A hearing on whether to study changes to the form of Arlington’s local government is scheduled to take place next week.
County Board members have set aside an entire evening — Wednesday, Dec. 17 beginning at 6 p.m. — to hear from the public and then decide whether to set up a task force looking at the hotly debated issue. Registration is open now.
Quite a few past elected officials have expressed concerns about moving forward on the governance issue, at least right now. The latest to add her voice is Libby Garvey, who served on both the County Board and School Board.
Garvey took issue with the proposed charter for the task force, saying that it “seems to assume a certain outcome rather than considering various ways to solve a problem which has not yet been clearly stated.”
“Asking the right questions is crucial to solving a problem,” she wrote in an email to supporters.
Garvey said 2026 would be the wrong time to be sidetracked from other issues by a potentially contentious debate over governance:
“To undertake a project like restructuring our government now is like deciding to paint the lifeboats right after the Titanic hit the iceberg. We need to focus on how to help our residents survive the coming economic storm without crippling the county’s finances, not on addressing a problem that is not yet clearly defined.”
The change-of-governance proposal has been spearheaded by the Arlington County Civic Federation. That organization’s president, Nicholas Giacobbe, urged delegates to reach out to the five County Board members at or before the meeting.
“Let your voice be heard,” he said in the Federation’s December newsletter.
The other main driver of the initiative, the Arlington NAACP, reaffirmed its support in a Nov. 17 letter from president DeLishia Davis to Board members.
“We continue to believe that after 93 years, it is prudent to assess how our form of government can lead to governance that is more effective, responsive and equitable,” Davis said.
If enacted, the panel would begin deliberations by February and likely would be tasked with bringing back recommendations by the end of 2026.
Issues it could be tasked with considering: the size of the County Board, how members are elected, whether the chair should be a separately elected position and whether ranked-choice voting should be mandated for general elections of the body.
Some, like former Board member Jay Fisette, also want consideration of whether Arlington should seek city status.
Arlington’s current governance structure of five at-large Board members and an appointed county manager dates from the early 1930s.
For the preceding 60 years, Arlington was governed by a three-member, district based Board of Supervisors whose members had legislative, executive and even quasi-judicial powers at a time when Arlington was a far less urbanized community.
As of last month, there appeared to be a slim but perhaps wobbly majority of the five current Board members in support of setting up a task force.
Julius “JD” Spain, Sr., Matt de Ferranti and chair Takis Karantonis expressed varying degrees of support for the concept. Maureen Coffey and Susan Cunningham have raised concerns about moving forward.
Karantonis and de Ferranti have provided only tepid public backing for taking the plunge, suggesting either or both could potentially be swayed to switch sides.
