Rick Healy appointed to the Park Board
Mason District Supervisor Andres Jimenez has named Rick Healy to represent Mason on the Fairfax County Park Authority Board.
Healy replaces Ron Kendall, who was appointed to the Park Board in 2017. Kendall left the Park Board early; his term doesn’t end until December 2026.
Healy served on the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives for 35 years before retiring in 2016.
He is currently the Mason District representative on the Fairfax County Environmental Quality Advisory Council and represents EQAC on the Fairfax County Tree Commission.
On Capitol Hill, Healy spent 26 years on the staff of what is now known as the House Committee on Natural Resources, where he worked on national parks, forests, and public land issues. In 2008, he was named chief counsel of the committee.
In 2011, Healy was appointed Democratic clerk for the House Appropriations Committee’s Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee.
A native of Minnesota, Healy graduated from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn.
His past community activities include president of the Northern Virginia Swimming League, the Camelot Civic Association, and the Falls Church High School PTSA. He also served as an assistant scoutmaster and a certified high school swim official.
Healy and his wife, Cecilia, have been married for 44 years. They have a daughter and a son.
His hobbies include senior softball and antique cars. He owns a 1957 Ford Thunderbird and attends numerous antique car shows.
8 responses to “Rick Healy appointed to the Park Board”
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Congratulations! Hopefully he will be more accountable for answering questions about pickle ball and tennis courts than our Mason Supervisor (who told voters he couldn’t do anything about the Parks authority, then at least agreed to meet with folks when the Park authority refused to). BTW, I do not play either game but am furious at how dismissive our Fairfax county government has become of its own citizens and voters.
Agree – Remember how they tried to push z-mod through during the pandemic? Or when BoS gave themselves a raise and then came up short on budget – then raised property tax – then failed to enforce housing code in residential areas. It’s just never ending — essentially linked to many of the 7-11 and gas station and VABC owners locally who manage to chain migrate their entire extended family and get themselves into county and state staff jobs —- and then we have their form of their culture’s local corrupt government imported to Fairfax. We prefer our own forms thank you very much – at least it’s predictable .
Woah.. that escalated quickly. I do think Mr. Healy will be a great addition to the Park Authority Board and appreciate him taking time to do this.
Him having previous experience with the Tree Commission and EQAC will allow him to learn rather quickly.
I do hope he will be able and engaged with voters in Mason, and not just speak for the Trees (poor Lorax attempt at humor). Hinjee has some legitimate facts (z-mod, pay raise, property tax assessment – the board crowing about lowering the rate knowing all assessed values went up sky high) and issues, but then went whinny in either (A) a racist rant, or (B) much more likely sarcasm attempting to masquerade as racism to paint those legitimate points as racism. Regardless it just makes him/her/they the bigot that happens to realize the real issues abusing everyone. Red, yellow, brown, black or white we are all people and treating people how you want to be treated is the right thing to do.
Jimenez appointed him, so I don’t have my hopes up.
The park authority is an independent body with 23,000 acres under its care and two thirds of its budget is revenue generated. It has substantial capability but the county side of their budget is always under funded and has unfunded mandates directed from the county. It’s county budget is less than one percent of the total county budget and that includes libraries in its line item. If you want parks, trails, and green space you need to pay for it. Please remember Rick is a volunteer. No money not even for travel just good civic pride and duty to his neighbors. Thanks for stepping up Rick we need more of you.
Agree that we have a lot of good things in our parks, and everything costs money. That’s a main reason why we have elected officials to be accountable for fiscal decisions. Park authority is an independent body created by the Board of Supervisors as I recall. If entities created by the Board are not responsive to citizens then the Board should look into bringing the authority back to itself and dismantle the independent & unresponsive Park board (not the work of the Parks). I’m not expecting that to happen as I don’t see the Board of Supervisors wanting to be accountable. Again, I’m hopeful for the appointee, but the engagement & responsiveness of Fairfax government entities is in decline and desperately needs to change.
You won’t find me whining about the poor Park Authority and its under-funding by the county. There doesn’t seem to be much accountability or transparency from its leadership. At the very least, I hope Mr. Healy represents his Mason District neighbors and not the interests of the Park Authority as seems to have been the practice in the past. I wish him the best of luck in that endeavor.