and more Front Royal rings in the season - Warren County Report

Page 14 • Warren County Report • Early December, 01 Read all issues in their entirety FREE on www.WarrenCountyReport.com
Town
By Roger Bianchini
Warren County Report
Facing a Dec. 5 deadline for submission
of changes to the Town
Charter to the Virginia General Assembly
for consideration, an uneasy
consensus approved those recommended
changes by a 5-1 vote on
Nov. 6.
The vote was delayed from one anticipated
on Nov. 13 following a contentious
40 minute debate after the
offering of last-minute amendments
either designed to speed up the transition
process from May to November
elections or revisit a preference
for odd versus even years for town
elections being moved from standalones
in May, to November when
ballots would be shared with either
county elections (odd) or state and
federal (even).
While not the only councilman
with questions about the final form
the recommendations took, the lone
dissenting vote came from first-term
councilman Daryl Funk. Prefacing
his opposition, Funk noted his preferences
had been well-documented
previously. Most notable among
those preferences were that if elections
were to be moved to November
– and that was a BIG if for him
– they be moved to even-years for all
six councilmen and the mayor every
four years during presidential election
cycles; and that council reject
inclusion of a Charter amendment
that would assure town elections remain
non-partisan.
Council quickly rejected the allin
every four-year elections, citing
the potential danger of losing an entire
council and mayor with all their
combined institutional knowledge of
town processes.
“I thought about asking staff to tell
me how many hours it’s spent over
this November versus May issue over
the past couple years. But I thought
that would kind of stockpile on the
problem. And it does concern me
how much time we have wasted on
this issue with a very simple fix in
front of us when we could have set
it by statute, rather than making it
a part of fixing our [Charter],” Funk
began in stating his case one last time
prior to a vote.
However as others supporting inclusion
of the November and nonpartisan
Charter changes, most
prominently Vice-Mayor Shae Parker
and Councilmen Gene Tewalt and
Bret Hrbek, pointed out during work
session discussion, an overwhelming
majority of respondents to a town
poll favored the change to November.
They also noted that limiting the
partisan issue to a simple ordinance
change would allow each new council
majority to change the statute
back and forth creating a political
ping-pong ball.
Funk also noted that non-partisan
elections weren’t currently a subject
of any town ordinance or code but
simply continued in a non-partisan
manner without being codified or
forced into law.
But in countering Funk’s suggestion
the partisan issue simply be left
as it is, it has been observed that
while the councilman himself has
said he would oppose partisan nominations
as long as a mayor who would
be disqualified by them was in office
(Pentagon security officer and Mayor
Tim Darr faces federal Hatch Act restrictions
on federal employees running
in partisan elections) that would
not eliminate anyone else from forwarding
partisan nominations. In
fact, such a move was suggested on
Funk’s behalf this spring by Warren
County Republican Committee Secretary
Mary Kay Clark. Mayor Darr
has also pointed to the elimination
of not only him, but all local federal
“… my biggest concern as we try to make our election non-partisan forcibly, we’re injecting partisan
presidential elections into our town elections. And that concerns me very deeply.” – Councilman
Daryl Funk on codifying non-partisan, November, even-year town elections
Council forwards Charter Amendments to Assembly
Funk’s last stand on eliminating partisan and date election changes fails
Vice-Mayor Parker and Mayor Darr, at left, and Councilman Funk, at right, were not seeing eye to eye on proposed Town Charter changes pertaining to elections.
employees from future runs for town
office should partisanship be allowed
into the town electoral process.
Asked about that partisan issue
during a subsequent phone conversation,
Funk questioned whether partisan
nominations for town elections
were even possible since no town
political committees exist. Well, the
town is part of the county and there
certainly are county political committees,
at least one of which has
expressed an interest in nominating
town candidates, we countered.
Moving on, Funk revisited concerns
that councilmen elected in
even, presidential election years
would see a much higher voter turnout
– 60 to 70 percent locally – than
those in off-presidential years (35
percent) – “that’s a whole lot closer
to what we were getting in May (15
to 0 percent in all but one election
since 000), Funk observed on Nov.
6. (That one voter turnout exception
was the volatile 004 “Walmart
on the river” election that saw a 35
percent turnout oust all four incumbent
candidates, three councilmen
and a mayor who favored allowing
the retail giant to build on the bank
of the South Fork of the Shenandoah
River off Strasburg Road.)
While Funk noted the proposed
move would extend his term six
months, he referenced comments by
the only public hearing speaker on
the Charter proposal, W. 5th Street
resident Robert Crouch in forwarding
another concern.
“Before we did have elections that
were focused on town issues and I
think Mr. Crouch says it better than
most – [and that] is my biggest concern
– as we try to make our election
non-partisan forcibly, we’re injecting
partisan presidential elections into
our town elections. And that concerns
me very deeply,” Funk said.
His final shot was questioning
whether inclusion of the non-partisan
issue could sink the rest of the
proposed changes. Funk said it was
possible the General Assembly (divided
along increasingly partisan
lines in proposing social agenda legislation
in the past year) would approve
any of the proposed changes
if the nomination by non-partisan
petition only were included.
“I’m very concerned it will not pass
the General Assembly, and then we’ll
be right back where we are now and
many of those important reforms
that we’ve put in there and that Mr.
Parker has put in there, aren’t going
to be implemented in time,” Funk
said of the “housekeeping” aspects of
the proposed changes.
However, Vice-Mayor Parker has
told us while fond of “housekeeping”
changes bringing the Town Charter
into the 1st Century, his primary
concern as stated at the Nov. 13 meeting,
is to head off any single political
party or voting block from dictating
the political life of this or any other
community. And he noted, moving
town elections to November when
general elections occur will save the
town about $8,000 of taxpayer money
per election.
Parker has also countered Funk’s
argument that the Assembly might
reject all the proposed Charter
changes over the inclusion of the
non-partisan issue. Parker says his
research shows that other towns have
similar safeguards written into their
Charters, so whatever the personal
preference of a majority of state representatives
as to partisan elections,
they would be hard pressed to legally
reject such a change.
“I’ve heard that but I haven’t seen
it myself,” Funk told us of other town
Charters including a non-partisan
section.
But in the end and with little additional
discussion (maybe the rest
of council was still reeling from the
lengthy Nov. 13 debate) Funk stood
alone with his arguments to leave
well enough alone on dates and partisanship
in town elections.
rogerb@warrencountyreport.com
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