The incumbent County Board chair and four candidates seeking to oust him each say the county government needs less bureaucracy and more creativity in supporting the business and development communities.
“Our processes are not efficient enough,” Board Chair Matt de Ferranti acknowledged at a June 23 candidate forum sponsored by the Arlington Chamber of Commerce.
“There are challenges. We can improve,” he said.
De Ferranti is seeking a third four-year term. He is being challenged by Julie Farnam and James DeVita in the Aug. 4 Democratic primary, with the winner moving on to the Nov. 3 general election to face independents Audrey Clement and David Sisson.
A number of challengers questioned why process improvements in planning and processing have not improved during de Ferranti’s tenure. Both Clement and Farnam also pointed to major increases to some permitting fees enacted by County Board members last year.
“We increased the price but at the same time we reduced the staff” to handle the workload, said Farnam, who in 2024 unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for County Board.
“The net impact was draconian,” said Clement, who has been running for office as a self-described protest candidate since 2011.
DeVita, who is making his third run for the Democratic nomination and previously ran for Virginia Senate, said the bigger question was what he termed the Arlington government’s overly aggressive approach to micromanaging business activity.
“I don’t know what we’re doing, trying to regulate every little aspect,” DeVita said, promising to be “the best friend businesses ever had in Arlington.”
As he has before, DeVita proposed assigning one staff member to each planning/permitting application, helping the applicant every step in the process.
“We’ve got to speed it up if we can,” he said. “Reforming the permitting process, that would be a necessary first step.”
Sisson, the only first-time candidate in the field, said county officials need to take a second look at recent efforts moving the permitting process to a mostly digital environment.
“Start from the ground up,” he said of a review. “Go back to basics — what does the business community need? — and then build on that.”
Sisson also urged giving county staff firm deadlines to approve permits and plans. If those deadlines were missed, the projects should win automatic approval, he said.
While voicing the need for process improvements, incumbent de Ferranti defended the overall trajectory of the county’s business-development efforts.
“Arlington does quite well in terms of competing,” he said. “We’re on a good path.”
Housing also was a key theme of the forum, moderated by Chamber chair Bismah Ahmed of the Apartment and Office Building Association (AOBA) of Metropolitan Washington.
Clement, Farnam and DeVita are critics of the county government’s Missing Middle (Expanded Housing Options) initiative, which currently is on hold pending review by the Virginia Supreme Court. Sisson backs more intense residential development in Metro corridors, while de Ferranti attempts to strike a middle ground.
While backing a more aggressive approach to housing, Sisson said it needed to be coupled with infrastructure improvements to accommodate the influx of new residents.
Without those improvements, “you will get some of the detrimental effects [of growth] people are afraid of,” he said.
Several challengers criticized the County Board for approving a fiscal 2027 budget that included a 2-cent increase in the real estate tax rate on top of higher assessments for most residential property.
“We should have done more to find what could be cut,” Farnam said. “It was just ‘how much are we going to raise taxes?’ The Board is out of touch with the community.”
“I don’t have a problem cutting services,” DeVita said. “Higher taxes are part of the [affordability] problem.”
As he did at a recent debate sponsored by the Arlington County Democratic Committee, de Ferranti said the bulk of the tax increase went to public-safety personnel.
De Ferranti said he had delivered “answers, not platitudes” during his Board service, but Farnam zeroed in on a lack of leadership among the county’s elected officials.
“You’ve had eight years” to address areas of concern, she said to the incumbent, while also criticizing how he works with his female colleagues. De Ferranti did not respond.
The Chamber has hosted a spring candidate forum for the past 12 years. “We appreciate their willingness to engage with the business community,” said Kate Bates, its president/CEO.
Candidates had been given general topics, but not specific questions, in advance of the forum, Ahmed said.
The June 16 filing deadline came and went without Republicans fielding a County Board nominee. The party had been approached by William Bayne, who planned to run as an independent, but Bayne did not qualify for the ballot.
The five-member County Board has not had a non-Democrat since de Ferranti ousted one-term independent John Vihstadt in 2018.
