I would stop paying lip service to social justice. For example in April, 2025 County Board adopted a plan to construct a massive 8-story apartment complex in a Black neighborhood adjacent to one of Arlington’s few remaining historic structures, Lomax AME Zion Church, over the objections of the pastor, the congregation and the Green Valley Civic Association. It also closes off two accesses to the existing site on Glebe Road, all but guaranteeing a traffic nightmare for everyone in the vicinity. The County’s utter disregard for the residents of Green Valley not only calls into question its commitment to racial justice, it shows that DEI, to which it does pay lip service, is just another form of tokenism.

At $1.7 billion the adopted FY 2027 budget cuts over 50 jobs. The job cut savings are reallocated to increased salaries and interest group demands. The balance owed is paid for with a 2-cent tax hike, a 5.3% increase over last year. Every household pays on average an additional $466 for less basic service. This is unsustainable when the cost of everything else is going up. I plan to reduce expenditures by scrutinizing the demands of gimme groups who come to the County every year looking for handouts. I will also seek to reduce residential taxes by encouraging tax burdened NYC entrepreneurs to relocate here. Tax revenue generated from increased business occupancy will reduce the tax burden on Arlington residents.

In 2025 Arlington installed 25 Flock Safety cameras to help detect crime, recover stolen vehicles, and locate missing persons. Despite their popularity with law enforcement and restrictions on their use and data storage, the cameras have garnered a lot of opposition across Virginia. In fact Cardinal News reported that no less than 20 localities have banned or paused their use. FBI crime statistics show that between June, 2024 and June, 2026, stolen vehicles reported in Virginia dropped 50 percent. If officials figured that Flock cameras are no longer needed, they may have figured wrong. Arlington police should count the number of stolen vehicle cases solved using Flock cameras before recommending termination of the Flock contract.

The best way to ensure equitable decision making in County government is to eliminate one party rule. When one party governs, only one side of the story gets told. No one else--not even a dissident Democrat--is taken seriously. Until the machine mentality that routinely eats up alternative candidates and spits them out is defeated, there is no hope for good governance in Arlington County. To do that, voters need to stop blindly voting the “blue ballot” and actually think about who they’re voting for on election day.

I support replacing district based Board members over at-large, because almost 100 years of at large representation has resulted in a County Board that is accountable to no one. Whenever it needs a majority to support an unpopular policy, Board members grab votes from a large pool of uninformed and apathetic voters, who pull the Democratic lever no matter what. District representation would make it harder for the Board to trample on the voters in a district if they were united in their response to a policy that affected their community. Add to that the fact that the current at-large County Board is as unusual in its construction as it is undemocratic in its operation. No other county in the state enjoys this form of representation.

Yes, I will. I have done so over the past years, through organizations like the NAACP, ASHPA, Equality Arlington, Equality NOVA, and through individuals across Arlington. I am committed to outreach with all parts of our community and have engaged extensively through ASHPA (The South Arlington Hispanic Parents Association) as well as the NAACP's Arlington Branch. On immigration, I have consistently engaged to make sure we hear all of our families' concerns and needs, as evident by remarks in January and ongoing engagement with our community. I am fully committed to continuing this work with our African-American communities, families, and individuals across the County. Historically, we certainly need to do better to engage those most in need as well, which means focusing on census tracts with the greatest economic needs. We have a history of inclusion that is better than Virginia, but not nearly good enough on LGBTQ issues. I will continue my engagement efforts to that community.

On housing, we should consider policies to address collusion on rents, if and where that occurs in the markets. There is evidence that some landlords in other communities have worked together to raise rents or keep rents high. We should pursue determining if that is occurring in Arlington. We also should stay the course on sensible zoning reforms through expanded housing options to slow the rate of increase in the cost of housing. Eviction preventing and AHIF (Affordable Housing Investment Fund) are two other areas where we should continue to invest, as is Arlington's Housing Grant Program. Housing supply is critical as well. On food, we should invest in AFAC as well as Food Mini-Grants. Utilities, we are doing the right thing by our neighbors who are food insecure.

I believe it was and is the right step to end our contract with FLOC. This Trump Administration, along with artificial intelligence, and my concerns about ICE activities, the balance between rights to privacy, lead me to that conclusion and the action the Board took. To be clear, we had many protections in Arlington that other localities did not. Nonetheless, the balance we seek requires transparency. As I have said, I do not support continuous, recording license plate readers without a full public process. Speed cameras and red-light cameras are different, for me. The same is true about body-worn cameras, which I also see as important for public safety and public trust.

