By his own count, County Executive Bob Tucker has attended more than 1,700 meetings of various boards during his tenure as Albemarle’s CEO. After 20 years of crafting the county budget—and a total of 37 years as a county employee—Tucker announced last week that he’ll attend only a few more, and plans to retire at the end of this year.
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Asked about budgeting for local schools, retiring County Executive Bob Tucker says “Schools are really starting to see the crunch from this last year. Next year is going to be even harder.” |
“You kind of know when it’s time,” says Tucker, 62, who adds that his family will remain in Albemarle. “I will be looking for some other things to do, not necessarily in county-related efforts.”
Tucker began his local career in the county Planning Department in 1973. Ten years later he became deputy County Executive, and became Executive in 1991. County attorney Larry Davis, who has worked with Tucker for 16 years, calls the executive “a person of high integrity, whose goal in public service was to make Albemarle County the best community that it could be.
“He is simply an outstanding county executive in carrying out that mission,” says Davis.
The last two years, according to Tucker, have been the most challenging of his career. The nation’s financial crisis affected the management of county operations; Tucker says Albemarle County has eliminated 70 positions, “but not laid anyone off.”
“That was my goal in the last two or three years,” he says.
Asked about the revenue sharing agreement—in which Albemarle pays Charlottesville a portion of its real estate tax revenue and the city agrees not to annex land from the county—Tucker says the matter is now predominately a political issue. For fiscal year 2010, Albemarle paid Charlottesville more than $18 million, money not factored into the composite index that determines state funding for the county.
“Obviously, it hurts us to send a check for $18 million to the city, but that’s what it is,” he says. While the overall relationship between the city and county “has been good,” says Tucker, financial anxieties and debates over the Meadowcreek Parkway—under construction in the county, but not the city—have occasionally tried the two localities.
“I think the Board [of Supervisors] will have a difficult time next year,” says Tucker of the county’s budgeting process.
Despite the occasional strain, Tucker calls his job a rewarding one. He expresses pride in what he calls the county’s “strong growth management system.” The county, says Tucker, has tried the keep Albemarle “as rural as possible” while encouraging development in designated areas.
“I hope the citizens are proud of what we have been able to accomplish,” says Tucker. County supervisors will discuss plans for selecting Tucker’s successor at an upcoming meeting.
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