Public Affairs

As part of its ongoing efforts to foster more innovation and entrepreneurship, Fairfax County will contribute $1 million to help Reston-based innovation hub Refraction expand.

The investment is anticipated to generate 800 new tech jobs, train 2,500 workers and lead to $200 million in new capital investment over the next five years. It will also support the nonprofit’s new apprenticeship program, jointly developed with the Northern Virginia Community College to train talent for startups and high-growth companies.

“Refraction is exactly the kind of partner that will stimulate our local economy,” said Fairfax County Chairman Sharon Bulova. “As a county, we’re making strategic investments that help to support and grow our region’s innovation ecosystem, such as offering tech startups access to entrepreneurial expertise so they can scale their businesses.”

The Board of Supervisors approved the economic development funds at their Nov. 20, 2018 meeting.

Refraction provides a collaborative and open community for startups and high-growth companies, offering educational programs and networking and mentoring events.

“We are excited about the county’s strong support of Refraction’s mission to nurture and mentor startups and help create jobs,” said Esther Lee, CEO of Refraction. “This catalytic investment will help us accelerate and increase our impact in the regional innovation ecosystem. We look forward to working closely with the county and partners like Amazon and Comcast in this important work.”

In addition to its work with entrepreneurs and startups, Refraction will partner with the county’s chief equity officer and public schools to train girls and students from underrepresented and economically disadvantaged communities on entrepreneurship skills.

The focus on women and minorities is especially important, county officials say. It supports the county’s social and racial equity policy called One Fairfax, as well as the tech industry’s efforts to increase the diversity of its workforce.

The county’s funding will also help the innovation hub move into a significantly larger space in Reston. Refraction is facing increasing demand for its services and is committed to staying in Reston, despite offers from other jurisdictions to relocate.

In the five years since its founding, Refraction’s track record has proven its value to ecosystem. More than 100 companies have been members of the Refraction community, collectively raising $126 million in capital.

Under its agreement with the county, Refraction will report its financial results and success metrics annually.

Fairfax County wants to nurture more tech startups because they produce an outside impact on the economy. Startups account for nearly all net job creation, according to multiple economic studies.

Technology firms also produce new jobs outside the industry and boost social equity, finds University of California economist Enrico Moretti. Every new high-tech job creates five additional professional and nonprofessional jobs in the local economy.

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One hundred years ago, what was called the Great War at the time claimed the lives of 32 Fairfax County residents.

Fairfax County will honor these men—and all veterans—at a ceremony on Nov. 11 to commemorate the centennial of the end of World War I. The event, sponsored by the Fairfax County History Commission, will take place at 2 p.m. at the Historic 1799 Fairfax County Courthouse, 4000 Chain Bridge Road, Fairfax.

The ceremony includes members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and other state and federal officials. A wreath will be laid at World War I memorial on the courthouse grounds to honor the men who died, and their names will be read aloud in remembrance. All veterans will also be recognized for their service, including recent Congressional Medal of Honor award recipient Ronald Schurer II, a former Army medic and Burke resident.

While the ceremony begins at 2 p.m., the Historic Records Center will open at 1:30 p.m. so the public can view historic documents related to the war, including a copy of the Muster Roll in the War with Germany.

The center possesses several historic documents because former Circuit Court Clerk F.W. Richardson also served as clerk to the county’s local Selective Service board. For those who want to learn more about these historic records, the center published photos and an explanation of these wartime documents.

About 800 men from Fairfax County served in World War I, and 1,468 registered for the draft, according to records owned by the county.

A memorial to the fallen stands on the courthouse grounds, and it was dedicated on July 21, 1926. The plaque includes the names of 30 of the war’s casualties from the county, and it’s inscription states: “A Tribute To The Men Of Fairfax County Who In The Spirit Of Loyalty Served Their Country 1917 – The World War – 1918 Died in the Service.”  

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Sears, Toys R Us, Mattress Firm and Best Buy are among the companies that announced major store closures this year. These retailers make up some of the nearly 5,000 stores to turn off the lights in 2018.

