “We don’t want a food fight right now with the anxiety and depression in our community. We need to look at this but know when and how best to go about it.”
If the bill gets signed into law, it still has a ways to go before implementation. The changes don’t automatically go into effect. The voters have the option, but not the obligation, to change the current operating procedure. Hope says in order to give the County Board flexibility and direction from the people, the legislation builds in a referendum. But if the County Board doesn’t act, 10 percent of registered voters (16,000) could petition the courts to call for a referendum.
One other hitch in finalizing the legislation is a current Senate amendment which adds a reenactment clause to the legislation. Hope says it means that if you like the bill you have to come back and pass it again next year for it to go into effect. Hope says this amendment was added by one Republican who was opposed “because we generally don’t change governance structure without the local jurisdiction’s support. I have asked the governor to remove this provision.”
Karantonis says we need to have a process of asking people what they think about changing the current board. He says he has been knocking on doors and this doesn’t emerge in the community conversations.
“I would support providing a forum later in the year to discuss a task force to consider these issues. Arlington is in crisis right now so discussions on changing the county board need to be secondary. It should be seen in the context of what is broken or not working in Arlington….fill in the blank.”