The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors will reconvene in September after its August recess. When it meets next, one key panel will be under new leadership: Supervisor Juli Briskman was replaced as chairwoman of the finance committee by Supervisor Koran Saines.
The move came near the end of the board’s final July meeting. County Chairwoman Phyllis Randall unveiled a Board Member Initiative, signed by five members of the board including herself, “to take [Briskman] out of leadership because of concerns that go back all the way to June 18, 2021, and then going forward,” Randall said. “There just gets to be a point where some behaviors have to be addressed when someone’s in board leadership.”
Briskman was not in the room for the board meeting, but she joined it via video. She pushed back against the charges.
“This has been a months-long pressure campaign in an attempt to force me to stand down from my stance against data centers, Dominion Energy, and to silence my criticism of policy, which has given big corporations a pass while our residents suffer the consequences,” Briskman answered during her chance to speak. “I will continue fighting for the residents of Loudoun County, demanding accountability from big corporations, calling out the sheriff for his 287G agreement with ICE, and I will be continually speaking plainly about the policies that shape Loudoun’s future.”
Several of her fellow supervisors mentioned a video that Briskman posted last year on her social media after a No Kings rally. The video included a song with vulgar and racial language. Briskman removed the post and apologized, but Supervisor Michael Turner called that post “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Turner also cited a letter Briskman sent on county board vice chair letterhead that supported the Palestinian movement and the fact that he saw Briskman posing for photos with demonstrators who were hanging Sheriff Mike Chapman in effigy. “I just felt it was time for her to be removed from board leadership,” Turner concluded.
She first made headlines during the first Trump administration, when Briskman flipped off the presidential motorcade as it passed her on its way to Donald Trump’s golf course in Virginia. She lost her job with a government contractor over that incident but then used it as a springboard for her run for the Loudoun board seat.
Briskman will retain a seat on the finance committee. A board member mentioned at the meeting that Briskman may decide to run for board chair next year, and some county residents have said they suspect that, as well. That’s the leadership role currently held by Phyllis Randall. However, Briskman has not confirmed that.
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[ H/T The Daily Signal ]
