Candidate Profile: Audrey Clement Running For Arlington County Board

ARLINGTON — Audrey Clement, a long-time civic activist and 19-year resident of the Westover neighborhood, is running to serve on the Arlington County Board.

Clement, who came in second place in the 2022 county board election, is running to fill one of the two open seats on the county board.

The general election ballot in Arlington County will also include countywide races for Commonwealth's Attorney, Sheriff, School Board, Clerk of the Court, Treasurer and Commissioner of Revenue.

Early voting for the general election began on Friday, Sept. 22. More information on how to vote is available from the Arlington County Elections Office.

Patch asked candidates running for the two seats on the Arlington County Board to fill out a candidate questionnaire with the same questions. Here are Clement's responses:

Name

Audrey Clement

Campaign website

https://AudreyClement.com

Education

Ph.D, Political Science, Temple University, 1993

Occupation

Programmer, 25-plus years.

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

• Arlington Transportation Commission, 2018-2021
• Arlington Neighborhoods Advisory Commission (ArNAC), 2021-present

My top priority if elected to the Arlington County Board is to reduce the effective tax rate, and this is what I intend to do about it.

On April 22, the Board adopted a $1.55 billion budget that includes a 4.7 percent effective real estate tax rate increase (FY 2024 Budget, p. 109). This brings the County’s annual average 10 year effective tax rate increase to 4.5 percent, or almost double the 10-year average Consumer Price Index.

That’s saying something considering that the recent rate of inflation has increased to levels not seen for 40 years. Are these over-the-top annual tax rate increases actually needed to fund the budget?

The County argues that it’s not tax gouging, because the tax hike is driven by rising real estate assessments, not the tax rate. Yet Fairfax County BOS Chair Jeffrey McKay recently told his constituents: “I will not support a budget that does not reduce the tax rate.” I agree.

If elected, I will seek to reduce the tax rate by eliminating pork from the budget and scrutinizing the handouts extended to favored non-profits every year in the annual budget charade.

Why do you want to serve on the Arlington County Board?

I want to serve on the Board, because it is lacking in direction and sound management skills. In a word, it is staff driven. With a Ph.D. in Political Science and decades of experience as a political activist, I have the experience and know how to do the job, while exercising independent judgment.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates?

The foremost issue in this year's County Board race is the newly adopted Expanded Housing Options (EHO) Ordinance, which rezoned residential neighborhoods countywide for multifamily dwellings. My Democratic opponents either embrace EHO or will be forced to go along with it if elected to an all-Democrat County Board. If elected, I will urge the Board to scrap EHO as a revenue generating cash cow that will not redress the effects of exclusionary zoning and will not provide starter homes for moderate income residents.

Missing Middle will inflate land values and real estate taxes; drive out existing minority residents; accelerate gentrification of Arlington neighborhoods, increase school overcrowding, and exacerbate flooding and tree canopy loss.

To promote affordable housing I will:

• Rezone neighborhood by neighborhood based on simple to understand floor area ratio (FAR) rules as recommended by the Laboratory for Architecture;
• Promote office to residential building conversions (O2R);
• Invest in community land trusts; and
• Restore the partial tax credit for renovation of multifamily dwellings, which County Board repealed in 2021.

Describe other issues that define your campaign platform for Arlington County Board.

Another key issue is County Board's lack of fiscal transparency.

In April 2023, County Board increased its salary by $62,000. It did so without listing the action as a line item in the Manager’s proposed budget and later insisted on its prerogative not to. The public did not know about the salary hike until after the budget was adopted.

The County recently extended a $150 million loan to the buyer of the Barcroft Apartments on Columbia Pike, without divulging the actual purchase price of $425 million or the fact that the assessed value of the dilapidated property was only $138 million at the time of sale.

Yet the $5.5 million balance in the Columbia Pike Tax Increment Fund will be dedicated to paying off the loan, making it off limits to other affordable housing ventures for years to come (FY 2024 Budget, pp. 374, 479, 653).

The lack of transparency here is a slap in the face to Arlington County taxpayers, who deserve to know where their tax dollars are going and why. The solution is to end one party rule in Arlington County, which serves to keep citizens in the dark.

The best advice ever shared with me was ...

Hold your friends close and your enemies closer.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I am firmly convinced that the key to good government and fiscal transparency is the elimination of one-party rule in every jurisdiction and at all levels of government. This is because multi-party democracy is needed to keep politicians accountable. Competition complicates life for both political incumbents and straight ticket voters, but good government requires it, because according to Madison, men are not angels.