An avid basketball fan, County Administrator Kirby Bowers, uses an analogy to tell the new county employees his mission for Loudoun.
"When you hear Duke and basketball, no matter if you love them or hate them, you think quality, great coaching and a great institution," he said. "When you say Loudoun County and government, what do you think about? What do residents think about?"
During Bowers’ monthly meetings with new employees, he emphasizes the importance of working together as a team to reach one goal.
"We want Loudoun to be in that top 25," he said.
Bowers gave the annual State of the County address to the Chamber of Commerce at Inova Loudoun Hospital, Monday, June 4, as part of the chamber's 2007 Policy Makers series.
"We’re here to build and sustain a quality community," he said. "Government is inextricably tied to the success or failure of the community. And that is a large responsibility."
IN HIS SPEECH, Bowers touched on the changes Loudoun has faced over the last several years, from its additional 100,000 residents since 2000 and its growing minority population to the 128 percent increase in jobs over the last decade and its recent distinction as the county with the highest median household income.
With all the changes, Bowers said the most recent resident survey, from 2005, shows that citizens are very happy with the county and its direction. Of the 1,000 randomly chosen residents, 91 percent said their quality of life in Loudoun was good or excellent, 98 percent said they felt safe in their neighborhoods and 75 percent said they believed they got a good or excellent return on their tax dollars.
"We are increasingly being recognized as an organization for the work that we have done," Bowers said. "Our achievements must come through real community partnerships. We cannot do it alone."
Bowers said there are two types of government, vending machine government where residents pay their taxes and pull out their services and barn-raising government, where the government is a facilitator.
"I think that’s the better way to go," he said.
BOWERS SAID he believed that residents would be willing to pay for the services they get, if the county government is accountable, fair, top quality and efficient. Education and public safety, he said, are the top priorities for any local government.
As a father of two, Bowers said he measures his sons’ education not by the grades they get, but by their teachers’ ability to inspire them to learn.
"Those are life-long dividends," he said.
The residents, and parents, need to be a partner in the county’s education system, Bowers said, letting the government know what is worth paying for.
"The cost will be increasingly born of the citizens," he said. "Help the School Board and the Board of Supervisors and tell them what an acceptable price is for a top-notch school system."
Bowers predicted that the funding for the county’s public safety system will only increase as time goes on, with more deputies needed to properly address growing crime issues and more reliance on career fire fighters.
"This carries with it an increased cost," he said.
AS ALWAYS, transportation remains a serious problem, Bowers said, that will require a multipronged approach to solving.
"This problem cannot be exclusively solved by building roads," he said.
Bowers said there will need to be a long-term effort to bring work and home closer together so residents can "walk or bike to work." There will need to broadband Internet in every home to make telecommuting a reality. The public transport system, including the bus line and the Dulles rail, will need to be improved to take more people off the roads.
"All of that will be expensive," he said.
Workforce or affordable housing continues to be a significant challenge in the county, with the average home price tripling since 2000.
"Today the whole problem must be solved by the citizens, businesses and the government working together," Bowers said. "We want to be a community where people want to live. We need to continue to make Loudoun a place where people can live, work and play."