Know Your Candidate: Laird Knights, OC Board of Supervisors District 4

Laird Knights, candidate for Orange County Board of Supervisors District 4. (Photo Credit: Courtesy of Laird Knights)

This interview is part of a series intended to give readers an overview of local political candidates and what they believe. Read responses from the three other candidates for Orange County Board of Supervisors District 4 by following the links below, and check back soon for interviews with candidates from other districts.

Know Your Candidate: Ryan Soon

Know Your Candidate: Brit Lewis

Know Your Candidate: Crystal Hale

(Note: Responses may be edited for length or clarity.)

Can you tell us about your background?

I'm a researcher, and what that means is that I do a lot of R&D work for various corporations, attorneys, inventors and the like. So, when someone comes to me with an idea or concept, I go out there and I find out if it's been done or if they're infringing upon somebody. I go through literally thousands of pieces of information in a day, so there's a jack-of-all-trades aspect, but my background is in mechanical engineering from Virginia Military Institute.

Do you have any previous political experience?

I have never run for office before, but I have helped candidates get across the finish line. I’ve always been the guy that's sort of worked behind the scenes. It could be anything as simple as putting up signs for the polls, putting up tents, bringing the donuts out, or showing up at various events. I also go down to Richmond from time to time, especially when they're in session, and I talk to the officials to find out what is going on in their world.

Any community involvement outside of politics?

I'm involved in the mechanics ministry of my church. We do a thing called “Home Helps” where we go out and we help people, especially senior citizens, who have needs — basically make repairs in their houses. I usually end up working on the carpentry, so I've helped put in handicap ramps and things like that. I always like to see the look in people's faces when you're done with them. They're just like, my gosh, I love this. It's something that's just neat that I like to do.

I'm also involved in the equestrian committee and a lakes committee in my neighborhood. I'm involved in the Izaak Walton League, which is a conservation group, and a member of the Manahoac Bowmen. I’m a member of my church choir, and I sing tenor.

What motivated you to run for a position on the Orange County Board of Supervisors?

The Wilderness Crossing project. There are several engineering aspects, and one part that I was concerned about was the mitigation of the old gold mining area, which has some contamination. Then I got into some of the other issues here in the county like the reservoir because if you're going to have any growth, you better have the infrastructure.

In my previous background, before I started doing what I do now, I was actually part of a wastewater treatment upgrade on the east end of Williamsburg. And you could tell what time of day it was by the effluent that was coming out — green in the morning or red in the afternoon, or vice versa. We ended up cleaning up that area and the chemical plant that was there has long since been razed, but the company that owned it is responsible for about 30 years after the fact. So, if anything happens there, I'm still supposed to clean it up. 

The other thing I did was concrete testing, and I was on a lot of different sites throughout the Commonwealth and also state of Maryland and D.C. What that entailed was taking a nuclear

What is your understanding of the role of a county supervisor?

They're basically in charge of overseeing budgets by and large, but they also rule on zoning issues.

For instance, when I was at the last board of supervisors meeting, there was a group which was having a mud bogging event. And it was interesting. They submitted a permit to the board and the board said, what's your venue going to be? And they explained what it was — that it’s going to be a family friendly event and they're not going to have any alcohol. They clearly said it a number of times. The board turns around and says, so what if someone brings in alcohol, and well, for 30 minutes they were doing that.

But it's permit issues, zoning issues, anything to do with county business per se. They have a wide-ranging influence or role in the county, so it's a very unique position.

At the recent Chamber of Commerce candidate showcase, virtually all of the candidates stated their desire to preserve the county’s rural character. What sets you apart in that regard?

What sets me apart is, first of all, my background. I grew up in a rural area. I moved out to the city and I saw what was going on there, and then I moved back to rural area because I wanted my kids to grow up in something that wasn't asphalt.

Preserving the rural atmosphere of the area is important, but we also have to look at it from — and maybe this will segue into more of a zoning question — how do we maintain a rural area? What does that look like? At least to me, the idea of ‘rural’ means that you have the various types of agriculture, whether that's raising corn, soybeans, alfalfa, or you're having livestock, whether that's cattle, sheep, chickens, you name it.