As retailers shutter their brick-and-mortar locations, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved  changes to the land use plan on Oct. 30, 2018, to make it easier to convert empty storefronts into other uses. The changes offer the flexibility to repurpose these vacant spaces into entertainment venues, doctor’s or lawyer’s offices, cultural or civic uses like libraries or makerspaces.

The move is part of the county’s overall efforts to make land use and zoning regulations more modern and flexible. As the county grapples with about 18 million square feet in empty office space, it adopted land use changes that ease the way for offices in mixed-use areas to be repurposed. In March, similar changes were made for suburban offices.

While there are signs that so called “retail apocalypse” may be reversing, county officials wanted to act in light of longer-term changes in retailing.

Today, e-commerce accounts for 9.6 percent all retail sales nationally, and this figure could grow to 25 percent by 2021, according to IHL Group, a retail advisory firm.

Although the trends point to more online shopping in the future, the county’s retail vacancy rates are lower than those regionally and nationally. Its overall rate ranks at 2 percent, according to CoStar’s data for the third quarter of this year. This amounts to about 719,000 square feet of empty retail space.

Fairfax County also boasts the lowest vacancy rate in the D.C. region—or at half the metro area’s 4 percent rate. Nationwide, retail vacancies reached 4.6 percent, according to a recent report from real estate firm JLL.

In contrast, the last time Fairfax County faced a 4 percent retail vacancy rate was during the recession years of 2009 and 2010.

There is a total of 35.7 million square feet of retail and related commercial space in the county. Seventy-five percent of this space is located within what the county calls Activity Centers, which are areas planned for the greatest amount of future growth and include mixed-use development.  These centers include places like Seven Corners, Merrifield and Tysons.

Retail buildings in the county range from freestanding commercial structures to many types of shopping centers, including strip and neighborhood shopping centers, big-box “power centers” and regional malls.

Neighborhood shopping centers, which are often anchored by a grocery store, have been most impacted by vacancies in Fairfax County. One in five have some empty storefronts, and this figure rose 2.5 percent since late 2016.

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The Fairfax County Veterans Treatment Docket will hold a graduation ceremony Thursday, Oct. 25, to mark a military veteran's successful completion of 18 months of comprehensive treatment and supervision.

The ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. in Courtroom 1E, Fairfax County Courthouse, 4110 Chain Bridge Road, Fairfax. Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Grace Carroll will preside. The public is invited.

The guest speaker will be James Kuiken, who served 30 years in the U.S. Marine Corps active and reserve from 1973-2003. He is a decorated and combat-wounded veteran of multiple wars and conflicts including operations from the end of Vietnam, to the Gulf War, Bosnia, Kosovo and Operation Enduring Freedom. He has been awarded the Legion of Merit, Purple Heart and three Combat Action Ribbons.

The 18-24 month, court-supervised Veterans Treatment Docket program assists veterans involved in the criminal justice system by providing the necessary mental health and substance-use treatment to change behavior and reduce recidivism.

There are now over 500 veterans treatment programs in jurisdictions throughout the United States. In Virginia, veterans treatment dockets in Hampton, Norfolk and Spotsylvania are scheduled to begin this year.

The Fairfax County Veterans Treatment Docket is regularly scheduled for the second and fourth Thursday of the month.

For further information, contact Veteran Docket Coordinator Brooke Postlewaite, 703-246-2592.

For more than 40 years, Lake Anne Fellowship House has provided affordable housing for seniors in Reston.

The redevelopment plans for a new Lake Anne House approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Oct. 16 ensures these 240 apartments will remain affordable for the next 30 years.

The plans call for replacing all the existing apartments with a new, more modern building along North Shore Drive near the intersection with Village Road. The plan also includes 36 market-rate townhouses that will help pay for the construction of the new apartments.

Redevelopment will occur in phases to allow Lake Anne’s existing tenants to stay in their apartments. When completed, they will move to the new building, and the two older apartment buildings on site now will be torn down.

The project is a partnership between the nonprofit Fellowship Square Foundation, which owns and operates Lake Anne House, and the Community Preservation and Development Corporation, a nonprofit real estate developer.

