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Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Special Meeting, Tuesday, October 7, 2025

Date: Tuesday, October 7, 2025
Place: Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 17m (video)
Official meeting video (Fairfax County): https://video.fairfaxcounty.gov/player/clip/3916
Official Board of Supervisors page (Fairfax County): https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/boardofsupervisors/

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-29. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:03] Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our special meeting of the Board of Supervisors of October 7th, 2025. And just for my colleague's reminder, we have committee meetings starting in 30 minutes upstairs, and we do only have one item on the agenda.

[00:00:21] Before we go to that item, I want to call this meeting to order, and we are going to have a moment of silence to be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. And I just have one thing to mention on that front. I think many of you know that Virginia State Delegate Candy King and her husband, Josh King, who was employed by the Fairfax County Sheriff's Office, announced the passing of their 10th grade daughter, Candace, after a battle with sickle cell disease.

[00:00:51] And I raise that because obviously we just had our sickle cell disease awareness proclamation, but their daughter has suffered from sickle cell disease most of her life. It's been very challenging for them and certainly every parent's nightmare to have this happen to one of your children.

[00:01:11] And so if we could keep the King family in our thoughts and prayers, as well as our Fairfax County Sheriff's Office, you know, the deputy who works for our county, Josh King, is well known. And this is a tough time for him.

[00:01:28] And I spoke with the sheriff about this, and they are doing everything they can to accommodate their family during this difficult time. So if we could keep them in our thoughts and prayers this morning, I would appreciate that. And if there's no other announcement, yes, Supervisor Herity.

[00:01:45] Yes, and it's still early, but just as, I think, as sad as yours, Clifton Mayor Tom Peterson's daughter passed recently. It was in the last couple of days, and I'm still getting details, but I always remembered her smiling face at Peterson's ice cream, and it's just really tragic when you lose a daughter.

[00:02:09] So I'd ask that we keep Tom and the town of Clifton and his family in our thoughts and prayers. Absolutely. Thank you for mentioning that. Some sad news this morning, and with that, if we could rise for a moment of silence to be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

[00:02:25] Please face the flag.

[00:02:55] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you for that, and thank you all for attending today's special meeting.

[00:03:21] As I mentioned, we do have committee meetings following this. We have one item on the agenda, which is the potential adoption of a resolution extending the time within which personal property taxes may be paid. And as we all know, the federal government has been shut down continuously since October 1, June 2025 at midnight. In the interest of all of our residents who are facing economic hardship, I thought the board should consider extending the time for payment of personal property taxes.

[00:03:50] To that end, I immediately called for this special meeting this morning. As you know, board members, the county executive, the county attorney, the clerk, and the public were properly noticed of this morning's meeting. And of course, we have a quorum of members here present at the dais. Again, the only topic on our agenda, as you can see, is a motion to adopt a resolution extending the time for payment of personal property taxes through November 5th of 2025, effective as of yesterday when such taxes were due so that penalties and interest will not accrue.

[00:04:21] And I'm going to read the resolution in a moment. I will just add that the timing of when the taxes became due and the shutdown of the federal government running almost parallel makes this an unprecedented moment and obviously a struggle for many of our families in Fairfax County. And to that end, I do have a resolution. At a special meeting of the Board of Supervisors of Fairfax County, Virginia, held in the board auditorium in the government center at 12,000 Government Center Parkway, Fairfax, Virginia, on Tuesday, October 7th, 2025, which was called after providing the notice required by law and at which meeting a quorum was present in voting, the following

[00:05:01] resolution was adopted. Whereas approximately 80,000 residents of Fairfax County are current employees of the federal government or businesses that have a contract with the federal government to provide services, and whereas on October 1, 2025, after the United States Congress failed to pass a funding bill, the federal government entered a shutdown during which many federal government agencies have ceased non-essential operations, and numerous Fairfax County residents have now been placed on furlough and are no longer receiving timely paychecks.

[00:05:34] And whereas the shutdown has continued unabated through today, and whereas the shutdown is occurring at a time when thousands of employees are already being impacted by the federal government's deferred resignation and deferred retirement programs, making this year unique for many Fairfax County residents that are employed by the federal government and its contractors.

