---
type: "Bill"
title: "County board of supervisors; presiding officers, terminology."
description: "Presiding officer of county board of supervisors; terminology. Specifies that the presiding officer of a board of supervisors shall be called \"chairman,\" \"chairwoman,\" \"chair,\" \"chairperson,\" or \"chair-at-large,\" in the presiding officer's discretion."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2020"
identifier: "HB 738"
citation: "Virginia HB 738 (2020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["David A. Reid"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 27
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2020-01-06"
last_action: "2020-03-04"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/5ad78e20-9dad-4d82-8891-138eb49395b5"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+HB738"
source_hash: "eb9354ce9eb0fdd1ab6837711925062b60aaf4aad327f3e32c14bdb627961994"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia HB 738 (2020) — County board of supervisors; presiding officers, terminology.

Presiding officer of county board of supervisors; terminology. Specifies that the presiding officer of a board of supervisors shall be called "chairman," "chairwoman," "chair," "chairperson," or "chair-at-large," in the presiding officer's discretion.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0133)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+CHAP0133)
2. **Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB738ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+HB738ER)
3. **Engrossed by House as amended HB738E** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+HB738E)
4. **Impact statement from DHCD (HB738)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+HB738)

## Votes

- Passed Senate (36-Y 3-N) — **36–3** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Counties, Cities and Towns with amendments (20-Y 1-N) — **20–1** (pass) · lower
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with amendments (5-Y 2-N) — **5–2** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Local Government (15-Y 0-N) — **15–0** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed (38-Y 0-N) — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Passage (91-Y 8-N) — **90–8** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- David A. Reid — primary (person)
- Ibraheem S. Samirah — cosponsor (person)
- Jill Holtzman Vogel — cosponsor (person)
- John J. Bell — cosponsor (person)
- Karrie K. Delaney — cosponsor (person)
- Mark H. Levine — cosponsor (person)
- Patrick A. Hope — cosponsor (person)
- Sam Rasoul — cosponsor (person)
- Suhas Subramanyam — cosponsor (person)
- Wendy W. Gooditis — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2020-01-06** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/08/20 20100981D `introduction`
- **2020-01-06** Referred to Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns `referral-committee`
- **2020-01-18** Impact statement from DHCD (HB738)
- **2020-01-21** Assigned CC & T sub: Charters `referral-committee`
- **2020-01-23** Subcommittee recommends reporting with amendments (5-Y 2-N)
- **2020-01-31** House committee, floor amendments and substitutes offered
- **2020-01-31** Reported from Counties, Cities and Towns with amendments (20-Y 1-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-02-04** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2020-02-05** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2020-02-05** Committee amendments agreed to
- **2020-02-05** Engrossed by House as amended HB738E
- **2020-02-05** Printed as engrossed 20100981D-E
- **2020-02-06** Read third time and passed House (91-Y 8-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2020-02-06** VOTE: Passage (91-Y 8-N)
- **2020-02-07** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2020-02-07** Referred to Committee on Local Government `referral-committee`
- **2020-02-17** Reported from Local Government (15-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-02-18** Constitutional reading dispensed (38-Y 0-N)
- **2020-02-19** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2020-02-19** Passed by temporarily
- **2020-02-19** Passed Senate (36-Y 3-N) `passage`
- **2020-02-21** Enrolled
- **2020-02-21** Signed by Speaker
- **2020-02-24** Signed by President
- **2020-02-26** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on February 26, 2020
- **2020-02-26** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., March 4, 2020
- **2020-03-04** Approved by Governor-Chapter 133 (effective 7/1/20) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/5ad78e20-9dad-4d82-8891-138eb49395b5`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).