He quit freshman football to create a home improvement company at 16, and he has been working at carpentry and with building materials for most of his life and, when he got interested in Republican politics, he worked on Republican Roger Zurn’s Supervisor’s race, and was later appointed by Supervisor Zurn to the Planning Commission.
Scott York, who is running to succeed himself in what would be his fourth term as the Chairman of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors told us how he turned to carpentry.
“I’ve always enjoyed working with my hands,” he said, and, “while I was a good student, I was always better out of school,” this remark followed by a great fulsome self- laugh about how he was really better “out of school.”
After I told him that my Dad was a carpenter, electrician and a plumber, Scott warned that he was “dangerous with plumbing and wiring.”
I told him that that great American philosopher, Clint Eastwood (as Detective Harry Callahan), said “a man got to know his limitations.” Scott laughed again.
Scott’s Dad was an Air Force officer, Theodore Robert York.
Scott said, “I did not choose to serve that way. By the time I was done with High School, the Vietnam War was over, and I was tired of moving every two years, as is the case with many military families, and certainly it was the case with our family.”
“I found another way to serve,” said Scott. “One of the greatest things my Dad taught me,” said Scott, “but not verbally, it was by his example, by his actions when we lived overseas and when we moved all over this country. No matter who lived next to us, regardless of whether they were Asian, African American, no matter where they were from, he always treated our neighbors with the greatest respect. He was there to help when help was needed, always serving as a good friend. His conduct and this example taught me how to conduct myself.”
Asked about his earliest interest in politics, Scott said, “through my teens, I just loved to watch the national political conventions and soaked it in.”
When I asked had he been to a national convention, Scott admitted he had not but that maybe he would now – after long last.
Scott got personally involved in politics, like many novitiates, over an issue that bothered him – his issue was about how we educate our children.
The League of Women Voters advertises that they introduced Family Life Education (FLE) into the public schools in the 80s but Scott and his wife JoAnn had a 2 year old at the time, and Scott opposed having the public schools teach FLE.
“I thought that was our province, to teach our own children, and that this instruction should be a matter of opting in, rather than having to opt out.”
In the end, the General Assembly did pass legislation that became effective in 1987, requiring standards of learning and curriculum for FLE, in order to educate our students about marriage, sexual abstinence, unwanted pregnancies, human sexuality, reproduction, dating violence and more.
Teen pregnancy has since declined in the Commonwealth, and indeed is lower than many other states; parents must opt out of FLE -- if they object.
When Scott recently endorsed Republican Senate Candidate Dick Black as “a man of strong conviction and principle,” he said, “We share a deep commitment to pro-life values, to protecting our Second Amendment rights, [and] to educational choice …”
Scott joined the local Republican Committee about the time he got concerned about the FLE requirements, and helped Roger Zurn get elected.
When Zurn decided to run for Treasurer, Zurn encouraged Scott to run for his Sterling seat on the Board of Supervisors.
“Being involved in construction and home improvement around the County,” said Scott, helped him to understand and decide issues on the Planning Commission from 1992 to 1994, “and so I ran for the Board.”
Scott was elected in 1995 as a member of the Board and took on the incumbent Republican Chair, Dale Polen Myers in a primary in 1999 that has been compared to a mud wrestling match; in the end Scott not only won the primary but he also became Chairman and her successor.
In the 2003 election, when he won the vote for Chairman, running as an Independent to avoid the Republican primary, the newly elected Republican Supervisors banded together at the first meeting in 2004 to reduce Scott’s elected authority as Chairman, demoting him to Vice Chair instead.
Asked if that wasn’t his greatest personal challenge, he said, “overall, I will say from a public standpoint, it was just, it was just horrible, it was the dumbest thing and essentially those five characters came in and basically lifted up their middle finger to the public. In essence, that’s the politest way I can say it.”
“Now, from a political standpoint,” he continued, “they came in and gave a couple of us the best gift they could have,” Scott said, “because what they ended up doing … at the very first board meeting is they shot themselves in the foot.”
“What they did,” Scott explained, “was they alarmed the public. When they started doing much of what they wanted to accomplish in particular, it was very difficult for them to do it.”
“There was a lot of pressure,” Scott said, “from people on the outside looking in and eventually I think we were able to stave off a lot of changes to the comprehensive plan that I really think would have not been very good.”
Scott concluded that “eventually many of them were not returned to office with the exception of one.”
That one who returned was Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio (R-Sterling) – by all accounts, a most colorful public servant (and we are not talking about the orange hat he seems always to wear).
But what was Scott’s personal reaction to this humiliating undemocratic maneuver?
Scott said, “You know, it doesn’t do any good to get mad and it doesn’t even do any good to seek out revenge. You just have to take what you get.”
“In the seat of politics,” he said, “you work to out maneuver them and in many instances we were able to do that.”
Scott left the Republican Committee when he became an Independent and, for a time, he supported both Democrats and Republican for public office in the County.
in the 2007 election, he ran a kind of “fusion” ticket with Democratic candidates for the Board of Supervisors.
There were signs, however, he was returning to Loudoun’s version of the Grand Old Party after the 2007 election.
In 2008, he supported Sen. John McCain and Sarah Palin at a huge political extravaganza at JR Festival Lakes.
In 2009, he endorsed the outgoing Republican AG, Bob McDonnell, for Governor of the Commonwealth.
This year, Scott has played the prodigal son returning to the Republican Committee, unabashedly enthusiastic about all candidates and issues and policy statements Republican including the somewhat infamous Dick Black. In July, he issued a release stating, “I am proud to be leading the Republican ticket…”
As for Supervisor Delgaudio, the remaining Supervisor who “returned,” Eugene gave a “shout-out” at the Republican Committee meeting to Scott -- “We’re friends again.”
Asked why he’s taking on this challenge of making a County budget in this terrible economy, Scott said, “I enjoy serving the public.:
Scott said, “Sure there are big issues we deal with as a County. But I like the little challenges as well, when one person has a particular need and we can serve that individual need.
Asked whence this calling for service comes, Scott said “Why from my father and my faith.”
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