Next year, there will be at least two new members of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. Democrat Jane Dittmar announced Thursday she will not seek re-election.
“I will finish my work as the Scottsville District’s supervisor on Dec. 31,” Dittmar said.
Earlier this year, Republican Supervisor Kenneth C. Boyd announced he would not seek a fourth term representing the Rivanna District.
Dittmar, 59, was elected in November 2013 to fill the seat vacated that summer after Supervisor Christopher J. Dumler resigned following his admission to sexual misconduct charges.
Dittmar’s announcement leaves the district without a declared candidate.
Anyone seeking to run as a Republican in the district has until May 22 to notify party Chairwoman Cindi Burkett. A mass meeting to nominate a candidate is scheduled for June 1.
The Democrats plan to nominate a candidate at a caucus on May 18.
Independents have until June 9 to submit paperwork and 125 petition signatures with the county registrar.
Dittmar said she believed a Democratic candidate would emerge to carry on her work but did not identify anyone.
“I have been reassured that next week we will have an announcement,” Dittmar said.
Three candidates have filed for the vacant Rivanna District seat. Norman Dill, the owner of Rebecca’s Natural Food, is seeking the Democratic nomination. Lawrence Gaughan had initially filed to run as a Democrat, but has since switched to running as an independent.
Richard Lloyd has filed a statement of qualifications to run as a Republican in the district and said he will hold a formal announcement in the near future.
Democrat Ann Mallek is so far the only declared candidate in the White Hall District.
Dittmar said she made the decision not to run after soul-searching with her family.
“I’ve been in this community for 45 years and worked in various positions of leadership,” Dittmar said. “This is a continuation of work that I want to keep doing and will.”
Dittmar said she has no specific plans for what she will do when her term ends because she wants to focus on what she wants to achieve in the next eight months.
“I had to decide whether I should serve for a four-year term,” Dittmar said. “Four years is a long time in someone’s life, and what I wanted to do was make sure the things that I wanted to do.”
Dittmar served as president of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce from 1992 to 2000 before entering practice as a mediator.
She said she’s not retiring from public life and will continue to serve as a mediator registered with the Virginia Supreme Court.
“This is about continuing parts of my life that have stayed in place while I’ve been in office and then seeing how I might serve my community in the future,” Dittmar said. “I haven’t made any thoughts about that yet, because I have to stay focused on what I’m doing right now.”
Dittmar said she hopes to work with fellow supervisors to find dedicated funding for the school system, find new revenue sources for the county’s capital needs and work on providing access to broadband Internet all across Albemarle.
In April, Dittmar joined Republican Ken Boyd in voting against the real estate property tax increase which was used to balance the FY 2016 county budget.
Dittmar also said she is hoping there will be a resolution on efforts to create a county-wide plan to address solid waste disposal.
“We will be finishing a full study of that and coming out with recommendations on that this fall,” Dittmar said. “We have mandates from the federal and state government on stormwater and will figure out that financing this year.”
Dittmar and her husband, Frank Squillace, recently sold their house in Glenmore but are currently renting it from the new owners. She said that when they do move, it will be to a home elsewhere in the Scottsville District.