“This effort has been complicated and very difficult,” said Michael Scheurer, a Fellowship Square Foundation board member. “But we are confident that we have the right program and right partners in place to ensure that affordable housing for seniors at Lake Anne is in place for years to come and does so with a development plan that also benefits the entire Lake Anne community.”

County officials say the project aids with the revitalization of Lake Anne Village Center.

“By bringing in the additional residents, I think it brings in another neighbor to the community to coalesce with this current group of citizens and those that will come in the future,” said Hunter Mill District Supervisor Cathy Hudgins.

Today, two, 1970s-era buildings make up the Lake Anne Fellowship House at 11448 and 11450 North Shore Drive. These buildings will be replaced with an eight-story, 200,000-square-foot, “H”-shaped apartment. The building will be located on the east side of the nearly six-acre property, and the new townhouses will be located on the west side of the apartment building.

The apartments will be available for people 62 or older or who are disabled. Under the redevelopment plan, apartments will be offered at different levels of affordability, starting at 50 percent of the area median income—or about $41,050 per year for an individual.

The project offers eight, new publicly available parks, and it will make transportation improvements. The development provides 40 percent of the site as open space, including more than six-tenths an acre in parks.

Lake Anne House will also dedicate land for the future realignment of Village Road. The county’s Comprehensive Plan envisions this road to be rebuilt to offer better views to Lake Anne Village Center and Washington Plaza. The recommendation for the realigned road includes adding a new northbound lane, an 8-foot wide, raised median and 10-foot sidewalks on both sides of the road.

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The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved the Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 carryover package today. Carryover is the process by which certain unspent or unencumbered funds for commitments to pay for goods and services at the end of one fiscal year are reappropriated to the next fiscal year. FY 2018 ended on June 30, 2018.

The FY 2018 carryover balance, after funding prior year obligations and associated reserves, is $58.16 million, which is approximately 1.4 percent of the county’s total General Fund budget. The carryover package includes:

$34.89 million for funding county reserves and infrastructure needs based on county policy.

$6.03 million to support infrastructure needs at county facilities, including emergency repairs in the event of major systems failures, infrastructure replacement and upgrades at county facilities, space realignment and reconfiguration projects to maximize owned space and renovations and improvements to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

$4.5 million to support a countywide energy strategy.

$2.42 million for new and continuing IT projects.

$0.50 million to expand the capacity of the Artemis House domestic violence shelter.

$0.50 million to support the establishment of a Korean community center.

$1.48 million for other requirements such as increasing the capacity of the School-Age Child Care (SACC) Program, extending the hours of the Rec-PAC Program, supporting the Complete Count effort for the 2020 Census and providing forestry services to address hazardous trees in county parks. Other adjustments include funding support for the Innovation Fund in the Health and Human Services Resource Plan, to develop a pop-up park in the Bailey’s Crossroads revitalization area and for speed signs to promote traffic calming and speed enforcement. In addition, at no net cost to the county, 26 positions are added to address increasing public assistance caseloads; eight positions are added to address increasing caseloads in adult and aging programs and eight positions to enhance the TARGET program that identifies vehicles that are not properly registered.

$3.35 million in reserves associated with disbursement increases funded in the carryover package.

Other adjustments with no net impact to the General Fund include $2 million to replenish the Economic Development Support Fund funded with debt service balances.

With these and associated reserve adjustments, the remaining balance to be set aside in reserve for one-time FY 2019 and FY 2020 requirements is approximately $4.49 million. When combined with the $0.12 million held in reserve as part of the FY 2019 Adopted Budget Plan, a total of $4.61 million is to be set aside in reserve for one-time FY 2019 and FY 2020 requirements.

Fairfax County has been honored by multiple organizations for the redesign and implementation of its website, FairfaxCounty.gov. The new website launched in December 2017 after significant research and planning was conducted.

Recent honors include:

• Finalist for "Overall County Government Experience" from the Center for Digital Government.
• Significant Achievement for "Leveraging Open Source Web Content Management System (CMS)" from the Public Technology Institute's 2018 Technology Solutions Awards.
• Gold Award for the Website Redesign under the Electronic Media category from the Hermes Creative Awards.
• Two awards of distinction for “Overall Government Website” and the “Website Redesign Project” from the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts.
• 2018 Achievement Award for "Taking a Citizen First Approach to a Website Redesign" in the category of Civic Education and Public Information from the National Association of Counties.

