Board of Supervisors - Chairman

To the Fairfax County Community,

Election Day in Virginia is right around the corner (Nov. 2!), have you voted yet? On the ballot is the next Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and members of the House of Delegates. Learn about the ballot here.

In Virginia, we have been lucky to make great strides to expand voter access to the ballot. If you haven't voted yet, here is how you can do so:

• Vote early in-person: Today, you may vote early at the Fairfax County Government Center, the Mount Vernon Governmental Center, and the North County Governmental Center. Starting on Thursday Oct. 21-Oct. 30, there will be 15 more locations open across the County to vote early everyday. Please check hours before you arrive here.
• By mail: You have until Oct. 22 to request an absentee ballot. Once you have filled it out (don't forget to include a witness signature!) you may return it by mail or at a drop box at all voting locations in Fairfax County when they are open (they are located at early voting locations and on Election Day).
• When do mail-in ballots need to be returned?
• The deadline to return the vote by mail ballots: Nov. 2 by 5pm if hand-delivered in-person.
• Postmarked by Nov. 2 and received by noon on Nov. 5 if by-mail.
• On Election Day: Your regular precinct will be open as usual and again there will be a ballot drop box for mail-in ballots. Find your polling place here.

In addition, we expect in the coming days to hear final decisions from the FDA and the CDC regarding booster shots for the COVID-19 vaccines produced by Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. The FDA's advisory committee is also scheduled to discuss the use of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5–11 years old on Oct. 26. Following the CDC's recommendations, VDH will provide additional implementation guidance to health departments and providers in the Commonwealth. We will be ready to work with all our stakeholders to be sure all of our eligible residents can get their boosters. We are also working closely with FCPS and medical providers in advance of what will hopefully be an announcement about kids under 12 being able to get vaccinated. Read more about what to expect this week and how the Fairfax County Health Department is preparing here.

Finally, the Board met today. You may review today's full Board package here.

To the Fairfax County Community,

Our Fairfax County Health Department has made great strides in vaccinating our population, with over 81% of residents 18 and up having received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. I'm also proud to say that partnering with FCPS and our School Board, our schools remain open with a remarkably low incidence of exposures - thanks to our vaccine efforts and school safety policies. As of this week, 0.004% of our approximately 180,000 students are impacted by quarantines.

We are entering the next phase of vaccinations with booster shots and building capacity for future authorized groups - like children under 12 - to be able to get vaccinated as well. Therefore, on Friday, October 8, a Community Vaccination Center, a large-scale COVID-19 vaccination clinic, will open at the former Lord & Taylor store at Tysons Corner Center.

This location will offer:

• First and second doses of both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
• Booster doses of the Pfizer vaccine to individuals seeking the Pfizer booster if 6 months have passed since their last Pfizer dose and they are eligible to receive vaccine booster.
• An additional dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines for individuals who are immunocompromised.

Of course, you can schedule an appointment anywhere in the County through vaccine.gov.

Finally, the Board met today. You may review today's full Board package here.

To the Fairfax County Community,

Over the weekend, I represented Fairfax County at the National Association of Counties conference in Maryland. I’m always excited to showcase all of our successes in Fairfax with counties across the country and learn new ways to advance. As President of the Virginia Association of Counties I was proud to host Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia members' caucus breakfast. It was great to see friends Chair Randall from Loudoun County and Chair Wheeler from Prince William County - combined we proudly represent over 2 million Virginia residents.

I also wanted to highlight some of the amazing work of members of our County team and residents.

As you likely know, a tragic building collapse in Surfside, Florida in late June has triggered a massive search and rescue effort. It is truly difficult work that takes a toll mentally and physically. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Surfside community. I wanted to thank members of our County team that are on Virginia Task Force 1, our urban search and rescue team, who have gone to Miami to support the crew on the ground. While three structural engineers have returned, we still have one K9 handler and her K9 on site.

In addition, there are three former FCPS athletes going to the Olympics in Tokyo this year. I want to congratulate:

• Andrew Seliskar: Andrew will be swimming for Team USA and is a 2015 Thomas Jefferson High School graduate.
• Chioma Onyekwere: Chioma will be throwing discus for Team Nigeria. She is a 2012 Robinson Secondary School graduate.
• Trevor Stewart: Trevor will be running track for Team USA and is a 2016 South County High School graduate.

Finally, below you will see highlights from today's Board meeting. You can see the full package here.

