Lynch, Witte vie for Brookland supervisor’s seat

Henrico’s Brookland District will elect its first new supervisor in three decades Nov. 7, when voters decide between Democrat Courtney Lynch and Republican Bob Witte in a special election. The winner will serve the remaining two years of the term won in 2015 by late supervisor Dick Glover, who spent 30 years in the seat before his sudden death in February at age 82. (Former deputy county manager Harvey Hinson has served as interim supervisor for the district since his appointment by the board in February.)

The two candidates have similar visions for the district – to improve education, address crime, attract economic development projects, engage with citizens and combat the opioid crisis, among others – but have presented different visions about how to achieve those goals.

Witte, a retired Henrico Fire captain who has spent the past six years as the Brookland District representative on the county’s appointed Planning Commission, has positioned himself as the heir-apparent to Glover (who also was a Republican) throughout his campaign.

He has noted frequently in appearances and campaign literature that he worked closely with Glover for years – first as a member of the Richmond Regional Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee, later as Glover’s appointee to the Board of Zoning Appeals and then the Planning Commission – and would continue many of Glover’s policies and actions if elected. Glover’s wife has endorsed Witte, and one of Glover’s sons is helping to run Witte’s campaign.

Lynch, a former Marine who owns a consulting firm, has pledged to bring a fresh outlook to the board, telling voters that her perspective as a small business owner, a mother and a former military member would provide perspective the changing district needs. She’s vowed to work to expand bus service in the district, help reduce burdens on small businesses and help foster the type of affordable housing sought by millennials. She also has pledged to enhance workforce development efforts to help bridge the gaps she believes have developed in the district and the county.

“In Brookland, we are almost a laboratory of what is happening in America,” she said. “There are gaps in America, and those gaps have come home to roost.”

The district’s base is in Glen Allen and portions of Lakeside but it stretches to the city line near Willow Lawn and includes the Libbie Mill community, one of the burgeoning examples of redevelopment in the region.

Lynch has vowed to make regional cooperation a top priority and told attendees at an Oct. 26 candidate forum at the Junior Achievement of Central Virginia that she would work with any regional leaders to address key issues.

“I truly believe that is how we move forward as a nation,” she said. “Our world is more open and connected. It’s up to us as leaders to make that a great thing. I will meet any leader anywhere, I will cross any aisle.”

Witte pledged to work cooperatively as  well and said that he’s been living that reality for years.

“It’s nothing new,” he said at the event. “It’s been there for over 30 years, starting with our mutual aid programs in the fire department [through which Henrico and other localities agreed to assist each other as needed].”

Transportation, public health

Lynch would champion expansion of public transportation routes in the county, she said, while Witte said he would do so only if a proven existed.

“Transit is an area where we lag behind,” Lynch said. “Transportation is an investment. We must work together as a region. Challenges of rising poverty levels are too challenging to be fixed alone by one jurisdiction.”

Witte told the audience that 85 percent of a supervisor’s job is dealing with planning and zoning issues – roles that he’s handled for years on the Board of Zoning Appeals and Planning Commission.

“I’ve served it, I’ve lived it, I’ve been a leader,” he said.

Lynch, the mother of three school-age children, said the board needed the viewpoint of a mother and vowed to work for stronger schools and more funding for education. Witte told the audience that he also favored more funding for education, but said that the Board of Supervisors only can provide the School Board with its annual budget – not appropriate those funds for it.

Lynch has criticized a mailer sent in recent weeks by the Republican Party of Virginia that she labeled a misleading attack piece featuring racist and sexist undertones, designed to insinuate that she would raise taxes and increase red tape on businesses. Those claims are untrue, she said.

“I think I speak through the example of what I’ve built on how much I want to empower economic development,” she said, noting that her consulting firm has added $500,000 in payroll during the past year.      Witte denied any role in the mailers and said he only saw one when it arrived in his mailbox. Nearly 100 of his campaign signs have been damaged, he said, but he doesn’t hold Lynch responsible for the vandalism.

“I’m not blaming it on my opponent any more than I knew about those mailers,” he said during the candidate forum.

The candidates agree that more funding is needed to address the opioid crisis. Witte vowed to provide funding for whatever other issues might mitigate crime.

“If that means we need more police officers, then that’s a need and we fund it,” he said. “If we need more lights, more sidewalks, more crosswalks – whatever it is to cut down on our crime, that’s what we’ll fund.”

Lynch said she’d work to expand community policing efforts and seek more funding for mental health care.

“We can no longer turn a blind eye. . . to the growing mental health epidemic that we are experiencing,” she said.