Shades of 1991

Last month, Republicans won all nine seats on the . While this sweep was unprecedented in Loudoun County, it echoed a similarly resounding victory by the GOP exactly 20 years ago.

In my , I gave thumbnail characterizations of the Board of Supervisors in four-year spans, dating back to 1988. I noted that the board chaired by Betty Tatum from 1988 to 1991 had a solid Democratic majority, but having only eight members, it frequently deadlocked 4 to 4 on contentious issues.

Consequently, that board was often derided by its critics in the news media and elsewhere as being indecisive. I always felt that characterization was somewhat unfair, since the problem was largely structural. A ninth member would have been able to cast the tie-breaking vote in most instances.

Voters took matters into their own hands by approving the creation of that ninth seat – the Chairman at Large – and by electing Republicans to every seat but one in 1991.

The only Democratic supervisor was Thomas S. Dodson, who was elected to represent the Mercer District in western Loudoun, defeating Republican Ready Snodgrass and Independent Jim Burton (a former Republican). Dodson resigned midway through the term and was replaced by Snodgrass, making it an all-Republican board.

The chairmanship went to Republican George Barton, a former editor of the who had recently started his own public relations firm. Barton defeated his Democratic opponent Al Van Huyck in each of the eight election districts, giving him a very strong hand to lead the Board.

The only returnees to the board in 1992 were Dodson and Sterling District Supervisor Roger Zurn, who had won a special election to fill a vacant seat during the previous term. 

Zurn, now the , was quoted in the Times-Mirror immediately after the 1991 election as declaring, “It’s fair to say that decisions will be made in a very harmonious manner.”

Although not everything proved to be harmonious during those four years, the board did come out of the gate showing its determination to be decisive. The most memorable moment early in the board’s term came during a budget worksession on February 18, 1992, when school officials presented the proposed budget for the school system. They were clearly prepared for a lengthy session to explain and defend their proposal, as was customary.

Instead, Blue Ridge District Supervisor George Washington abruptly moved to cut local funding for the schools by $5.6 million, from $80.4 million to $74.8 million. To the shock of many in the room, the motion passed with little debate. Only Barton and Zurn voted to keep the school funding at the same level as the previous year.

Even Zurn appeared to be surprised by the board’s quick decision and the size of the cut to the schools’ budget. “It’s amazing what can happen in only a year,” the Times-Mirror quoted him as saying after the vote. “I’ve gone from [being] the most conservative [supervisor] on the Board to [being] the flaming liberal.”

On March 12, 1992, the Times-Mirror responded to this and other decisions by the new board with an editorial headlined “The Quick Draw Board,” accompanied by a Stilson Greene cartoon depicting Barton as a gunslinger wearing an enormous cowboy hat.

“The previous board made a great and sometimes absurd show of its handwringing over difficult decisions,” the editorial said. “Its Republican replacement acts with such callous dispatch that many question whether the supervisors are arriving at decisions in private and merely announcing their decisions at public meetings.”

“Given the choice between the two extremes, we prefer the open and honest plodding of the previous board,” it concluded.

This was a bitter pill for Barton, the paper’s former editor, to swallow. “The media roundly criticized the past board for being indecisive,” he complained. “Now the board is being criticized for being too decisive.”

Meanwhile, Broad Run Supervisor Charles D. Grant was quoted in the media as saying that the school system was turning out “inferior products.” Although he subsequently claimed he was misquoted, the comments led to an outcry from school supporters. The Times-Mirror reported that more than 1,000 parents, teachers and children marched from the old school administration building to the County Courthouse on March 17, 1992, to protest Grant’s remarks and the budget cuts by the board.  

The 1992 board held firm on its $5.6 million reduction in school funding, and made significant cuts in other areas as well. But its members were learning that the harmony of its decision making process was not beautiful music to all ears.

Next we’ll take a look at some of the parallels and differences in Loudoun County in 1991 and 2011 for some indications as to where the new board might be headed in 2012.