Front Royal Town Council approves two significant hires

One day the Mayor, the next Town Manager. Matt Tederick appointed interim Town Manger at the October 28th meeting of Town Council to take effect on November 9th. Photo and video by Mark Williams, Royal Examiner.

FRONT ROYAL — Front Royal Town Council members on October 28 voted to hire an Alexandria, VA-based law firm to represent the Town in its lawsuit against the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority (EDA) and officially hired Interim Mayor Matthew Tederick as the new interim town manager.

Following a closed session after Town Council’s regular Monday night meeting, Tederick stepped down as mayor of the proceeding and turned over the gavel to Vice Mayor William Sealock, who asked his fellow council members for a motion on a retainer agreement for legal services for the Town of Front Royal.

Town Councilman Christopher Holloway moved to accept the retainer agreement to hire Damiani & Damiani, P.C., “with respect to the Town’s lawsuit against the Economic Development Authority.”

Councilman Jacob Meza seconded the move, which was approved 5-1, with Councilman Eugene Tewalt voting against the motion. Council members Sealock, Meza, Holloway, Gary Gillespie, and Latasha Thompson (via phone) voted for it.

The Damiani & Damiani firm lists online more than a dozen practice areas, with specializations in two main areas: personal injury and business law, the latter including general civil litigation in state and federal courts, as well as contract disputes, among others.

Anthony and David Damiani are partners at the firm, which started operations in Old Town Alexandria in 1996. Their firm now will handle the lawsuit filed in June by Town officials against the EDA to recover as much as $15 million in Town assets that they contend were misdirected, lost or acquired under false pretenses.

On the second item following the closed session, Vice Mayor Sealock asked his colleagues for a motion on an agreement for the services of an interim town manager. Councilman Meza moved that the Town Council accept the agreement for services of an interim town manager that would become effective the day after the effective date of the resignation of current Town Manager Joe Waltz. Holloway seconded the motion.

A lone NO vote by Eugene Tewalt. Our new Town Manger will be working with a new Town Mayor and very possible it could be Eugene Tewalt.

Again, Tewalt was the only dissenting vote in the 5-1 approval of the agreement.

Tewalt on October 16 also was the lone vote against Tederick’s appointment to be interim town manager while there’s an ongoing search for a permanent replacement for Waltz. And while Tewalt declined comment on his vote in opposition to Tederick being appointed as interim town manager, the two long-time local political figures have often butted heads over Town-County issues.

At the same time, Tewalt, a former Front Royal mayor, is on the November 5 special election ballot, which is an interim election to replace Tederick, who took the seat after it was vacated during Hollis Tharpe’s solicitation case. The term for this election will be one year, with an additional election to be held in 2020 for a two-year term. Tharpe is also on the ballot.

Meanwhile, Tederick will depart his interim mayor post next week, assuming the duties of interim town manager for Front Royal on November 9 following the November 8 departure of Waltz, who has held the title for more than a decade. Tederick’s contract is slated to run to July 1, 2020 or until a permanent replacement is found, whichever comes first.

Both of Town Council’s agreement actions took about 30 seconds once members reconvened after the closed session, which followed a regular meeting lasting more than two hours.

During the general comments portion of the regular meeting, Town Council members heard input from five local citizens, many of them not too thrilled about how Tederick is moving from one interim position to another and citing possible procedural conflicts.

For instance, Fern Vazquez, Janice Hart, and Linda Allen, all of Front Royal, separately expressed their concerns about the interim mayor becoming the interim town manager because they thought it conflicted with the Town Charter.

Specifically, they said, chapter 4, section 14 of the charter states that no member of the Front Royal Town Council may be appointed or elected to any office under the jurisdiction of the Council while serving as a member of the Council or for one year thereafter.

“When there is an appearance of a conflict, as in the case of a council member serving in an appointed or elected capacity under the jurisdiction of the Council, the town citizens are looking to the officials they elected to hold to a higher standards of behavior that engenders the trust and confidence of the public,” Vazquez told members. “Public trust and confidence seem to be a rare commodity in today’s atmosphere in Front Royal. We are looking for healing, not more of the same.”

Town Attorney Doug Napier cleared up the misunderstanding by pointing out — upon a request by Tederick — that the mayor is not a member of Town Council, so the charter provision does not apply. This is based on an AG opinion, not Town or State code.

Town Attorney Doug Napier cleared up the misunderstanding by pointing out — upon a request by Tederick — that the mayor is not a member of Town Council, so the charter provision does not apply.

Forthcoming news stories this week will cover other actions made on Monday by the Town Council members.

Watch the Town Council meeting on this exclusive Royal Examiner video: