The timetable for County Board members to begin addressing potential changes to local governance appears to be holding to schedule.
“All the remaining deliverables … are on track,” Mason Kushnir, clerk to the County Board, said at the Board’s Sept. 22 meeting.
They include submission of an initial report on governance options no later than Oct. 30 by the National Civic League, which is being paid $25,000 for the work.
The same organization will deliver a final report by Nov. 30, setting the stage for County Board consideration in December.
That will mark one year since Board members deferred planned consideration of governance changes to the summer of 2026. This June, Board members again pushed the timetable back, to the end of the year.
County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti intimated that the days of delays were in the past.
“We’re staying on track,” he said on Sept. 22.
What happens next, however, is an open question:
- Board members potentially could set up a community-based task force to further consider options and report back sometime next year
- Alternatively, though perhaps less likely, Board members could announce unilateral plans to change the county’s 95-year-old governance structure, pending approval from the General Assembly and governor
- Or they could announce the time was not right to consider changes at all
Pressed forward by the Arlington County Civic Association, potential governance changes could include increasing the size of the Board beyond the current five members; changing the election cycle for Board members; having some or all Board members elected by districts; and/or separately electing a chair.
The relationship between the elected Board and the appointed county manager could also be part of discussions.
Likely not on the horizon is a switch to city status, since there currently is a statewide moratorium on the creation of new cities until the early 2030s.
De Ferranti, the lone County Board member on the Nov. 3 ballot, has spent much of the campaign season promoting the idea of a seven-member County Board — an at-large chair plus three members in districts and three others at large.
His two challengers, independents Audrey Clement and David Sisson, have spent little time focused on the issue during a series of debates with the Democratic incumbent.
De Ferranti, who rotates out as Board chair on Dec. 31, also recently asked members of the Arlington legislative delegation not to introduce governance-change bills in the 2027 General Assembly session.
In remarks to Advance Arlington, de Ferranti said he wants to build community consensus on potential changes before seeking enabling legislation from Richmond.
From 1870 until 1932, Arlington was governed by a three-member Board of Supervisors, elected in districts and holding executive, legislative and quasi-judicial powers.
Following a local referendum and enabling legislation from the General Assembly, the county switched to a five-member, at-large County Board overseeing an appointed county manager, with the chair’s position rotating on an annual basis among Board members.
The system has remained in place for nearly a century with just a few tweaks, including a switch to staggered election terms rather than all seats being elected simultaneously, as had initially been the case.