Successful Partnerships Set a Strong Foundation

The Department of Information Technology and Office of Public Affairs led implementation of the new web content management system, trained county staff, researched best practices, reviewed years of metrics and conducted public outreach, among other project tasks (with vendor support from Virginia Interactive).

The county's expanded partnership with the public includes website user surveys, county review of all direct feedback received and the recent launch of a new Public Website Advisors program, an informal group of people willing to provide occasional feedback to the county on new concepts and features.

New Search, Language and Accessibility Features

Utilizing an open-source (and cost-effective) platform allows FairfaxCounty.gov to stay timely for many years to come. Current features include:

• Customizable search engine powered by Google, offering users a familiar search experience with their preferred method for finding information.
• Responsive design, which automatically presents the website in the best format regardless of user device (phone, tablet or computer).
• Expanded accessibility and language translation controls to help meet the county's commitment to nondiscrimination on the basis of disability in all county programs, services and activities.

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The public is invited to the launch of the Fairfax County Drug Court program on Thursday, Sept. 20, at 2 p.m. in the fourth-floor jury assembly room of the Fairfax County Courthouse, 4110 Chain Bridge Road, Fairfax. “As we embark on this new and important journey, I encourage the community to join us to find out more about the program, ask questions and share this information,” says Circuit Court Judge Penney S. Azcarate.  

Drug courts are specific docket programs that target criminal defendants who have alcohol and/or other substance use disorders. Fairfax Circuit Court was approved by the Virginia Supreme Court Drug Treatment Court Advisory Committee to establish a drug court in fall 2017. A multidisciplinary Fairfax County Drug Court Team has undergone comprehensive state and national training in preparation for the new docket, which is anticipated to begin in October. Team members include representatives from the following areas: prosecutors, public defenders, Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board, probation, judge, clerk, evaluator and the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office.

The Fairfax County Drug Court is a felony probation violation phase progression model that takes a participant 14 to 24 months to complete. After an eligibility assessment, if selected, the participant will be ordered into drug court with the non-violent felony probation violation dismissed; probation will be terminated on successful completion of the program. This process takes place in lieu of jail.

Recognizing that substance addiction is a chronic and recurring disorder, drug court programs maintain continuous supervision over the recovery process of each participant through frequent court status hearings, urinalysis and reports from the treatment providers to the supervising judge. Drug usage or failures to comply with other conditions of the drug court program are detected and responded to promptly. According to the U.S. Department of Justice drug court evaluations, the recidivism of offenders who have been diverted to drug courts is reduced between 50 percent and 60 percent. Studies also have shown that, even with treatment costs included, drug courts saved localities an overall average of $5,600 to $6,200 per offender.

The Fairfax County Drug Court is one of several new Diversion First initiatives that offer alternatives to incarceration for people with mental illness, developmental disabilities and substance use disorders who come into contact with the criminal justice system. The goal of Diversion First is to intercede whenever possible to provide assessment, treatment or needed supports in order to prevent repeated encounters with the criminal justice system and promote a healthier community.

For further information and reasonable ADA accommodations, contact Drug Court Coordinator Sarah Gary.

Fairfax County provided the seed capital to launch a new regional program to help technology companies in the D.C. region grow.

Called the Tandem Product Academy, the program will assist tech entrepreneurs in the greater Washington region to scale their product-based businesses. The approximately four-month long academy is free for selected companies. Companies may apply now for the 25 spaces available for the first cohort that begins on Oct. 13, 2018.

The Tandem Innovation Alliance, a community of more than 5,000 innovators, entrepreneurs and supporters, announced the academy’s launch today.

“We see tremendous potential to grow many more technology product companies in Fairfax and around the region,” said Eta Nahapetian, Fairfax County’s Economic Success coordinator. “In support of the county's efforts to grow and diversify the economy, we're investing in the Tandem Product Academy to support the region's innovation ecosystem and to galvanize growth in the many existing businesses in our region that would benefit from learning the complex skills required to grow a successful technology product business."

