Since he joined the Board of Supervisors in 2008, John has focused on the county’s fiscal challenges and economic development issues. He is the Vice-chairman of the Board’s Budget Committee, Chairman of the Board’s Audit Committee, Chairman of the Fairfax County Economic Advisory Commission, and Vice-chairman of the Mosaic Community Development Authority. John is working to relieve the tax burden on homeowners by controlling costs and diversifying sources of County revenues. Despite dramatically increased demands for county services, the tax burden on the average homeowner is less today than when John took office four years ago.
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Strengthening the County’s economy. A vibrant local economy is the foundation of a great community. Economic opportunity and good jobs allow us to support our families and realize our career goals. The revenues generated by a strong local economy enable communities to provide the infrastructure, schools, libraries, parks, police, fire and rescue, and many other programs and services that create the quality of life we all want. As Chairman of the Fairfax County Economic Advisory Commission, John is focused on strengthening, diversifying and expanding our local economy. Recently, the Commission released a strategic plan for economic development in Fairfax County. The Plan was accepted by the Board of Supervisors and John is now working with Commission members to ensure that the goals set forth in the plan are realized.
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Controlling costs and making government more efficient. As Vice-chairman of the Board’s Budget Committee and Chairman of the Board’s Audit Committee, John has taken a very active role in conducting comprehensive reviews of how our public funds are managed and spent. John works with the community to define our spending and revenue priorities. He
established a citizens’ budget task force to advise him on budget issues and regularly holds town hall meetings to discuss budget issues with Dranesville residents.
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John has had a major role in reducing county departmental operating budgets by almost $200 million while ensuring that the county continues to provide essential services to county residents. In order to meet the county’s fiscal challenges without taking away essential services, John has focused on increasing management efficiencies, cutting overhead costs, outsourcing services to non-profits and eliminating programs and services that are no longer needed or that could be consolidated into other programs.
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Monitoring the Dulles rail project. As a lawyer with 30 years of experience working with construction contracts and claims, John provides leadership and expertise to protect County taxpayers and Dulles Toll Road users from cost overruns and schedule delays. As Chairman of the Board’s Audit Committee, he regularly monitors the rail project and provides independent reports on the status of the project’s budget and schedule. John opposes the Airport Authority’s proposal to build an underground station at Dulles Airport at a cost of $325 million, most of which would be paid by Dulles Toll Road users. To relieve the unacceptable burden that is being placed on toll road users, John advocates for the Airport Authority to eliminate unnecessary costs and inject more competition into the contracting process and for the federal government to take a more equitable role in funding this project
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Funding essential services. Despite the fiscal challenges of the past four years, and unlike many communities around the nation, Fairfax County has been able to avoid draconian cuts to essential services like education, public safety and human services.
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Public education. Schools remain John’s number one funding priority and he has supported the Board of Supervisors efforts to protect the education programs that have been threatened by funding challenges.
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Public safety. John believes that all county residents are entitled to live in a safe community. Despite very difficult fiscal challenges over the past four years, John has worked to ensure that our Police and Fire and Rescue Departments are adequately staffed and have the resources they need to protect our community and respond to disasters when they occur.
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Human services. Because of the Great recession, the need for essential human services in the County has increased dramatically at a time when county resources were very restrained. John has worked to improve the cost effective delivery of those services by advocating for improved efficiencies within county operations and by outsourcing delivery of those services to the county’s non-profit sector.
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