Presume nothing until the final votes have been cast the evening of Jan. 2, of course, but odds certainly favor Libby Garvey being elected by her colleagues to what would be her third one-year stint chairing the Arlington County Board over a dozen years in office.
Garvey has served as vice chair of the body for the past year, teeing her up for the chairmanship. Garvey’s latest four-year term expires at the end of 2024. She has said she will make a decision on a re-election bid in January or February, but several candidates already have announced plans to seek the seat in the June Democratic primary.
Before winning election to the County Board in a 2012 special election, she had served a dozen years on the School Board.
Takis Karantonis could be tapped as vice chair, setting him up to chair the body in 2025. He was first elected to the County Board in a 2020 special election called to fill the seat of Erik Gutshall, who died in office. Karantonis was elected to a full term in 2021.
The five board members typically pass the chairmanship among themselves on a calendar-year basis. The one exception in recent years came when three board members (all Democrats) blocked Republican-leaning independent John Vihstadt from moving into the leadership queue in 2017. Garvey backed Vihstadt in his bid for vice chair but they were outvoted by Jay Fisette, Katie Cristol and Christian Dorsey.
Had the vice chairmanship in 2017 and chairmanship in 2018 gone to Vihstadt, he would have become the first non-Democrat to lead the body since Republicans last held a majority in 1982.
As the chairman has few intrinsic powers that haven’t been largely delegated to staff, and since the post rotates annually, it is a far less powerful position than mayor of Alexandria or chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. But Arlington board chairs largely are allowed by their colleagues to focus on a priority area or two during their 365 (or, as in 2024, 366) days at the helm.
For several generations, Arlington County Board members held a Jan. 1 organizational meeting to kick off each new year, but abandoned that practice about four years ago and now hold their organizational meeting several days into the new year.
