Pat O'Bannon, who represents the Tuckahoe District on Henrico County's Board of Supervisors, takes part in a Glen Allen Day parade. (Photo courtesy Pat O'Bannon)
The first woman elected to the Henrico County Board of Supervisors, Pat O’Bannon has represented the Tuckahoe District since 1996. She stepped in for a fifth stint as chairwoman when Brookland District representative Richard W. “Dick” Glover died in February.
Asked how the county is changing, O’Bannon says, “We are becoming more and more urban. We are a minority-majority, and the minority is in the majority in our school system. We’ve seen steady increases in people who are receiving public assistance. [Henrico] has the second largest number of refugees accepted of any jurisdiction in the state.” As it is elsewhere, Henrico’s senior citizen population is also growing, and O’Bannon counts about a dozen retirement and assisted living facilities in the Tuckahoe District alone. “Between schools and public safety, that’s where we’re putting much of our attention,” she says.
In the election that will fill Glover’s seat this fall, could changing demographics shift the political majority on the Henrico board, which has been under Republican control since the late 1980s?
“I don’t make predictions,” O’Bannon says. “But generally, the Republicans have consistently been innovative and efficient and have lowered taxes since that time.” She points to Richmond, Petersburg and Fairfax County as examples of localities run by Democrats. “At the end of the year, usually what happens if you have money left over is a board that’s run by Republicans says ‘Wow, maybe we should save that money because next year looks like it’s going to be a tight year,’ ” or use the money to pay off bonds. “A Democrat board would say, ‘Hey, there’s extra money. Let’s spend it.’ ”
A short excerpt of our recent interview with O’Bannon appears in Richmond magazine’s May issue. Here is the full Q&A, edited for length and clarity.
Richmond magazine: What did Henrico County lose with Dick Glover’s passing?
O’Bannon: Well, obviously he had been there for many years and had long-term institutional memory of things he had done in the past. He could give us tips on how it was done in the past and whether things did or didn’t work. He had a good working knowledge of county government, so his comments were usually very much on point.
RM: What is the plan to fill Glover’s seat on the board?
O’Bannon: State laws dictate that. Within about 10 days of his death, the board had to appoint someone to temporarily fill his seat. Harvey Hinson was the person we quickly decided on. He lives in Brookland and would qualify to run had he decided to. He had been a deputy county manager. At [the Feb. 28] meeting, it became very apparent that we had chosen the right person. One of the most important things this year that we’re going to do is to rewrite our zoning law, and Harvey’s first comment was that was his first job at the county in 1960. We had paperwork in front of us that the board had decided we needed to rewrite the zoning laws in 1956. Harvey was a student at [Richmond Professional Institute, now Virginia Commonwealth University], and he was working on it during his summer vacation in 1960. So Harvey knew all about the way it was originally set up. The other part [of finding Glover’s replacement] was up to the different political parties; by June 13, each party had to name their candidate. And anyone who wants to run as an independent has to have their paperwork in to the registrar’s office by June 13.
RM: What is your biggest challenge in the upcoming year?
O’Bannon: This year specifically, as I had said, [the planning department] had already selected a company to begin rewriting our zoning ordinances. The General Assembly last year turned everything on its head and took away a lot of local control for the zoning ordinances, and the company we hired said they’d never seen a bigger power grab from a state government away from a local government. It’s a really difficult piece of legislation, so we are rewriting our zoning ordinances to try and get more local control over zoning.
RM: Did the $420 million bond referendum that passed last November have a big impact on producing your budget for this year?
O’Bannon: Obviously, yes. The capital budget is exactly what we had set with the bond referendum. We’ve lined up the projects, and schools have lined up the projects.
RM: What about the job keeps you up at night?
O’Bannon: Actually, I sleep very well at night. About the only thing that keeps me up at night is when I get a phone call because the dogs are barking at the next-door neighbor’s house. I know we have fiscal integrity. I know we have a fiscally conservative money manager, and I think that everybody does what they’re supposed to do.
RM: We discussed the changing demographic landscape in Henrico. What are the prospects for regional solutions to some of the area’s urban problems?
O’Bannon: We’ve already done a lot of that. We have a regional airport. We have our firefighter agreements. If there’s a major fire in one jurisdiction, the other jurisdictions cover it. We switch over our 911 services a lot. If something happens in a 911 center, the other takes over. The [effort] going on right now is one I’ve been involved in since 1996, and that’s in our operations of emergency communications. We’re switching over to where you can text to 911 or people can send a video of a robbery or picture of the criminal. If you’re at the bank and you get a picture of the guy coming out of the bank, you can send it to the police. You can’t do that right now. But we’re switching over all our 911 centers, and it’s taken a lot more towers and things like that. They just awarded a contract that exceeds $100 million to the entire region for the replacement of our communications systems. It’s one of those things we’re here for: public safety. And our regions get along great with public safety.
RM: Could you tell me a bit about Henrico's economic development strategy and its biggest selling points when it comes to attracting new businesses? Is there anything big in the works?
O’Bannon: The first thing they always ask, every business that comes in whether they’re small, medium or large, is ‘What is your real estate tax rate?’ We get to tell them that dollar-for-dollar we’re lower than everybody else’s. We’ve cut our machinery and tools tax by 70 percent because we want to get some more manufacturing here. It did bring some companies, manufacturing firms, into the county that employ 50 to 150 people. We lowered the water and sewer connection fee. That’s for new construction, like businesses that need a new line, houses that go up.
RM: We spoke a few months ago regarding the bond referendum before it passed, and you mentioned your daughter and granddaughter attending Henrico schools. You must be happy that several of Henrico County’s schools are getting over $270 million collectively in repairs.
O’Bannon: My daughter’s comment was that at Tuckahoe Middle School, the science lab had not changed at all since she was there in the 1980s. She graduated with a degree in biology, so she was concerned. Tuckahoe Middle and Douglas Freeman [High School] are first on the list and Douglas Freeman’s is not interior. Theirs is the fields and the exterior building. I know Pemberton [Elementary] has some safety needs, and I don’t think this year we’re going to start on Skipwith [Elementary], but I know it’s within the next list of things. All the schools that are listed [in the referendum] need repairs.
RM: Your husband, Dr. John O’Bannon, is a state delegate and neurologist. What is it like having two politicians in the house? And who has the toughest job?
O’Bannon: The General Assembly only meets for a few months, but he also meets with people all year. But [my job] is a daily thing. So I wouldn’t say it’s tougher, just different. But we are a Dillon Rule state, and local government can’t do anything without asking the state government — at least not anything that’s important. We do talk and we do speak the same language, but we’ve learned a lot from each other. Sometimes he’ll come home and I’ll say, "Do you realize what that’s going to do to local government?"
RM: What do you feel Henrico County is missing?
O’Bannon: Well, I’d say we’re missing a few sidewalks, but we’re working on it. We have changed our sidewalk policy, and we’re assigning money and working on it. We tend to move forward methodically. We try to cover what could go wrong. So we’re very good at that and we work very well together, both Democrat and Republican. For instance, the schools — in Tuckahoe they’re doing pretty well and Three Chopt [Elementary] is doing well, but we want all schools and all children to be doing well. So we pushed our School Board about some things more than some other [boards of supervisors] would have. But I will say [Varina District Supervisor Tyrone] Nelson pushed a lot harder as well as [Fairfield District Supervisor Frank] Thornton on that. And then there are other issues concerning business taxes and sidewalks that we in the West End pushed. So we balance it out. We do our best to keep things balanced.