Michael J. Firetti (R)

Office Sought: Supervisor's Chairman
Age: 46
Residence: Purcellville.
Education: Course work, business, George Mason University.
Occupation: Business entrepreneur.
Web site:http://www.votefiretti.com
E-mail address: m.firetti@verizon.net
Offices and positions held: Civic and financial support for St. Jude's Hospital, Children's Hospital, Children's National Medical Center, Christian Children's Fund and Loudoun YMCA.

Why should voters elect you?

My pledge to the people of Loudoun is to take back their government from career politicians and special interests — and put their interests first.

What do you think is the most urgent problem facing your jurisdiction?

The issue at the heart of all the challenges facing Loudoun County is economic development. We need to go beyond sprawl, strip malls and seas of McMansions to bring in Fortune 500 businesses that provide high-paying jobs close to home — taking cars off the road — and rebuild our commercial tax base. A restored commercial tax base, in turn, will help finance the construction of a modern, high-performance road network, provide the resources needed to maintain our top-quality educational system in the face of a rising school-age population and pay for first-rate services.

What is your plan to address the traffic problems in Virginia?

The current Chairman’s County Transportation Plan envisions most of the day stalled on key major routes. But even that inadequate Plan won’t be fulfilled, because he and his allies have blocked planned improvements, refusing more than $500 million in road proffers last year alone.

The symbol of their failure to create an adequate road network is dirt roads where high-performance connectors should be easing the load on Routes 50, Route 7 and the Greenway.

My solutions include:

• Developing a professional Transportation Plan that actually addresses gridlock

• Moving $70 million annually of Loudoun’s bloated $1.4 billion budget to priority transportation projects

• Bringing jobs closer to home … reducing the 30,000 daily commuter trips making Loudoun a thruway to jobs in Fairfax, Tyson and DC.

• Better regional planning and collaboration to get our share of state funding

• Ensuring that developers pay for roads and traffic relief.

Do you think current policies governing growth & development in your area are too restrictive, not restrictive enough or just right?

just right

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