McKay lays out priorities in bid to chair Board of Supervisors

From the left: Supervisor Jeff McKay, at-large school board member Karen Keys-Gamarra, Rep. Gerry Connolly, and James Walkinshaw, candidate for Braddock District supervisor, at Walkinshaw’s campaign kickoff.

Jeff McKay, the Lee District supervisor who is running for chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, says his main issues are environmental stewardship, affordable housing, and accomplishing the equity goals in the board’s One Fairfax resolution.

McKay hopes to succeed Sharon Bulova, who announced earlier this month that she will not run for re-election after her current term ends. The election is Nov. 5, 2019.

Citing his “enormous experience in revitalizing the downtown areas of Springfield and Route 1,” McKay looks forward to expanding those efforts to other older, commercial areas, such as Annandale and Bailey’s Crossroads.

He would like to see those areas lose the “seas of parking,” become less auto-centric, and find more creative uses for vacant buildings, such as microbreweries, small craft manufacturers, and entertainment venues, such as spaces for trampoline or climbing walls.

“The retail world is changing permanently,” he says, and “vacant buildings are bad for everyone.”

When it comes to the environment, McKay believes “the county has a moral obligation to become carbon neutral.”

McKay also intends to continue the county’s efforts to improve the juvenile justice system and mental health programs, ensure safer streets, and support an excellent school system.

The board will have “new voices and new perspective” next year, he notes, as it faces high turnover. Both supervisors John Cook (Braddock) and Linda Smyth (Providence) are not running for re-election, and some of the others have not yet announced whether they are running again.

Supervisors Penny Gross (Mason), Dan Storck (Mount Vernon) are definitely running, and John Foust (Dranesville) is also expected to run for re-election.

Supervisor Pat Herrity (Springfield) is reportedly also weighting a run for the chairmanship. McKay hopes Herrity will run, as that “would provide an effort to “expose his record.”

“Herrity has been a divisive force on the board,” McKay says. “Scare tactics don’t work.”

According to McKay, Herrity was the only supervisor who didn’t support a resolution calling for Virginia to endorse the Equal Rights Amendment, misled the public by falsely claiming Sheriff Stacey Kincaid ignored ICE detainer orders for undocumented immigrants, and failed to attend an event celebrating the LGBTQ community six years in row.