Connolly's Two Roles Provoke Questions

Susan Turner, a Democrat and second vice president of the McLean Citizens Association, watches land-use matters in the county closely. She is among those troubled by the arrangement.

"I think it's totally inappropriate," she said. "I think he's benefiting financially from the success of SAIC, which will benefit from having a rail station there."

Company officials said they have neither sought nor gained benefits from employing Connolly, who was hired in September 2002 as SAIC's first community relations director in the Washington area.

His boss, Arnold L. Punaro, a SAIC executive vice president, said Connolly was attractive not as a local elected official but for his knowledge of government and corporate worlds as a past staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and vice president at the Washington office of SRI International, a consulting firm.

SAIC, which does work for state and local governments, has no active contracts with Fairfax. Punaro said that it will not bid for any as long as Connolly holds office.

"We're very sensitive to the issue of his status on the Fairfax County board," Punaro said.

Although the post of board chairman is legally part time, Connolly is well known for his marathon weeks of meetings, hearings, receptions and speeches.

For the past five years, he estimates, he has also spent 20 to 30 hours a week managing SAIC's sponsorship of events such as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation walk on the Mall, an annual high school robotics competition and a "technology tent" at the county fair, which features company-sponsored fireworks.

Company officials said Connolly also offers advice on emergency preparedness and human resources issues and represents SAIC on the board of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce.

Connolly, who bills the company on an hourly basis, said that it is a substantive, demanding job but that he is able to move between his public and private roles by working seven-day weeks.

"I have been able to juggle the two," he said.

One source of speculation about Connolly's relationship with SAIC involves the proposed placement of a Metro station near its offices, on Route 7 northwest of Route 123 (Chain Bridge Road). Connolly said he never involved himself in discussions about the stop, one of four in Tysons envisioned for the Dulles extension.