[00:05:56] And whereas for many Fairfax County residents employed by the federal government and its contractors, these events impair their ability to purchase necessities. And whereas until the United States Congress passes a funding bill and the federal government resumes operations, Fairfax County residents currently on furlough will not be receiving paychecks, so extending the due date for the payment of personal property taxes may allow them to purchase necessities.

[00:06:23] And whereas pursuant to the authority granted by Fairfax County, Section 58.1-3916 of the Virginia Code, the board has established by ordinance a due date of October 5th for the payment of personal property taxes, which includes motor vehicles, and which date was on a Sunday this year and therefore by operation of law was automatically extended to October 6th, 2025.

[00:06:48] And whereas pursuant to Section 58.1-3916 of the Virginia Code, the Board may further provide by resolution for reasonable extensions of time not to exceed 90 days for the payment of such taxes whenever good cause exists and such extension can be retroactive and effective as of October 6, 2025, when personal property taxes were originally due.

[00:07:15] And whereas the impact of the federal government's shutdown on Fairfax County residents that no longer have sufficient steady income constitutes good cause, now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Supervisors of Fairfax County, Virginia, that the October 6, 2025 due date for the payment of personal property taxes is hereby retroactively extended from October 6, 2025 until November 5, 2025, in accordance with the Board's authority in Section 58.1-3916 of the Virginia Code.

[00:07:50] I'll second that motion. Is there discussion on the motion? Just very briefly, Madam Chairman, I first want to thank Jay Doshi and his team for helping us with this and understanding the logistics. I do know that there are some logistical challenges for them in implementing this, but I appreciate their willingness to work on this.

[00:08:09] I do think it's important, as the resolution says, we are allowed to extend the deadline for up to 90 days. We are not allowed to forgive fines and delinquencies. And so what this does is extend the date so that fines would not accrue until after the new date, which gives people 30 additional days to pay their car taxes.

[00:08:30] What this does not do is relieve car taxes for anyone. And obviously with the revenue challenges we're facing at the county, this is not intended to do that, but to rather give people additional time to pay. Secondly, as the motion mentions, we are allowed to do this for up to 90 days.

[00:08:47] My motion is for 30 days. Should the federal government closure extend for an extended period of time into the future, we could consider adding additional days to this. But as we sit here today, we have no idea how long that's going to last.

[00:09:03] I do know after 30 days we start to get some other questions that will need to be answered. I'm hopeful we don't get to that point, but I do want to make the public and everyone else aware that if this closure extends for a significant additional period of time, then I will likely come back to the board with an extension beyond the 30 days.

[00:09:24] But right now, prudent to do the 30 days and see how things hopefully on Capitol Hill work out. And so I would appreciate my colleagues' support of the motion. Thank you. I have Supervisor Stork, then Harrity. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair, and I just want to add my voice to this and particularly recognize the impact for Mount Vernon District residents.

[00:09:51] We have the largest number of employees in Fairfax County that are federal employees. We recognize that not only has it been a rough year so far because of the major changes and really, frankly, unprecedented decision-making to terminate or to provide options for, frankly, people to lose their job without them having much say about it.

[00:10:17] This adds to that challenge, and I think anything we can do to ease that transition, I know we can't change some of those facts, But I know we can make it a little bit easier and help people along the way to balance their budgets or personal budgets. And the final part of this is that the folks who are most impacted about this make the least amount of money.

[00:10:38] So they're the ones who are out because they don't have the same job status or job types that allow them to continue working. And then even if they are working, they're not getting paid. So I pray and hope and wish for a speedy end to this and recognize that, regardless, there's still major impacts that are happening in Northern Virginia that we're going to have to continue to be vigilant about and look to try to address economically ourselves.

[00:11:04] Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Herity. Yes, just a couple of quick questions. Again, do we know the number of delinquent taxpayers since they were due yesterday? I don't know how quickly that gets turned around. It would be incredible if you did since they were due midnight yesterday.

[00:11:22] You are correct. You are correct. Considering all of the USPS challenges and the like, it would take up to two to three weeks minimum. So we don't know. For all-time payments to trickle in, looking at last year's number, approximately 82 to 83 percent of taxpayers paid by the due date this time last year.

