Financial Disclosures Voted Down
Some County Advisers Won't Need to File

By Christopher Twarowski
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 8, 2009

After an hour of lively debate, the Loudoun Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday not to require the business leaders who advise county officials on economic development issues to file financial disclosure statements.

In three separate votes, the board rejected proposals by Supervisor James Burton (I-Blue Ridge) that would have required such statements from members of the county's CEO Cabinet, its Economic Development Commission and an ad hoc committee studying a possible marketing agreement between the county and the Washington Redskins.

The board voted 7 to 1 against financial disclosure requirements for the CEO Cabinet, and it deadlocked 4 to 4 on the other two proposals.

Burton said it was the proposed agreement with the Redskins that led him to introduce the measures. The ad hoc committee is studying whether the county should spend $250,000 in transient occupancy tax revenue over the next two years to fund a marketing partnership with the football team, and supervisors also are considering eventually locating a Redskins Hall of Fame in the county.

Burton said the business leaders serving on that committee and those on the other two panels, which have lobbied in favor of the Redskins agreement, should be required to disclose potential conflicts of interest.

"We need to take another look at disclosure statements for people and organizations who are in a position to advocate how we should spend the public's money," Burton said. In an interview after the board vote, he added that the idea of a Redskins partnership "was pushed hard by the leadership of the Economic Development Commission and the idea originated in the CEO Cabinet."

The Economic Development Commission is appointed by the Board of Supervisors. The CEO Cabinet -- made up of public, private and nonprofit chief executives and chairman-level executives -- is not, and County Attorney John R. Roberts told the supervisors that he was not sure they had the authority to impose financial disclosure requirements on those executives. The ad hoc Redskins committee includes four supervisors and three non-voting representatives from the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce, the Loudoun Convention and Visitors Association, and the Economic Development Commission.

Opponents of Burton's idea said that such a requirement could alienate people who would otherwise volunteer for such boards and committees, and might drive away those already on the panels.

"We are trying to attract people," said Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio (R-Sterling). "I see this as a punishment."

Those in favor of the move, including Supervisor Kelly Burk (D-Leesburg), said the business representatives should want to provide the information as a way to increase transparency.

"I would hope that being transparent wouldn't be a punishment," she said.

On the two 4 to 4 votes, Burton, Burk, Sally Kurtz (D-Catoctin) and Andrea McGimsey (D-Potomac) voted for a financial disclosure requirement, and Delgaudio, Stevens Miller (D-Dulles), Susan Klimek Buckley (D-Sugarland Run) and Lori Waters (R-Broad Run) voted against it. Board Chairman Scott York (I) was absent.

Some of those opposed to Burton's motion said he was reviving an issue that the board had addressed in the fall.

In October, the board voted 7 to 2 against Burton's proposal that appointees to certain county committees, commissions and advisory panels be required to file financial disclosure statements annually. The board instead directed Roberts to hold sessions with board-appointed committees to advise and educate their members on the state's conflict of interest statute.

"This whole matter got a full vetting," Buckley said. "So this was actually revisiting that issue."

The board did vote unanimously Tuesday in favor of Burton's proposal to have county staff members examine whether transient occupancy tax funds are being used to underwrite any county employee positions and whether such a practice is allowed.

The board also deferred action on a proposed land-use change that would allow for construction of a minor league baseball stadium at routes 28 and 7, part of a proposed mixed-use development known as Kincora. York proposed Tuesday that the board study the possibility of making such a land-use change not just in the 397-acre Kincora parcel but also in a larger portion of the Route 28 corridor. Other supervisors said they wanted more time to review his proposal.