February 10, 2026 Economic Initiatives Committee - Feb 10, 2026

meeting

Fairfax County Board Committees 1h 34m 5 speakers 4 agenda items transcribed 4 days ago official recording ↗

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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

What were the opening remarks and welcome messages at the start of the meeting?

Supervisor Stork 0:03

Can everybody take their seats? Well, first off, good morning, everyone. I want to thank everybody for being here, and at least for me, and I think for many of you, we had a very, very busy weekend. And it was one, I think, quite enjoyable, I think, would be the way that I would start it. And maybe the best part of the weekend was the Mount Vernon Town Meeting, right? You all were

Unknown 0:30

there.

0:32

Yeah.

Supervisor Stork 0:33

We had a great time. And I appreciate the chairman and county executive being there and our school board member. And then many, many, many, many, many, many more of county staff and not-for-profits, et cetera, were there just to, frankly, connect and share the community with each of us. The other thing I wanted to mention was we had really a wonderful time receiving the venerable monks who had walked all the way from Texas just to see us. No, I'm sorry, they didn't. They were walking for peace, and that really hit a nerve, and I don't know if the chairman wants to make any comments about that.

Jeffrey C. McKay 1:18

Yeah, I would be glad to. It was wonderful. I think probably what was most wonderful to me is to see the thousands of people in Fairfax County who came out both along the walking route and then also at the Buddhist a temple where we had an opportunity to have lunch with them, to come out and see them. And I think, as I said earlier today on the news, my kind of takeaway from the entire event was when they shared with us that take a moment each day to write down, this is my peaceful day. on a sheet of paper before you venture out to do the other things you're going to do during the day, just as a calm, peaceful reminder to all of us that peace starts with ourselves, peace starts at home, and it was just great to see them all turn out.

Jeffrey C. McKay 2:04

And secondly, and I know you want to add to this, Supervisor Stork, I do want to particularly thank Major Morrow, our Mount Vernon District Police Department, and Chief Butler, who took the time to come out, also and greet them and give them a token of appreciation from our public safety agencies. But to put on an event like that, a major undertaking, to handle intersections along Richmond Highway on a busy weekend is a major undertaking. And the way in which our first responders protected the public, protected them, but still allowed the public to come out and share in the moment was exceptional. So all around a great day. Thank you.

Supervisor Stork 2:45

thank you mr chairman i think well said and and i also want to thank the public because we're closing down route one and other major roads is never easy and i'm sure frustrated a number of individuals but i hope they all recognize the those short-term impacts have hopefully created a larger sense of what we need and and how important it is for us all to work together be together and, frankly, walk for peace and be peaceful and find our peace. We have a number of things going on this morning. I'm going to get to it. First and foremost, we had a meeting a few months ago. Did anybody have any comments or questions or changes in the notes that were sent out to everyone? If not, we will get right to it.

Supervisor Stork 3:37

Good morning. Our first topic for today is a board matter, frankly, from Chairman McKay on Fairfax County's economic competitiveness. It was introduced last August. Staff will provide current economic trends and overview of the county's competitive position, and this will include how the federal workforce changes are really affecting all of us, the sector growth patterns, and emerging opportunities. And we know the core of that is emergency opportunities, and I know others will maybe mention this, but we have a significant SpaceX conference next week and look forward to all being part of that that can join us. Our economy and business opportunities continue to demonstrate remarkable resilience. I know we have all fearful a year ago what that impact would be.

Supervisor Stork 4:27

There's impact, clearly. Our unemployment rate's gone up. Some of the challenges in continuing the energy that we had before has been kind of pushed back a little bit. But I know that we have a very strong economy, very strong and very –