[00:11:47] Okay. To provide some context. And do we know what that looks like this year? Don't yet. Don't yet. Okay. So you'll have an idea. But we don't have an idea if it's running higher or lower. That is correct. Okay. Do we know what the approximate fiscal impact of this is? Outside of messaging and the like, the hope is that this is a delay in payment, but that there is sufficient time for us to conduct all of the delinquent collection activities, which is the letters, the referrals, the penalties that are imposed and the like.

[00:12:22] So the hope is that we recover all of that before the close of the fiscal year. Our benchmark is the close of the fiscal year. That's what we reported to you on. Thank you for that. And, you know, I want to help federal workers as much as anybody, and I'm going to be supporting this.

[00:12:41] It's just really hard to do this the day after it's due. so the people that did the right thing and paid on time are actually getting penalized because they don't have the option to extend. They're not getting penalized. They don't have the option to extend it the 30 days. I would, and I'm going to be supporting this.

[00:13:01] I want to do everything I can to help our federal workers. What I'd like to do is, you know, Maryland's Governor Westmore came out with a loan program, $700. It's two federal workers that's paid back. I'd like as kind of either a follow-on or a friendly amendment to this motion, see if that is something that the county could do and what the fiscal impact of that would be.

[00:13:25] I don't know if it's legal for us to do that in Virginia or not. A, B, what the fiscal impact of that would look like and get it back to us at the board meeting on the 14th for consideration. I will be supporting this with a little bit of heartburn because I always worry about the people who made the decision to pay our taxes because it was the right thing to do instead of not pay it.

[00:13:54] But I think we need to do everything we can to help our federal workers. Supervisor Herity, I'm going to say your request isn't germane to what's on the table, so I think it would be better if you brought that up at the next meeting, maybe as a board matter.

[00:14:10] If I could be recognized afterwards, I'd like to bring it up afterwards so we have the information by the 14th. Madam Vice Chair, I'm going to ask the county attorney, but we have one topic that has been advertised for this meeting, and I just want to make sure we're staying on the one topic that has been publicly advertised.

[00:14:28] That's correct. Mr. Chairman, the specific item that was advertised for this meeting was potential adoption of a resolution extending the time within which personal property taxes may be paid, and I'm reading straight from the agenda for that. Thank you, and I just want to be clear on that because this is a special meeting of the board, not a full meeting. And a full board meeting, of course, has board matters and other things on the agenda where we can bring up other subjects. But the public has not been noticed of consideration for that item, nor have we advertised it. So it's very important legally for us when we have a special meeting to stay on the one topic and the one subject that is before

[00:15:05] us. Thank you for the clarification, Mr. Chairman. I will ask the county executive to look into it so we're ready potentially at the next meeting. Thanks. Thank you. Mr. Chairman. Yeah, I just appreciate Supervisor Herity's comments.

[00:15:21] I don't think anybody was intending to not do the right thing by not paying their taxes on time. But there's a lot of people who are suffering out there right now. A lot of our residents who this entire year have faced some significant, enormous economic challenges at no fault of their own.

[00:15:41] And so I don't think this is a people did the right thing or wrong thing. Their taxes are still due. What we are doing is giving them some extra time recognizing the enormity of the challenges that our residents are facing right now and the unpredictability of everything happening in Washington, D.C. here.

[00:15:58] And so to me, this is a no-brainer thing to do. And I do want to make one thing clear, and Supervisor Smith quickly seconded the resolution, and I appreciate that, but I just want to finish the motion so everybody's clear on what we're voting on.

[00:16:15] And that is the Board of Supervisors adopt the resolution that I read, which extends the time for payment of personal property taxes until November 5th, 2025, effective as of yesterday when such taxes were originally due. So that is seconded.

[00:16:35] I think Supervisor Lusk joined on the second. Somebody over here did. Okay. Seeing no further discussion, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Any abstention? that motion carries. Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much, Madam Vice Chair. And with that, again, this was the only item on our agenda. With that, this special meeting of the Board of Supervisors is adjourned, and at board members have about 10 minutes. We will start committee meetings at 9.30.

[00:17:03] Thank you.

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