For the First Time in Years, Arlington County Board Will Have No Black Members
ARLINGTON, VA — For the first time in years, the five-member Arlington County Board will have no Black members. The upcoming departure of Christian Dorsey and the June 20 victories for Maureen Coffey and Susan Montgomery, with J.D. Spain placing fourth, confirms there will be no Black member on the next Board.
In 1987, attorney and recently retired Judge William T. Newman, Jr., became the first Black member of the Arlington County Board and in 1990 Newman was elected as Chair. James Lander was the first Black Chair of the Arlington County School Board. In 2020, Arlington elected their first Black female School Board Chair, Monique O’Grady.
Six candidates ran for two open seats on the Board. They were Coffey, Cunningham, Natalie Roy, Tony Weaver, Jon Dromgoole, and former Arlington NAACP President and U.S. Marine veteran J.D. Spain, who placed fourth. Arlington is 73 percent white, 15 percent Hispanic, 11 percent Asian and 10 percent Black with a population of 230,000.
“This year, the Democratic establishment coalesced around Julius “JD” Spain, Sr., who nabbed endorsements from County Board members Takis Karantonis and de Ferranti, Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, state Sen. Barbara Favola, and others. He was eliminated in the fourth tabulation round,” reported Jo Defoe Arlington Now on June 27.
The dominant election issue in Arlington during the primary campaign was affordable housing. Arlington is one of the most expensive areas to live in the U.S.
The current median home price in Arlington is $770,000 according to Zillow and $837,000 according to Realtor.com. In January 2022, WTOP reported that the average price of a detached, single-family house that sold in Arlington County was $1,258,648 for December 2021.
The salary for members of the Arlington County Board members is $89,851 with the Chair making more. The salary is expected to go above $100,000 to keep pace with other local jurisdictions.
The national average U.S. household income in 2021 was $97,962. The median U.S. income in 2021 was $69,717, according to Motley Fool. The median salary in Arlington, Virginia is $81,290.
The Arlington County Board is the governing body of the county and hires five positions that serve Arlington. The Board makes policy decisions on land use and zoning, taxes, real estate, public safety, trash collection, parks and recreation and libraries.
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Just a correction - James Lander was the first Black chair of the School Board, not Monique. And Charles Monroe also served on the County Board though sadly died in office.