To the Fairfax County Community,

Access to housing is a human right, but it's also an opportunity. We all do better when we all have access to housing. Housing is important for one's personal finances, the success of the economy at large, and it is also better for businesses and transportation. During the pandemic access to housing also became a public health issue. We were told we were safer at home, which meant people needed and continue to need access to affordable housing.

In Fairfax County we believe people deserve a safe and affordable place to live. Before the pandemic, we were well positioned to prioritize our housing needs by setting aside a penny in our tax rate. Because of the impact of COVID-19, we were not able to do that in the FY21 budget.

We remained optimistic. The pandemic forced us to think more creatively about housing and making systemic changes to make it easier to increase our affordable housing stock in the years to come. Thanks to the great work of our housing team we currently have over 1,700 units of affordable rental housing in the pipeline.

Those changes and our other successes in affordable housing are detailed in the videos and text below.

Read more

To the Fairfax County Community,

As you may know, the Commonwealth's State of Emergency ended yesterday. This is encouraging news as we enter the Fourth of July weekend and celebrate that over 70% of Virginians have been vaccinated. The ending of the State of Emergency will not greatly impact state or County operations, however I want to note a few technical changes to be aware of:

1. You may have heard talk of masks now being illegal because of the end of the State of Emergency, however this is not the case. The Virginia Department of Health has assured: There is no legal barrier to wearing masks to protect oneself and others from the virus, nor should anyone be penalized for doing so. While the state law prohibits wearing a mask for the purpose of concealing one’s identity, it does not prohibit wearing a mask for the purpose of preventing the spread of COVID-19. This is true even now that Virginia is no longer under a statewide declaration of emergency. You can read more on that here. Short and simple if you choose to wear a mask for comfort or because you are not yet vaccinated, you should continue to do so.
2. Fairfax County's State of Emergency remains. This is because additional measures need to be taken to respond to the pandemic and its aftermath. For example, the Board must act to allow restaurants the flexibility to continue outdoor dining with tents in parking lots for up to a year following the state of emergency. This requires a local ordinance change that the Board will act on this month, but we must remain in a "state of emergency" to do so.

During the majority of the pandemic our County flag has been raised at half-mast to remember those who have died and to commemorate our front line workers. In line with the ending of the Commonwealth's State of Emergency, I ordered the flags to return to full-mast. While we still have work to do and need those unvaccinated to continue to be diligent and wear masks, Fairfax County has made incredible strides in our vaccination efforts.

• 75% of people 18+ have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose.
• 62.7% of people 18+ are fully vaccinated.
• In May, we held 86 vaccine equity events that distributed over 16,000 doses. 84% of event attendees were Black, Hispanic, Asian, or Pacific Islander.
• For our population 65+, the proportions of those vaccinated ranges between 70-100%!
• Only one zip code in the County has reported a percentage below 70%.

That said, as vaccination rates slow and as variants spreads (like the Delta variant), we will likely see increases in COVID-19 cases in our Health District, particularly among those who are not vaccinated.

I urge you, if you or your family member is able, to get vaccinated. This is the most effective way to keep yourself and family healthy. Read more on that here and available Fairfax County Health Department vaccine opportunities this holiday weekend here.

Finally, I want to thank our Health Department for all the work they have done to get us to a point where we are seeing some of the lowest levels of disease transmission since the pandemic began. This work would not have been possible if not for our committed staff and our extensive Medical Reserve Corps program. Since March 1, 2020, we have had 1,358 volunteers contribute 56,781 hours to slowing the spread of this disease. Their volunteerism is inspiring and we are all forever grateful for your dedication to the community.

To the Fairfax County Community,

Today, in addition to this being the Democratic Primary Election Day - the Board met for the first time since last fall in-person rather than electronically. It was great to be with my colleagues again and bring things back to normal and this is largely because of our communities determination to get vaccinated and protect each other.

Before I provide an update on the Board meeting, I have a couple of announcements.

