[Archived] City of Alexandria Appoints Labor Relations Positions

For Immediate Release: December 9, 2021

Alexandria City Manager Mark B. Jinks has announced the appointment of two critical positions to administer the City of Alexandria’s Public Employee Collective Bargaining Ordinance, which was developed to promote orderly and constructive relationships between the City and its employees and ensure an uninterrupted, efficient government. The ordinance allows unions or associations representing City employees to enter into a collective bargaining contract with the City on matters related to the employees and their employment.

“We are pleased to now have on board two seasoned labor relations professionals, Kevin Stokes, as Chief Labor Relations Officer, and Sean Rogers, as Labor Relations Administrator, to help the City successfully launch the new era of collective bargaining with its employees,” Jinks said. 

Effective December 13, Kevin Stokes will represent the City during the upcoming collective bargaining as Chief Labor Relations Officer. He will work under the direction of the City Manager as the liaison to all departments regarding the collective bargaining process and the implementation of the collective bargaining agreements.

Stokes began his public service career with the Virginia Division of Legislative Services, where he drafted legislation for state lawmakers and advised Virginia General Assembly committees, including the Senate Committee on Local Government and the House Committee on Counties, Cities, and Towns. He spent six years with the District of Columbia’s Office of Labor Relations and Collective Bargaining (OLRCB), where he represented the District’s agencies in collective bargaining and advised them in all aspects of labor relations. He also represented management before the D.C. Public Employee Relations Board in unit determinations, unfair labor practice, negotiability appeals and impasse proceedings. In 2016, he became OLRCB’s Chief of Staff, directing day-to-day administrative activities and supervising the Research, Training and City-wide Initiatives Unit and the Administrative and Program Support Unit.

Before joining the City, Kevin Stokes was part of the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), the District of Columbia’s state educational agency, where he provided legal advice interpreting special education law and OSSE’s collective bargaining agreements with labor organizations. Most recently, he served as the agency’s Interim General Counsel, where he supervised a team of attorneys, interns and a paralegal, all of whom were responsible for advising educational officials on employment and labor matters, student health issues, data management and special education law.

Stokes earned his law degree from the University of Iowa and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia, where he double majored in Foreign Affairs and African-American and African Studies.

Sean Rogers, appointed to a four-year term as Labor Relations Administrator, effective October 19, was chosen from nominees selected by a committee of representatives from employee organizations and City Manager designees. The City Manager recommended Rogers to the City Council, which ratified his appointment. The role of the third-party Labor Relations Administrator is created by the ordinance to neutrally and effectively administer the City’s collective bargaining process. 

Rogers, who possesses more than 40 years of experience, worked in the public sector as the Director of Planning and Policy Division in the Office of Human Resources for Montgomery County, Maryland, where he served as chief negotiator and lobbyist to the County’s Council on labor and employee relations. As the Internal Revenue Service National Director of Labor Relations, he was the chief negotiator for collective bargaining, mediation and impasse resolution for approximately 84,000 bargaining unit employees. He also served as the Senior Hearing Officer and Senior Counsel for the National Mediation Board, working in areas that included administration of the Railway Labor Act and extensive litigation in Federal District and Circuit Courts.

Since 2003, Rogers has exclusively practiced dispute resolution through mediation, arbitration, and alternative dispute resolution. He has been a neutral arbitrator and mediator for hundreds of cases in private, federal and public sectors to include: airline, railroad, health care, pulp and paper products, manufacturing, packaging and container, communications, and police, fire and corrections industries. 

Rogers earned his law degree from Georgetown University, a Master of Science in Police Science from American University, and Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown University with a double major in English and Psychology. 

Visit the Collective Bargaining webpage for more information.

For inquiries from the media only, contact Kelly Gilfillen, Acting Director of Communications and Public Information, at kelly.gilfillen@alexandriava.gov or 703.746.4644.