Fairfax County seeks to spur more innovation and entrepreneurship, and its investment in the academy follows other efforts to bolster the region’s innovation economy. This includes the county’s sponsorship of the Fosterly Startup Census and the county’s partnership with other Northern Virginia governments to secure a regional, $737,500 state grant to train, attract and retain workers in cybersecurity, data analytics and computer programing jobs.

The Tandem Innovation Alliance, a community of more than 5,000 innovators, entrepreneurs and supporters, launched the academy. It was founded with regional cooperation from governments, business, technology and economic development organizations, universities and nonprofits in Virginia, Maryland and District of Columbia. Partners currently include Fairfax County, Greater Washington Partnership, Greater Washington Board of Trade, Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Northern Virginia Technology Council, Prince George's Chamber of Commerce, Virginia CIT, Maryland TEDCO, Robert H. Smith School of Business and AARP.

“Our program will operate downstream from our region's more than 130 accelerators, incubators and co-working communities,” said Jonathan Aberman, founder of the Tandem Innovation Alliance. “It is equally suitable for companies that are looking to pivot from services to products, are creating new technology with federal funding or have received angel capital and would like to get experienced help. We want to be as open as possible and let the market determine where this program is most useful."

Academy participants must be senior leaders of a business that has a technology product ready for customer adoption and whose company, within the last 12 months, has done any of the following:

• Had gross revenue in excess of $500,000
• Obtained at least $500,000 in capital from sources other than the founder's immediate friends and family, or
• Received at least $500,000 in federal research and development funding.

A committee of faculty members and partners will select up to 25 qualifying businesses prior to the first full day of classes on Oct. 13.

The teaching team includes award-winning faculty from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and successful technology entrepreneurs from around the region.

The Tandem Innovation Alliance's mission is to help innovators looking to develop a technology product-based business to answer the question “what comes next?” It brings together the .com, .gov and .edu communities to pool resources and provide opportunities to help innovators grow their businesses through a curated community of events, content and opportunities.

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Fairfax County has received two Governor's Technology Awards, presented during a ceremony at the Commonwealth of Virginia Innovative Technology Symposium (COVITS) in Richmond on Sept. 5. The awards recognize the use of information technology to drive innovation and protect information, specifically for the county's new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) office and next generation cyber security.

Winners were named in nine categories as judged by a panel of Virginia government information technology experts.

“With these awards, we honor the innovative ways that state and local government and universities are using technology to solve problems, increase efficiency and reduce costs,” said Gov. Ralph Northam. “I congratulate our honorees for their leadership and commitment to making government work better for all Virginians.”

Centralized Virginia Freedom of Information Act (VFOIA) Program Benefits

The first of its kind in Virginia, the county's FOIA program is leading the way by coordinating all incoming FOIA requests to ensure legal compliance, transparency and efficient response. The Countywide FOIA Office was established in March 2017 to act as a single FOIA point of contact to the public; oversee policy, procedures, operations and training; and develop and manage a newly created centralized FOIA request tracking application (VFOIA Tracker). The VFOIA Tracker was implemented in January 2018 and is being utilized by more than 100 staff to efficiently and effectively track all incoming FOIA requests.

Fairfax County receives over 6,000 FOIA requests per year. Since the establishment of the office, benefits include:

• Shorter response times (one day less on average)
• Reduced record request costs through increased fee waivers
• Popular public records proactively made available online in user-friendly formats

“This award highlights how technology and cross-agency collaboration can strengthen the ways that we engage with the public on government business,” said Amanda Kastl, countywide FOIA officer.

Next Generation Cyber Security Protects Private Information

The Next Generation Security Program protects business' and residents' data and sensitive information. This builds upon the county's performance record of maintaining business continuity and service delivery with no data breaches.

In addition to protecting sensitive data, such as tax records and personally identifiable information, the program's mission is to develop and enforce security policies and use artificial intelligence software that constantly evolves to stay on pace with modern and emerging security threats.

Chief Information Security Officer Mike Dent explains that "as data moves both inside and outside the network, our suite of smart security tools is constantly monitoring and learning. This insight allows our dedicated team of information security experts to see beyond the obvious, detect problems and stop them before they can cause any harm."

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