1. Tysons Community Vaccination Center (CVC): Beginning today, June 8, the CVC will operate until 8 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Vaccine appointments on those days can be made as late as 7:45 pm. In addition, the last day to make an appointment or walk in for a COVID-19 vaccine at this site is Saturday, June 26. Vaccine appointments are widely available across the County and can be found here. Read more about the changes at the CVC here.
2. COVID Testing: The Fairfax County Health Department is demobilizing COVID-19 community testing sites it operates at the close of business on Friday, June 4, and will be transitioning COVID-19 testing to their traditional clinic sites. Other testing options will remain operational throughout Fairfax County and are widely available through health care providers, urgent cares centers, and pharmacies. Read more here.
3. COVID-19 Remembrance Event: Tomorrow, June 9 at 6 pm, Fairfax County will be hosting the Northern Virginia Regional Commission’s COVID-19 Remembrance Ceremony. Sadly too many lives have been lost to this pandemic and we must never forget those we lost. The public is encouraged to view the ceremony online. It will be televised on Fairfax County Government Channel 1016 (Cox) and Channel 16 (Verizon/Comcast) and streamed online at Channel 16 and my Facebook page. Learn more here.
4. BAC Appointments: We have openings on the following volunteer Boards, Authorities, and Commissions: A. Heath Onthank Award Selection Committee, Commission for Women, Fairfax County Convention and Visitors Corporation Board, Health Care Advisory Board, Oversight Committee on Distracted and Impaired Driving, Tenant Landlord Commission (Landlord Member). If you are interested in applying please send a resume to chairman@fairfaxcounty.gov. Learn more about the BACs here.

You can review today's full Board package here and read more on it below.

To the Fairfax County Community,

I'm sure by now you have seen (or at least heard) our 17 year cicadas. I certainly haven't taken any meetings outside because of the sound.

It's been fun to see the creativity of people across the County making the best of an odd phenomenon after such a stressful year. VisitFairfax has been celebrating with Cicada Bingo and Fairfax County Health Department's entomologist by day, hip hop artist by night, MC Bugg-Z (Adam Lima) self-produced a rap and video about Brood-X cicadas. You can watch the video here.

Below, I included photos of the kids of two of my staffers with some of our cicada visitors.

To the Fairfax County Community,

We have big news to share this week - over 74% of Fairfax County residents ages 18 and older have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose! This is just over 56% of all County residents.

You can review our vaccine data here and our COVID-19 case data here.

While we still have work to do, I'm excited to share our progress with you. Our community has worked so hard to slow the spread of COVID and I want to thank you for your dedication to that this past year plus. It was never easy.

That said, for those of you who are not yet vaccinated or know someone who is not yet vaccinated, appointments are available across the County for those 12 and up. As I have said since the beginning, we will only stop this virus together. Sign up for an appointment now through the Fairfax County Health Department or any location near you.

To the Fairfax County Community,

It's amazing how much can change in a week. As you likely know, the CDC updated their masking guidance for fully vaccinated individuals advising that it was safe to resume most activities that you did prior to the pandemic, without a mask. The chart below outlines this. Virginia's (and Fairfax County's) masking and social distancing guidelines have been updated as a result, more on that included in this newsletter.

This is great news for all who have been vaccinated and who have been so diligent this past year with masking, social distancing, and protecting our community. I hope this change serves as an incentive for those who have not yet been vaccinated, to get vaccinated. Find an appointment here. All three available vaccines are safe, effective, and will allow us to return to normal.

While I understand that there are concerns about this change, we will continue to follow the data to make sure the community is safe. For some perspective, our COVID-19 case numbers continue to drop. For the week ending on May 9, our percent positivity rate was 1.59% and the week before that was 2.66%. At the same time, over 53% of the Fairfax County population has received at least one vaccine dose.

In addition, the Board met today. You can review the full package here and some highlights are below.

To the Fairfax County Community,

As more of our population gets vaccinated (currently over 51% of Fairfax County residents have had at least one dose!), our favorite places can fully reopen and we can start connecting with people again in person.

Our number one priority continues to be getting our community vaccinated. We are excited that 12-15 year olds can now be vaccinated (more on this below). Now that the initial rush for shots has slowed, the difficult work of having one-on-one conversations to persuade everyone to get vaccinated begins. I recently visited a Fairfax County Health Department vaccine equity site in Herndon with Herndon Town Council Mayor Sheila Olem and Council Member Naila Alam (top left photo below). Our equity clinics are often in community locations like churches and community centers that are accessible to the neighborhood and will be essential in our efforts to get people vaccinated in the weeks ahead.

I also went to the bill signing for legislation approved during the last General Assembly session, which protects our first responders in the case of health issues caused by COVID-19 (below top right). It was an honor to join Governor Northam and members of Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department and other first responders and legislators. After the bill signing, I spoke at a commemoration event for Will Jasper (bottom left below) who was was a leader in the Lee District and Fairfax County communities. Will was a member of the Library Board for over 15 years and a member of the Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

Finally, after the devastating fire last year, the construction of South Alex, a mixed use project that is revitalizing the Route One Corridor, is back in full motion. I visited to celebrate the progress with the site workers. The fire at South Alex was the largest in County history and we were blessed that due to the work of our first responders, there was no loss of life.