Effective December 2006, Earl Flanagan was appointed Planning Commissioner for the Mount Vernon District by the Board of Supervisors on a motion by Supervisor Gerry Hyland.

A 26 year resident of Fairfax County, Commissioner Flanagan presently serves as President of the Riverside Estates Civic Association, and is a member of the Mount Vernon/Lee Richmond Highway Revitalization Task Force, Woodrow Wilson Bridge Stakeholder Panel and the Task Force developing plans for the former District of Columbia Prison in Lorton.

Commissioner Flanagan has previously served as Chairman of the Mount Vernon Council of Citizens Associations, Chairman of the Transportation Committee of the Council, Chairman and Director of the Southeast Fairfax Development, Director of the National Institute of Building Sciences, Director of the Fairfax County Federation of Citizens Associations, Director of the Fairfax Committee of 100 and was a Fairfax County Redistricting Committee Member. In 1991 he was a nominee for Mount Vernon Supervisor and in 1993 he was a nominee for Virginia Delegate.

As a registered architect, Flanagan served a one-year apprenticeship with Simon & Rettberg, Architects, in Champaign, Illinois; five years as an architect with the nationally recognized firm of Perkins and Will, Architects, in Chicago, Illinois; and, 10 years as principal architect of schools, municipal buildings, churches, apartments, parks, and homes in the firm of E. Layton Flanagan & Associates, Architects in Harvey, Illinois.

Commissioner Flanagan also served within the local government during this period as a planning commissioner, building commissioner and finally as an elected official before joining the Chicago Regional Office of HUD in 1968 as an expert on state and local building regulations. He was appointed Principal Advisor on Building Codes and Code Administration in Washington by Secretary Romney in 1973.

Commissioner Flanagan graduated from the University of Illinois with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Architectural Engineering and the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service with a Graduate Diploma in Social Psychology and Political Science.

During his time in the military, Flanagan was a decorated combat artillery veteran of Patton’s 3rd Army in World War II. He also served two years during the Korean War as a Psychological Warfare Officer and an Air Force Base Commandant.

A native of Harvey, Illinois, Commissioner Flanagan and his wife, Virginia, own a home in Riverside Estates, a subdivision on the Mount Vernon Plantation.