• Home
• About Us
  • Join
  • Contact Us
  • FCDC Bylaws
  • Duties: FCDC Officers, Committees
  • Link to LeeDems
  • Forms & Files
  • Contribute
  • LeeDems Opening Day
• Calendar
• Elected Officials
• Voter Info
  • Voter Rights & Responsibilities
• Volunteer
  • Letters to the Editor
• Links
• All News

Subscribe

Message from Supervisor McKay

Last year, our county budget was a wake up call to many of us who saw Fairfax as a land of plenty with quality of life for all.  Slowly, we came to understand that we, too, were subject to the strong financial headwinds battering the national and state economies. 

The county executive’s proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1 reflects our new reality—one that is likely to continue for some time.  Between the proposed budget’s release and its adoption on April 27, my colleagues and I will be listening to constituents and working to fine tune the budget to align it as closely as possible with citizen priorities and economic reality.  It will be a challenge to maintain our quality of life and our school system while reducing services and turning our backs on programs that might be wonderful but unaffordable.  I will be participating in these budget deliberations believing that there are some government responsibilities that are not negotiable.  Public safety and basic human services are more important than ever during this economic downturn. 

At first read, this budget makes the best of a difficult situation.  I am pleased that it recognizes the importance of zoning enforcement to our neighborhoods.  Bringing together staff from different agencies into a centralized department of code enforcement (including the Strike Team) will let us respond to enforcement issues more quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively.  The budget also recognizes that we cannot use homeowners as a bottomless piggy bank for programs that we cannot afford.  While the county executive’s proposed budget has a property tax rate of $1.09, because of declining property values, the average homeowner’s bill will be $48 less than last year’s.  This budget also recognizes the need to find revenue sources other than homeowners and I note that my suggestion last year to reinstitute the vehicle registration fee has been included.  The $33 fee is estimated to raise $27 million a year . 

Schools are the Board of Supervisors’ priority and that’s reflected in this budget with almost 54 percent of the General Fund.  It may be possible to increase the school transfer but it’s too early to make that call as we wait for more information about the impact of the state budget on K-12. 

Right now, I am concerned by the proposed elimination of middle school SROs (school resource officers )—these police officers have made impressive inroads into eliminating gang activity in our schools. Eliminating them would cost us much more in the long run.

Our challenge is to find new ways of doing things: better and more efficient ways to stretch our revenue dollars, more partnerships with non-profits and the private sector, and diversified revenue sources to take the pressure off our homeowners.

You can find more detailed information on the county budget at
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/news/2010/county-executive-budget-proposal-fy2011.htm

Lee District This Weekend

Delegate Sickles Town Hall Meeting

Saturday, January 30th  10:00 am to noon
Snyder Center
  6450 S Van Dorn St., Alexandria, VA 22315
  map, click here

Delegate Mark Sickles will be holding a town hall meeting in the 43rd district to discuss ongoing state issues, the budget, and the winter legislative session. Guests joining him will be State Senator George Barker and Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay.

---

Lee District Open House

Saturday, January 30th, 1-3 pm
Franconia Governmental Center
6121 Franconia Rd
Alexandria, VA 22310
  map: http://tinyurl.com/franconia-gc

Come meet Supervisor Jeff McKay and his Lee District Staff. Also enjoy the annual Springfield Art Guild Show. Light refreshments will be served.

---

LeeDems Volunteer Appreciation Party

Sunday, January 31st 4-6 pm
Thompson Center
6090 Kingstowne Village Parkway
Alexandria, VA 22315
map: http://tinyurl.com/thompson-center

Join Lee District Democrats for a volunteer thank you and appreciation party for all the hard work done over the last year. Food, fun, Dems. This is not a fundraiser.

 

Supervisor McKay – 2009 in Review

• County Budget
• Transportation
• South Van Dorn Street and Telegraph Road Improvements
• Mortgage Fraud Investigation
• Parks, Recreation, Environment
• Huntley Meadows Wetlands
• Sidewalks
• Shop Local Year-Round
• New Parking Regulations
• Walking to School
• Walking Town Meetings
• Lee District Open House 
• Snow Removal Update

Click here to read all about these important topics.

Springfield Mall Rezoning Approved and New Era Begins

news from Supervisor McKay, July 14th

When I was growing up in Lee District, Springfield Mall was a vibrant and modern retail center with stores like Garfinkels and W. Bell Company.  Times changed; other malls were developed and redeveloped, yet Springfield Mall’s 80 acres of stores and restaurants remained fixed in time with an absentee owner who saw no reason to invest in his property.  The results were all too obvious – B – list retailers, questionable security, and customers who preferred to shop at Tysons, Pentagon City, and anywhere that wasn’t Springfield Mall.  A few years ago Vornado Realty Trust, one of the country’s largest owners of retail and office property purchased the mall, intending to rebuild it as a smart growth, mixed-use development with retail, office, and residential. 

