County Board candidates tackled questions on immigration, residential parking and housing during a Sept. 21 forum sponsored by the Lyon Village Citizens’ Association.
County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti acknowledged there’s next to nothing Arlington officials can do to intervene in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sweeps across Northern Virginia.
“We cannot interfere,” said de Ferranti, who is being challenged by independents Audrey Clement and David Sisson on Nov 3.
County Board members have restricted local police interactions with ICE and have criticized what they say is heavy-handedness by the Trump administration.
“That’s not safe, that’s not wise — it doesn’t promote public safety,” de Ferranti said of recent federal sweeps. “Fear does not help.”
Clement said the county’s unwillingness to work with federal immigration officials when individuals are arrested for alleged crimes is bad public policy.
“These people are released into the community” rather than handed over to federal officials, Clement said. The result, she said, is “a dangerous situation for both illegals and ICE officers.”
Clement agreed there should be investigations when ICE agents are accused of crossing the line. County police are investigating a recent incident in which a man reportedly suffered a brain bleed during an arrest where an ICE officer shot him with a stun gun in the Columbia Pike area.
Sisson said he did not believe those arrested for low-level infractions should be held for pickup by federal officials. But when a suspect is charged with multiple or violent crimes, “then Arlington County … should hand them over,” he said.
“Arlington at least has to try to be the adult in the room” on the issue, he said.
Candidates also got an earful over recent changes moving the county’s residential parking program away from the traditional sticker-based enforcement to electronic permitting. The shift away from stickers placed on the rear of vehicles makes it more difficult for residents to alert county officials of improperly parked vehicles, one resident said at the forum.
None of the three had high praise for the new system, which is being phased in over time.
“In the old system, they had stickers,” Clement said. If a vehicle didn’t have one, residents “called the county and someone would come,” she said.
Now, she said, “it takes a lot more effort” to determine if a vehicle is legally parked in a residential zone.
Clement suggested the decision to move to the new system originated with County Manager Mark Schwartz and staff, without sufficient input from County Board members or the public.
De Ferranti agreed that the new system has its drawbacks.
“I know the neighborhood is very frustrated,” he told Lyon Village residents.
Beyond the change to electronic permitting, de Ferranti said a lack of personnel has hampered the county’s ability to enforce parking regulations.
“I would not say enforcement is Arlington’s greatest strength. We have had trouble hiring — that’s part of it,” he said, saying county officials were working to “figure out what is best to address the challenges.”
Sisson said he saw the value in the discarded sticker system, but that a cost-benefit analysis needed to be conducted.
“I want to see what the cost of bringing back the stickers would be,” he said.
De Ferranti pivoted on the issue to his proposal to change the makeup of the County Board from five at-large members to three at-large and three district-based members, plus a countywide chair.
Having district-based representation would give the public someone to contact on community-specific concerns, he said.
“There would be greater accountability,” de Ferranti said.
Housing was also a topic at the forum, with candidates reaffirming their positions. Sisson supported a wider array of housing options in the area, Clement voiced opposition to the county’s Missing Middle housing efforts and de Ferranti straddled the middle ground.
In August, de Ferranti defeated Julie Farnam and James DeVita to win the Democratic nomination. He first won election in 2018, defeating incumbent independent John Vihstadt, and was reelected in 2022.
Sisson, who is making his first bid for elected office, has received support from the Forward Party. Clement has been running for local office, typically County Board but sometimes School Board, for more than a dozen years.
Arlington Republicans did not field a County Board candidate this year.
The race is being run under ranked-choice rules. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote in the first round, the candidate with the lowest vote total is eliminated and his or her votes are distributed as directed by the candidate’s voters.
It will be the third County Board general election run via ranked-choice. The first two did not require a runoff, as Democrats Julius “J.D.” Spain, Sr., received 58% in the 2024 election and Takis Karantonis received 65% in 2025.
In addition to the County Board race, the 2026 Arlington ballot includes races for U.S. Senate, House of Representatives and School Board, plus three state constitutional amendments and five county bond referendums.
Early voting began last week and runs through Oct. 31, with the county’s 54 precincts open from 6 a.m.-7 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 3.