In addition to the public process that would be essential, I would need significant other controls to consider automatic license plate readers. The recent analysis of the many cases across the country where FLOC cameras were abused by law enforcement show that privacy needs to be fully weighed.

I believe it is time for us to invest in additional community engagement. That is not the only answer, but I do think it is part of what is necessary. Another part of the way to address this is to make existing processes more honest and transparent about what will be considered with respect to an item. This means being clearer on the scope or charge of a public engagement process. Sometimes, issues that are not allowed to be part of a particular process are those that concern our residents. One example is land use decisions where we must apply our ordinances consistently, even if we do not love doing so.

We also need to engage more with our community through outreach to renters in particular and those who have historically not been part of public decision making. In next year's budget, I would like to find room to provide additional resources for such engagement. We also need energy to help move us forward during this difficult moment.

I believe that we should have a full community conversation on this topic. Through a focused contract, on the Examination of the County Board's Structure and Performance, we are doing some work to get ready, but our full community needs to be engaged.

My view is one of many, and I would want to learn from others and am open to change. Here it is in brief: I think we should have 3 at large Board Members, 3 Board members from districts that are roughly equivalent to our 3 Delegates (Alfonso Lopez, Patrick Hope, and Adele McClure's districts.) I also think we should have a directly elected County Board Chair. The districts would help with accountability for outcomes on issues small and large: traffic issues, resources for all parts of the County, climate, and housing. 3 Board Members elected at large. The Chair would help provide balance from the Board to the strength of the County Manager.

I think we have a very, very good government, but going forward we will need to evolve.

I have felt firsthand the difficulties of influencing local issues as someone who works a 9-5 and primarily relies upon public transportation. I think the best way to engage with local politics is through in-person interactions and the best way to increase that is to make engagement easier. Rotating the times and locations of county meetings to ensure that those who work odd hours or live far away from the Bozman Center can come would make it easier for a variety of people to provide input to the County Board Members. Arlington is 60% renters and the median age is 36. However, the median age of a primary voter in America is 65. If we build policy based on the input of retired homeowners, we are missing the needs of most of our community.

Many of the problems we are facing with affordability are out of the County Board’s control: high gas prices, high grocery costs, high energy costs. These problems require federal or state action to address. The two areas where the County has robust ability to improve affordability are in taxes and housing costs. Property taxes have risen repeatedly to offset the loss of business tax revenue since Covid. The best way we can reduce the tax burden and reduce rents for renters is to increase the supply of housing. My proposals are to increase the amount of land possible for dense, mixed-used developments near major transit centers and speed up the approval time for building features that do not change function, such as facades.

I want to ban as much surveillance technology as possible. Ever since 9/11 Americans have watched their privacy rights erode. We never voted to place constantly recording cameras on every street corner. If I cannot ban it, I will require the following safeguards: 1) Data cannot be kept indefinitely. Video footage cannot be kept longer than 30 days. 2) Any use of the data must follow a typical warrant request process. 3) Access must be restricted to designated individuals. The open access that seems to pervade much of the system today has resulted in numerous stalking events. 4) County data will not be shared with state or Federal Law enforcement by default. It must be requested and the County must have final say.

I question the validity of this number. Respondents to these surveys are usually older homeowners. For example, the climate change survey had a nonrepresentative sample: Single-family home owners represented 61% of respondents but comprise 29% of county residents.

The same study where 35% of residents were satisfied found that 80%+ of Arlington residents are happy with County services and that number hasn’t changed over the years. I think this number is likely due to Arlington increasing property taxes over the last several years and I think the best way undo that is to increase the tax base so that we can reduce taxes in the future.

1) I support changing the electoral process to an open primary system where all candidates run in the primary and the top 3 vote getters advance to the general election. 2) I support maintaining ranked choice voting. 3) I support financial matching on fundraising contributions for independent candidates. 4) I do not support transitioning to a district-based model. In most jurisdictions the main effect has been to reduce housing supply because each representative fights any change in their district. It changes the board structure from collaborating for the betterment of the community as a whole to who can bring the most many back to their district. I do not want to see the dysfunction of Congress come to Arlington’s County Board.