For years, the community has asked that something be done about the state of the Mall and with today’s rezoning, the community will see its wish fulfilled. This project includes a number of community amenities including a grocery store, dog park, tot lot, athletic courts, fitness center, and state-of-the-art movie theater.  A number of other community investments that are part of this case include construction of an artificial turf field for Lee High School, a substantial contribution to the Lee District Rec Center, $4 million toward the Springfield Regional Road Fund, improved access to Metro from the Mall (estimated at about $2.6 million a year, and $200,000 a year for five years to enhance Springfield’s TAGS circulator bus system.

The rezoning approved on Monday, July 13th by the Board of Supervisors on a 10-0 vote includes significant office space—especially desirable in these tough economic times. The most exciting part of this project is that in addition to the office and residential mix there will be a fully renovated 2.1 million square foot mall. 

This project is much more than a simple mall upgrade. This rezoning has the potential to change the image of Springfield, showcasing it as a regional center for business and shopping.  It transforms the mall into an amenity for our community—one long overdue and welcome.

Supervisor McKay Summer 2009 Lee District Update

Much has happened since the last issue when I wrote about the impact of the economic downturn on Fairfax County. We balanced our FY2010 budget and avoided the deep cuts to public safety that had been threatened earlier in the year. We also restored a number of potential human services cuts and maintained our zoning and Strike Team levels. There are trade offs, however, such as fewer library hours and transit routes that will make our day-to-day lives less convenient.

As you’ll read later in this newsletter, our free summer concert series, funded by private sector contributions, is continuing at Lee District Park, but the Fourth of July fireworks are gone—the result of both Park upgrades and budget restrictions.

I wish you and your families a happy and a healthy summer.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey C. McKay

Read the update here …

Jobs at Mark Center — ‘One of the worst decisions’

The decision to shift thousands of jobs to Alexandria as part of the Base Realignment and Closure plan has one Fairfax County Supervisor fuming.  “It was one of the worst decisions in recent history by the federal government,” Fairfax County Supervisor Jeff McKay, D-Lee, tells WTOP.

read more …

2008 Year End Message from Supervisor McKay

As the year draws to a close, it’s a good time to reflect on some of what we’ve accomplished by working together in Lee District during 2006. 

County Budget:  Along with other localities in the country, we are hit hard by the national and state economic crisis.  Every County agency has been directed to roll back its budget by more than 15 percent; we have a hiring freeze and staff furloughs.  I’ve convened a budget advisory group to sift through the county Lines of Business and programs, looking for the must-saves, duplications, and live-withouts.  The goal is to save as much of the county services and quality of life as possible within our fiscal constraints.

Read more

Message from Supervisor Jeff McKay – Election 2008

This has been the most astounding election cycle that I have ever seen.  The Franconia Governmental Center has for many years been a satellite voting location for absentee-in-person voting. (Only a bureaucrat could have devised that name for voting that takes place before election day.)  Absentee-in-person voting is not the same as early voting which Virginia does not have.  In order to vote absentee-in-person, you must have a valid reason that will keep you from getting to the polls during the hours that they are open.

Absentee-in-person voting has always been leisurely at this satellite location—I don’t remember anyone waiting for more than a few minutes or circling the parking lot for twenty minutes trying to find a parking space.  Not this year!  In the last week of voting, people began lining up at 11:30 am for voting that would not begin until 1 pm.  Lines stretched from one end of the governmental center to the other and doubled back on themselves.  I was struck by how patient people were and how determined they were to cast their vote.  Normally, we’re a do-it-now group of people, unwilling to wait more than a few minutes for anything, yet voters waited in line for two and three hours.

I didn’t think there’d be many people left to vote by the time election day came around, but as I was wrong.  As I waited in a very long line at my polling place at an hour when turnout is usually light I thought about this historic election and reflected that whoever won would have an enormous obligation to the American people to honor their trust in democracy.

Now that the election is over, I hope that we can take that election civic mindedness and put it to use pulling together as a community and a nation.  Heaven knows, the challenges in front of us will take all our energy, courage, and determination to overcome.

On a more festive note, as the year draws to a close, I would like to wish a happy holiday season and new year to you and your families.  I hope you’ll join my staff and me for our annual open house from 1-3 pm on Saturday, January 31 in the community room of the Franconia Governmental Center.

August Update from Supervisor McKay

In the heat of a northern Virginia summer, it’s a stretch to be thinking about the County’s fiscal year 2010 budget that’s almost a year away.  While we are fortunate to live in one of the most economically advantaged counties in the United States, we are not immune to the economic storms that are shaking the country.  Foreclosures, rapidly rising fuel and electricity costs, and increases in the costs of goods and services are hitting us hard. 

Read more

McKay Newsletter to Debut

Supervisor Jeff McKay will be publishing his first electronic newsletter in mid-September.  Sign-up to receive it by sending an email to leedist@fairfaxcounty.gov asking to be put on the distribution list.