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

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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 SEAMSTRESS PLUS! Jane of ALL trades!! • Hemming Jeans • House Cleaning • Small home repairs • Dish wash • Clothes • Vacuum • Pull vines from shrubs (Including poison ivy). • Knowledge of gardening & birds. NO JOB TOO SMALL. p/u & delivery Warren County WOODBINE FARM MARKET FRESH FROM THE GROUND UP www.woodbinefarmmarket.com 5199 John Marshall Hwy., Strasburg, VA 540-465-2729 FARMING SINCE 1898 540-622-3689
Read all issues in their entirety FREE on www.WarrenCountyReport.com “I feel bad for these three deputies. It’s a shame that they would have to ruin their career and resign over this … It’s hard for me, personally, to be upset with them for hunting in the town limits.” – Town Councilman Tom Sayre on deputy resignations By Roger Bianchini Warren County Report We were somewhat taken aback to see Front Royal Town Councilman Tom Sayre tell TV 3 of Winchester in an interview initially broadcast on Nov. 13, that he essentially has no issue with people, including law enforcement officials, hunting and firing guns illegally within the limits of the town he was elected to serve. Our understanding of such service includes legislating town codes and overseeing law enforcement, among other services, for the general public safety and good. However, in a broadcast entitled “Front Royal Reacts to Hunting Charge Against Deputies”, Sayre said of three WCSO deputies who resigned on Nov. 5 due to an investigation into illegal hunting activities (see our last issue), “I feel bad for these three deputies. It’s a shame that they would have to ruin their career and resign over this … It’s hard for me, personally, to be upset with them for hunting in the town limits.” Sayre, a criminal and domestic law attorney in private practice, prefaced the above remarks by noting, “Where I live in the town limits of Front Royal we have so many deer. I have friends that have been complaining to me about the number of deer in Front Royal.” So, is the councilman okay with illegal hunting in town only if done so by law officers trained in the use of firearms – if not so well in obeying Early December, 01 • Warren County Report • Page 15 the laws they were hired to enforce – or should we take his remarks as a carte blanche for all of us to take guns and the law into our own hands as we see fit to eliminate what we may consider a nuisance we didn’t anticipate when we moved into this rural community? (Uh oh!!! – That could really open up a can of worms if one were to substitute any number of potentially annoying figures, say “cats” or “barking dogs” or “neighbors” or “overgrown yards” or “politicians” or Public safety Those darn deer, part 2: Heck with the law? Sayre: ‘It’s hard for me to be upset with them for hunting in the town limits’ As Ray Charles once sang, ‘What’d I say?’ Those darn deer, shoot ‘em up?!!? - Photo Jackie Hodgkiss December 3, 2012 King Features Weekly – God forbid – “reporters” for the “deer” or “bear” that may be raining on anyone’s particular parade of “lifeas-we-envisioned-it in our little corner of small-town, rural American paradise” when we relocated here from the city or suburbs.) A wildlife problem Over the past two years Sayre has several times sponsored complaints from constituents brought to council concerning the presence of wildlife interloping on residential neighborhoods. As has been repeatedly explained by both town and state game officials in response to such complaints, in the case of bears their presence is explained by a keen sense of smell generated by food sources usually left outside that will attract them over distances of miles. Those sources in residential neighborhoods are generally unsecured trash with food wastes, pet food kept outdoors and even bird feeders. But rather than simply inform constituents of available methods of eliminating the problem by the securing of trash in bear-proof containers provided by the town Refuse Department; or forward Game & Inland Fisheries instructions on eliminating other food sources known to And to show our THANKS pick from a Jack Evans Chevy hat, Golf pass from Bowling Green, or a Free game of bowling from Royal Family Bowling Center 125 South Royal Avenue • Front Royal, VA 540-635-2153 • 1-800-JE-CHEVY www.jechevy.com 241509
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and more Front Royal rings in the season - Warren County Report

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