Fairfax County has announced to the Town of Herndon that it will terminate its contract with non-profit organization Reston Interfaith to operate the Herndon Official Workers Center by Sept. 6, county documents show.
The news of the pending termination was delivered to Herndon interim town manager Art Anselene in a letter from county executive Anthony Griffin dated Aug. 3.
The letter cites Herndon's repeated attempts to secure a new operator for the day labor site and comments made by Vice Mayor Dennis Husch in a July letter to Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell as the reasons for its decision. That letter objected to the county's renewal of funding for the Herndon labor site in June.
The county would terminate the contract "based on recent public comments from members of the Herndon Town Council accusing the County of interfering with the Town's sovereignty and the Town Council's own solicitation for services outside of the county's existing contractual relationship," the letter read.
Calls made to Husch and Herndon Mayor Steve DeBenedittis were not immediately returned Monday.
Herndon's Town Council has issued three requests for proposals for a new day labor operator that would check for legal work authorization status of its users so far this year, and is currently reviewing one application from the most recent requset.
Herndon has an ordinance forbidding open-air work solicitations which had been previously ruled constitutional based on the existence of a regulated worker gathering site in the town.
For updates, see this week's edition of The Herndon Connection.