Supervisors pass new disclosure requirements

The state didn’t pass it, so supervisors did. A proposal requiring certain Prince William land-use committee members to file disclosure statements that was shot down by the General Assembly was nonetheless approved by the board of supervisors on Tuesday.

The effort to bring a new disclosure rule to the county began roughly a year ago, after a handful of citizens questioned whether two members of an appointed Land Use Advisory Committee were recommending Comprehensive Plan changes that would financially benefit them personally. More specifically, the citizens saw the two developers on the committee as swaying the other six members to support high-density growth plans on lands they owned. These allegations, in the end, were found to be baseless.

But that finding took months, and not before the issue had been brought before the supervisors, the Commonwealth’s Attorney, the attorney general and the General Assembly for redress. A bill requiring committee participants to file disclosure statements didn’t pass in Richmond.

But in March, Vice Chairman Wally Covington, R-Brentsville, and Supervisor Mike May, R-Occoquan, took matters under local control and recommended a county code change that would accomplish the same.

“The state doesn’t give locals much authority, but it does give the authority to require certain advisory committees to file disclosures,” said county attorney Angela Horan. “[Supervisors] Covington and May moved for the amendment last March … [the code] will affect three committees now and any in the future” that deal with land-use issues that could change the zoning or density of certain parcels.

The three committees that are now affected: the Architectural Review Board, the Agricultural and Forestal Districts Advisory Committee and the Historical Commission. All members must now file disclosure statements each year identifying any personal interests, according to the code amendment.

Any LUAC of the future “will be subject” to these filing requirements, also, Horan said.

For Covington, the board approval — which immediately followed a public hearing on the amendment — was a long time coming.

“This took a lot of work to get to this point,” he said. “And staff will be coming back in September with a report on other committees, to see if others should be required to file. But that’s for another day. This is just a building block.”

May, meanwhile, hailed the amendment’s passage as a boost to open government.

Staff writer Cheryl Chumley can be reached at 703-670-1907.