Arlington County Manager Michael Brown has resigned after just five months on the job.

Continue reading

Brown says he’s resigning for personal reasons. He needs more time to tend to his wife, who is ill, he wrote in a formal resignation letter. Brown's deputy, Barbara Donnellan, was appointed and confirmed as the new county manager Friday morning.

Board Chairman Jay Fisette says he got the sense Brown was waiting until the approval of the 40-year master plan for Crystal City before making a decision to resign. "I know he felt some desire to stay through the Crystal City adoption," Fisette says. "He added value to that."

The Crystal City plan was approved at a board meeting earlier this week. Word that ongoing family issues may lead to Brown's resignation came "later rather than earlier, more recently," according to Fisette.

New Arlington County Manager
Barbara Donnellan.
(Photo courtesy of Arlington County)

Friday morning, the County Board held a special meeting to accept the resignation and appoint a Donnellan, who served for five years as the deputy county manager, and also served as interim county manager for the seven months before Brown was hired.

"It's all been pretty quick this week," Donnellan says. "I'm looking forward to getting back to work." Donnellan wasn't a candidate for the position the last time around, according to the board, because she "never threw her hat in the ring" for the job, according to board member Mary Hynes.