Sharon Bulova will not run for re-election
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| Sharon Bulova (center) at the opening of the Silver Line in 2014. |
Sharon Bulova, who has served as chair of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for the past 10 years announced Dec. 6 that she will not be seeking re-election in 2019.
Supervisor Jeff McKay of the Lee District is planning to run for chairman of the board, and Supervisor Pat Herrity (Springfield), is considering running.
Supervisor Linda Smyth (Providence) also announced this week that she will not seek re-election. Two candidates are running in a Democratic primary to succeed her: Erika Yalowitz, vice president of the Providence District Council, and Dalia Palchik, who represents Providence on the Fairfax County school board.
John Cook (Braddock) said last month he isn’t running for re-election.
The Board of Supervisors election is Nov. 5. Primaries will be held June 11. The new board will begin its work on Jan. 1, 2020.
Bulova was first elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1988, representing what was then called the Annandale District. It was later renamed the Braddock District as a result of a reorganization in 1991.
She was elected chairman in 2009 in a special election after then-chairman Gerry Connolly was elected to Congress, and was re-elected in 2011 and 2015.
“Local government is an awesome place to be,” Bulova says. “It’s the level of government closest to the people you represent. It’s the place where you can truly make a tangible difference, touch lives, and engage with the community in a personal, positive way. Deciding when to stop is just as hard as making the decision to start down the road of elective office. For me, however, that time has come.”
Her reasons for deciding to retire include “more time with family and grandchildren, time for travel, to entertain, to smell the roses.”
Bulova highlighted some of her accomplishments:
- Founding the VRE commuter rail system.
- Piloting Metro’s Silver Line Phase 1 over the finish line.
- Navigating through the Great Recession and federal sequestration while retaining Fairfax County’s triple AAA bond rating.
- Founding Faith Communities in Action.
- Initiating Communities of Trust.
- Convening the Ad Hoc Police Practices Review Commission.
- Helping launch Diversion First.
- facilitating the new vision and plan for Tysons.
- Spearheading numerous environmental, historical, and cultural initiatives on behalf of the residents of Fairfax County.
“It has been an honor to serve the Fairfax County community,” Bulova says. “During these past 30 years, I have been privileged to work alongside dedicated elected officials at every level of government, with talented, caring county staff and a county full of enthusiastic community volunteers.”
LORD HAVE MERCY! WHAT AMAZING NEWS!
But what have they done for the older neighborhoods? Nothing but drop their section 8 scraps on us.
This was writing on the wall after they gave themselves pay raises, it probably bumped up the retirement checks. So Cook and Bulova are out, any news from Gross? Penny please retire and give someone else a chance.
I for one greatly appreciate Sharon’s service to the county. She has been a voice of pragmatism and championed compromise. She brought people to the table to forge compromise. These are qualities that are a dying breed in politics these days, where it seems like we have a race to the extremes and no one is trying to see the other side’s point of view or look for deals and compromise.
Agreed!
Honestly, this is a thankless job and I think Sharon has done very well. It's impossible to make everyone happy but she's been as balanced and as fair as one could be given the divisive nature of this job.
Ms Bulova fought hard to change the retirement and benefits since they were unsustainable. But….nothing really happened other than removing the social security income between retirement age and 62. Yes, our tax dollars substidizing their time waiting to get social security. She has benefited from the raise. I guess she realized the writing was on the wall when nothing passed. What a joke FFC is. Shameful to use our tax dollars the way they do. No wonder the services are plummeting.