But I think the more important, all-encompassing question is, how do we preserve the rural nature of Orange? Especially with the projects like Wilderness Crossing or some of these bigger developers like Richmond American coming down off of 522, and also D. R. Horton building their houses over by the Walmart off of Route 3. I mean, they're building 175 houses right now over there.

And that's part of the other issue of why I got into Wilderness Crossing. I was going, how are we going to preserve the rural character of the county? And with my engineering background, I know what that looks like. I know that there are ways you could still have a rural character, but you might be able to have some commercial growth there as well. But you have to be very careful with that, because I'm very concerned that we could have something like what they have in Spotsylvania.

In the most recent fiscal year, Orange County Public Schools experienced a $1.2 million shortfall in funding from the Board of Supervisors, forcing the school district to make cuts on facilities improvements and hiring for new positions. What are your views on increasing school funding in the county budget?

I have no problems with that, but I think what needs to be done, is we need to look at who's going to be footing the bill on this. So, do we pass it on to the taxpayers? Do we increase taxes, or do we allow more commercial interests to come in and then give proffers for the area to be able to help support those schools? It's a delicate balancing act because you don't want to tax everybody out of existence, but by the same token, you do have to support county services.

What does transparency look like in practice for you?

For me, it means you can give me a call and say, Laird, what's going on here?  

When I'm at any of these meetings for the board of supervisors, you can obviously ask me questions, but there will also be times when they have nondisclosure agreements. That's part of my work I do, because part of the work I do is confidential. So, you have to be very careful if you do sign an NDA, what you can talk about, and you have to make sure that you understand as a board member what you cannot talk about.

But on things that I can talk about, I'll say, look, this is what we are doing and what I can talk about. I’ll also say, look, this is where we're going, but the specifics of it I cannot disclose, because if we sign a nondisclosure agreement, that would be the reality of the situation.

So, it's not because I would be trying to be secretive; it's because at that point, I would be legally bound. And I suspect in some cases, that is where the board of supervisors are at with the Wilderness Crossing project, because I'm sure that some of the board has already signed NDAs on some of that. In some cases, it is common practice do that, but other times it's very much specific to the corporation you're dealing with. The larger the corporation you're dealing with, more than likely you'll probably have to sign NDA, because there are other people that try to game the system if they find out.

As the President of the Lake of the Woods Republican Club, how do you intend to prevent club members from having a disproportionate influence on decisions you make as a county official if elected? 

When you're in any role of leadership and when you're voting on issues that will affect everybody in the county, what you have to do is just basically put away that partisan hat. That's what I've done in other cases, and especially with our local community, with the equestrian and with the lakes committee — you put that partisan stuff away. It's part and parcel of what I do. I go into my engineering mode and at that point, I just use logic. And that might sound strange coming from somebody who is very partisan on one end or another.

When I get into my logical side, I just look at, say for instance the schools. How much are we going to be able to pay for these schools, and what can we do to make that happen?

I definitely do want to support our teachers. I want to support our students. I particularly want to support a CTE program, and with my engineering background, I see a very critical need to do that. I want to be in a situation where we can create jobs for our local community — where anybody that's coming from the high school can work here locally in Orange, because for years, everybody goes from the high school and works outside. Culpeper, D.C., Fredericksburg, you name it — they go everywhere else. I want to make sure that we have the skill set necessary, so if we are in a situation where we do have some growth, that we have the means and training — the right people, right place, right time — to be able to make the things that need to happen in the county happen.

Let’s wrap this up with a few apolitical get-to-know-you questions. Favorite ice cream flavor?

Daiquiri Ice.

Musical artist or band?

Alphaville. The newer stuff they've done, because everybody thinks of “Forever Young” but I was thinking of “Salvation.”

Hobby or way to relax? 

Cardstock modeling, where you build something out of a heavier gauge paper, sort of like greeting card paper. I can make a bus out of cardstock, and it looks like a bus. Some of that's just my engineering background, and I find design be very relaxing in general.

To learn more about Laird Knights, send an email to ljknightsd4supervisor@gmail.com or contact him via his Facebook page here. For more information on Orange County elections, visit www.orangecountyva.gov/354/Voter-Registration-Elections or call the Orange County Office of Voter Registration and Elections at (540) 672-5262.