Tuckahoe Supervisor O’Bannon to retire after 28 years

Seven-term Tuckahoe District Supervisor Pat O’Bannon announced Monday that she will retire at the end of her current term (Dec. 31), ending a 28-year career on the Henrico Board of Supervisors.

O’Bannon, a Republican, told the Citizen that she was unsure until recently about whether she would vacate her seat or seek an eighth term, but ultimately decided that after dedicating herself to Henrico for the better part of three decades, it was time to shift her focus. She made her announcement during a meeting of the Henrico County Republican Committee.

“I need to spend some time dedicating myself to my family,” she said – specifically her five grandchildren, four of whom live near O’Bannon and her husband, John (a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates). The couple has three adult children.

O’Bannon is most proud, she said, of having kept the promises she made to her constituents, even though doing so, at times, took longer than she would have liked. For example, improvements to the much-maligned Parham Road-Patterson Avenue intersection in the heart of her district – which she sought from the state shortly after taking office in 1996 – finally came to fruition just last year.

Still, the chance to represent the district and work with constituents, county officials and developers alike provided O’Bannon with great joy, she said.

“It really has been an honor. It’s been the most exciting time of my life, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it,” she said.

During the past 58 years, only three people – O’Bannon, L. Ray Shadwell, Jr. and Eugene Riley – have held the Tuckahoe supervisor’s seat.

O’Bannon entered public office after having served as an English teacher at Freeman High School, a community news editor for Richmond Suburban Newspapers and a development associate for the region’s public broadcasting network.

She has served as chairwoman of the board of supervisors six times and has served on a plethora of local, regional, state and national governmental committees, in addition to serving on the boards of the Henricus Foundation, Virginia Healthy Quality Center and Senior Connections.

Early in her career as a supervisor, O’Bannon became known for her efforts to bring issues of domestic abuse to the forefront and for her thorough approach to handling land rezoning cases in her district. Henrico had no shelters for victims of domestic violence when she took office, but the Safe Harbor Shelter and Hilliard House (now Housing Families First) sprouted within a few years and continue to serve the county and region today in expanded roles.

O’Bannon, who has regularly held town hall meetings in her district during her tenure, ended up ahead of the online-meeting curve when several years before the onset of COVID-19, she worked with county officials to begin broadcasting her meetings live through YouTube so that people who couldn’t attend could watch and interact live online.

“I said, ‘We’ve got to do that, because sometimes people can’t come to the town hall meetings’” she recalled telling a county official at the time. “Then with COVID, suddenly everyone was doing it.”

During her time as supervisor, O’Bannon has made it a priority to respond to citizen inquiries. Those who reach out by phone often are greeted by O’Bannon’s voice rather than a recorded message. She keeps a notebook with nine spots per page for phone messages by her telephone so that she can track each call and note any necessary follow-up. In recent years, though, emails have become much more common than the handful of daily calls she receives, she said.

O’Bannon credited the county’s Fire and Police divisions with helping solidify Henrico as one of the best places to live in Virginia.

“I’m so proud of our police department and our fire department,” she said. “They are the best, top-notch.”

When O’Bannon took office, her district was mostly built-out but the neighboring Three Chopt District had vast amounts of open space – most of which now has been developed. She foresees similar growth (though perhaps not as thorough) for the still-largely-undeveloped Varina District in Eastern Henrico in the coming years, as more people flock to the county.

O’Bannon recalled the excitement of leading Henrico’s 400th anniversary efforts in 2011 and the increased focus on sports tourism efforts that resulted from it and have grown sharply since then.

Among the keys to being an effective supervisor, she said: being a strong listener, developing and maintaining relationships with constituents and community members, communicating effectively – and surrounding yourself with talented people.

O’Bannon heaped specific praise on her appointees to various county boards and commissions over the years, particularly the members she appointed to the Henrico Planning Commission – Elizabeth Dwyer, Lisa Silber, Bonnie Leigh Jones and current Tuckahoe commissioner Greg Baka, whom O’Bannon is endorsing to replace her on the board of supervisors.

“I’m wholeheartedly throwing all my support to Greg,” she said. “He is probably the most honest person I know, besides my husband. Greg works hard and he knows what the citizens are thinking.”

Baka, a land-planning site development and private sector consultant who previously served on the Henrico Board of Zoning Appeals and Recreation and Parks Advisory Commission, has not yet formally announced his campaign, but on Thursday told the Citizen that it is underway and that an official announcement should come next week.

Another Republican, Craig Suro (an entrepreneur and former state government appointee) announced Thursday that he also is seeking the seat, making a Republican primary likely in late June.