Loudoun County Board of Supervisors

Loudoun County, Virginia is divided into eight magisterial districts: Algonkian, Ashburn, Blue Ridge, Broad Run, Catoctin, Dulles, Leesburg, and Sterling. The magisterial districts each elect one supervisor to the Board of Supervisors which governs Loudoun County. There is also a Chair elected by the county at-large, bringing total Board membership to 9. A Vice-Chair is selected by the Board from amongst its membership. The current Chair is Phyllis J. Randall. The current Vice-Chair is Ralph Buona, the Ashburn District Supervisor. He was elected Vice Chair in March 2015.^[1] Board members serve four-year terms.

Responsibilities

The Board of Supervisors sets county policies, adopts ordinances, appropriates funds, approves land rezonings and special exceptions to the zoning ordinance, and carries out other responsibilities set forth by the State Code. The Board appoints a County Administrator, who manages county operations; the Planning Commission, which serves in an advisory capacity on land use issues; and various other boards and commissions. The Board also appoints the County Attorney. The Board of Supervisors acts within the limits set forth by the Virginia General Assembly.

Meeting Schedule

The Board of Supervisors meeting schedule is set forth is its Rules of Order.^[2] Business meetings typically occur twice monthly, beginning on the first Tuesday of the month at 5:00 p.m. The Board holds one public hearing monthly, currently on the Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. that follows the first business meeting. The second business meeting occurs at 5:00 p.m. on the Thursday following the public hearing. The Board's standing committees^[3] also usually meet monthly. The meetings are held at the Loudoun County Government Center, 1 Harrison Street, S.E. in Leesburg. The Board's official meeting schedule is published in accordance with § 2.2-3707 of Virginia Freedom of Information Act^[4] (FOIA) on the master calendar on the county's website.

Membership: Past and Present

Currently, Republicans hold six seats on the board. Democrats hold three seats. In 2015, Loudoun voters made history when they elected their first two African-American supervisors: Phyllis J. Randall (Chair-At-Large) and Koran T. Saines (Sterling). They also elected their youngest-ever supervisor, Ron A. Meyer, Jr. (Broad Run).

The current districts and their Supervisors are:

In November 2011, Republicans were elected to all nine seats on the Board.

In November 2007 voters removed four incumbent, fiscally conservative Republicans from the Board of Supervisors in a backlash over rapid development in the county's eastern portion. The Board's make-up after the election was five Democrats, two Republicans, and two Independents.

Actions

As empowered by the Code of Virginia, the Board of Supervisors typically takes action within its purview^[5] during each of its business meetings, public hearings, and standing committee meetings. The Board has both administrative and legislative responsibilities, some of which are discharged in the role of the local governing body and some of which have derived from its function as an administrative subdivision of the state. The powers and duties of the Board of Supervisors include:

• Adopting the county budget (establishing appropriations and setting the tax rates);
• Approving and enforcing the county's comprehensive land use plan and related ordinances;
• Making and enforcing ordinances for public safety, sanitation, health and other regulations permitted by state laws; and
• Providing for the care and treatment of indigent and handicapped citizens.^[6]

Over time, a Board of Supervisors may take thousands of individual actions in open session by motion and majority vote during its meetings. The official actions of the Loudoun County Board of Superiors are documented on the county's website, in the form of a copy teste,^[7] a "true copy" of the county's official record of Board actions, produced, signed, and published by the clerk on the county's website.

On January 18th, 2018 by a narrow majority Loudoun Supervisors voted to permit destruction of a critically imperiled (G1) habitat in Virginia, a northern piedmont mafic barren, with less than ten occurrences in the world.^{[8][9][10][11]} Supervisors Suzanne Volpe , Koran Saines , Kristen Umstattd , Matthew Letourneau and Ron Meyer voted in favor of the controversial measure which would allow building the True North Data Center on top of the habitat and adjacent to the Dulles Greenway. ^[12]

References

External links

• Official Website of Loudoun County Government
• Board of Supervisors