As Arlington gears up to potentially explore governance-change options, the fate of two constitutional offices may hang in the balance.
Not yet publicly discussed much by governance-change advocates: whether to go the Fairfax County route, folding operations of Arlington’s treasurer and commissioner of revenue into the county government’s general operations.
Not surprisingly, two who have a keen interest in how this plays out are Carla de la Pava and Kim Klingler, the elected treasurer and commissioner of revenue.
In a statement on behalf of both, Klingler told ARLnow she believes little would be gained in bringing the functions of the two offices under the direction of the County Board or county manager.
“As these discussions progress, we want to ensure that the community clearly understands the vital role our constitutional offices play in providing checks and balances within local government,” Klingler said.
“These independently elected offices are designed to promote accountability, transparency and taxpayer protection, and we remain committed to fulfilling those responsibilities,” she said.
Last December, County Board members voted to postpone, until later this year, a discussion on establishing a community advisory panel to examine governance issues.
A panel could be tasked with looking into the history of Arlington’s nearly 95-year-old governance structure and recommending potential changes. If that happens, major questions will likely include changing the size of the County Board, whether to move to district-based representation, whether to elect a Board chair separately, the role of the county manager and whether to change the existing election cycle where at least one Board seat is on the ballot every year.
Proposed changes to the existing structure likely would require support from the County Board, General Assembly, governor and county voters in some combination.
In their message, Klingler and de la Pava said they are not aware that any changes to their offices’ operations might be part of consideration.
“To date, no one in the county has suggested that they are considering eliminating the offices of the commissioner of revenue and treasurer as part of this process, at least to either of us,” they wrote.
The two County Board members serving as liaisons to the change-of-government process told ARLnow that nothing has been decided, one way or the other, on any issue.
“There are no predetermined outcomes,” said Susan Cunningham and Julius “JD” Spain, Sr. “Over the next few months, we will gather and review foundational information — should any findings relate to constitutional offices, we will share and discuss with our constitutional officers.”
When the Arlington County Civic Federation discussed governance changes through its Task Force in Governance and Election Reform (TiGER), the matter of constitutional offices was only briefly focused on.
The panel “decided that it would take more thought/effort/time than we had to look at them,” said Dave Schutz, who served on TiGER and currently chairs the Civic Federation’s form-of-government subcommittee.
“We kind of made the same decision about the commission/advisory body issues,” Schutz told ARLnow. “I personally think those are issues Arlington should think about, but that a global look at every aspect of our form of government is likely to collapse from making too much demand on participants.”
The future of constitutional officers and advisory committees can be put aside until more structural governance changes are made, Schutz suggested.
“We have enough to chew on with the current effort,” he said.
It’s always possible that governance changes could lead to more authority being handed over to constitutional offices, rather than powers being taken away.
Klingler’s immediate predecessor as commissioner of revenue, Ingrid Morroy, sought to have her office take control of real-estate assessments, a responsibility currently handled by county staff.
Morroy was never able to convince County Board members to make the switch. Klingler, who was elected in 2023, has not publicly revived the idea.
From the 1870s through the early 1930s, Arlington — known until 1920 as Alexandria County — was governed by a three-member Board of Supervisors elected in districts. The county’s Circuit Court judge and county clerk also wielded significant power during that 60-year period.
In 1932, after receiving permission from Richmond, Arlington voters elected a five-member, at-large County Board that had the power to hire and fire a professional county manager. That structure has remained in place ever since.
Arlington currently has five elected constitutional officers, so named because their duties are spelled out in the Virginia Constitution. The other three are the commonwealth’s attorney, sheriff and clerk of the Circuit Court.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti and Clerk of the Circuit Court Paul Ferguson split duties between Arlington and the city of Falls Church, while the others focus exclusively on Arlington.
