Williams Touts Business Experience in Bid for Supervisor

After redistricting earlier this year, Shawn Williams realized there was an opportunity on the board of supervisors.

Incumbent Lori Waters (R) had already announced she would not seek reelection, plus with new boundaries, she’s in the Ashburn District. Democrat Andrea McGimsey, now the Potomac District supervisor, had announced plans to run for the new Broad Run District, so Shawn Williams decided to try his hand representing the GOP for that seat.

“The [Republican] party encouraged me to consider running,” Williams said, adding that the early notion of running for chairman faded quickly. “I didn’t feel that I had experience or bandwidth to be the chairman, so I didn’t see that as a viable race for me to get in and win.”

Broad Run supervisor, however, is another story. McGimsey is running for a district that includes just one precinct that she currently represents, making incumbency less of an advantage. In addition, the candidacy of Independent Cliff Keirce makes it a three-way race in Broad Run, meaning a candidate could potentially win with as little as 34 percent of the vote.

Though Williams has never run for public office before, he has served on the Southern Walk HOA for two years. As a former Marine and current federal counsel for Sprint Communications, Williams believes his experience would be a valuable asset to the Loudoun Board of Supervisors.

Williams sees traffic and economic development as the two biggest issues that the next Board will need to address.

“We don’t have many ways to get to work,” Williams said. “There need to be more arteries to get us to [Route] 28. As a county in general, the growth has happened too fast, and we haven’t kept pace with infrastructure – particularly schools and roads.”

If elected, Williams promises to make the completion of Gloucester, Russell Branch and Loudoun County parkways major priorities. He argues that the current board has not worked hard enough to complete such road projects – the current board has taken action to complete Gloucester ahead of the developer’s uncertain timeframe, but work has not begun.

“We have a no-growth board. It is lazy and irresponsible not to work with developers to finish infrastructure,” Williams said, adding a common refrain among candidates at the local level. “We need to put more pressure on Richmond to get our fair share of money for transportation.”

In addition to roads, Williams plans to put economic development on the top of the board’s agenda. He argues that residents carry too much of the tax burden in Loudoun County because there aren’t enough businesses here picking up their share of the tax bill.

“We are trying to stay rural, but we need to be a friendly place to do business. I think we can keep western Loudoun rural, but we need to allow the [route] 28 corridor to develop,” he said. “Developers need to consider mixed use areas, not just residential. It will help create jobs.”

Williams said that many residents commute to work outside of the county—thus sending some of their tax dollars right into the pockets of other counties. If enough businesses are recruited to Loudoun County, Williams believes the county will be able to lower real estate taxes for residents.

While he said Metrorail to Ashburn would likely assist in his desire to grow businesses in the county, the tradeoff in terms of costs to the county must be weighed.

“I’m in favor of Metro, but I’m leery,” he said. “It will be a great economic engine to get development into our county, but the greatest concern is cost. We need to cap the liability and cost to Loudoun.”

Williams is concerned because the fiscal impact study indicated that it would take 20 years to break even on the Metro extension to Ashburn – that’s the typical timeframe for the development of a community like those planned around Metro stations here. Despite reservations, Williams said he continues to support the project because of its importance to economic development in Loudoun.

As the father of three young children, Williams also understands the importance of maintaining high-quality public schools. Area schools have been under tremendous pressure due to the enormous growth to the area over the past several years. Approximately 3,000 new students enter the county’s public school system every year.

“My oldest just started kindergarten and I could not be more grateful to be in an area with the best schools,” Williams said. But, he argues that schools need to reduce costs by cutting down on inefficiencies.

“We need to stay on top of technology, but we may not need to be at the forefront. We should wait until best practices are in place,” he said. “The frills aren’t necessary.”

Williams said that the next board of supervisors would need to evaluate the school budget. Since the Board has competing interests and finite resources, tough decisions must be made, he said.

Ultimately, Williams said he hopes his experience with business will help propel him to elected office.

“I review regulation and resolve disputes,” he said. “My opponents are an air traffic controller and an environmental activist. My day job translates very well to board work.”