Phil Bolen: A Man of the People

In , I highlighted the career and accomplishments of former County Administrator Philip A. Bolen, for whom Loudoun County’s newest park was named.

I considered Phil Bolen to be both a mentor and a good friend.  In 1988, he hired me to be the county’s first Public Information Officer. It didn’t take me long to gain an appreciation for his leadership skills, sense of humor and kindness.

In those days the county was much smaller – less than 90,000 residents.  It was still being said that Phil knew every county employee by name. As the growing workforce approached 1,000 employees, that probably wasn’t true anymore.  But he knew most of them, and he treated people at all levels of the organization with respect.

He told me once that the title he most liked to be addressed by was “Coach.”  That perfectly defined his leadership style: Recruit good people, build them into a team, mentor them, and trust them to do their jobs.

He once told his management team that he didn’t want us to go about our business in fear of making mistakes or losing our jobs.  We were not to worry about making “hustle errors” – trying hard and taking calculated risks.

As a former teacher and coach, he treated mistakes as lessons from which to learn.  If we did make mistakes, we talked about it, and then he had our backs.

This approach inspired a tremendous amount of loyalty in those who worked closely with him.  This was in evidence at the of Philip A. Bolen Memorial Park on Saturday, June 4, when many of those he had hired and mentored showed up at the grand opening and shared stories and recollections about Phil.

Among those in attendance who had worked closely with him were former County Administrator Kirby Bowers, Leesburg Town Manager John Wells, Deputy County Administrator Linda Neri, former Director of Transportation Services Terrie Laycock, former legislative liaison Memory Porter, and former directors Jim Stup and Cindy Welsh.

Many of those who knew Phil observed that he would have loved this park – that he was all about youth and sports.

This is certainly true, and I would go a little further.  I would say that he was all about people.  Jim Stup expressed it well at the grand opening, when I asked him how he thought Phil would have reacted to the crowd at the grand opening:  “Oh my God! He would have been in tears, wanting to shake hands and talk to everyone here.”

Being hired as a staff member in his office was like joining his extended family.  My young daughter once received a telephone call from Phil on her birthday, and a few years later, when he was guest speaker at an elementary school assembly, he spotted her in the crowd and waved hello to her.

When Phil needed to drive somewhere on county business, he liked to corral a staff member to ride along with him.  These excursions often became learning experiences that were just as valuable as anything else we learned on the job.

Once I was riding with him as he drove through Hamilton, his hometown.  He spotted a woman walking down her driveway to get the mail.  He slowed down, quickly explaining that he knew her when he was in high school, and had once dated her daughter.

He rolled down the window and hailed her by name. “Hello,” he called. “I haven’t seen you in ages.  How are you?”

She stopped, peered at him over her glasses for a few moments, then said sharply, “My taxes are too high!” That was all she had to say.

As he pulled away, Phil turned and gave me a look, and we both burst out laughing – not at the woman’s financial plight, but because the experience perfectly summed up what it meant to be County Administrator at that time, in the small county where he had grown up. I later heard him tell about that encounter several times, and the story improved with each telling.

He loved to talk, especially to tell stories and jokes, and he had a style that commanded attention. Yet he was also a very good listener.

About a year after I had come to Loudoun County, the economy took a nosedive, and the county government began a painful process of downsizing. Quite a few employees ultimately lost their jobs.

Public Information Officers are always vulnerable at such times, and during a budget work session, one member of the proposed that my job be eliminated. “It’s nothing personal,” he said, looking at me. “We just can’t afford this position.”  Fortunately for me, the rest of the Board opposed his motion.

Later, I shared my feelings in a private conversation with Phil.  I had left a good job in California and moved my family across the country to take this job.  Now, in a declining economy, I needed the job to support my family. How could I not take it personally? Phil not only listened, he understood completely and agreed with me.  

For him, everything was personal. This was at the heart of his commitment to public service.  He often assured his staff that we were doing the important work of providing people with services that they needed.  And he showed us that it was important to treat people well and to build relationships with them, partly to accomplish big things, but mostly because it is the simply right way to live.

That’s the Phil Bolen I will remember every time I see his name at the entrance to Philip A. Bolen Memorial Park.