Many questions, few clear answers on Town reorganization plan

Many citizens present for Thursday afternoon’s Question-Answer session with Interim Town Manager Matt Tederick on his governmental reorganization plan were downtown business owners. Some of those, particularly with ties to tourism, cited Community Development Director Felicia Hart’s very proactive role in promotion and expansion of downtown business interests.

Others pointed to the role of the Town Planning and Zoning Department and Planning Director Jeremy Camp’s efforts in moving work forward on downtown infrastructure improvements utilizing $700,000 in State Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding. Hart, Camp and the planning department along with tourism, are all believed earmarked for termination, reorganization or outsourcing in Tederick’s budget proposal.

One volunteer at the Front Royal Visitor’s Center said that employees there were anticipating also being terminated in the near future. While that doesn’t impact her, or the Town for that matter, financially since she is a volunteer, others are paid full or part-time staff in a department Tederick said is going to be recommended for outsourcing.

Tederick and crowd listen as Town Visitor’s Center volunteer describes the fear of imminent termination by employed tourism staff. Royal Examiner Photos by Roger Bianchini

Another citizen expressing concerns about the impact on tourism, was Mountain Home Bed & Breakfast proprietor Scott Jenkins. The Mountain Home B&B and hiker hostel are located near where the “AT” crosses Route 55 in southern Warren County. Jenkins was co-author, with Warren County Appalachian Trail Community Committee Co-Chair Susan Tschirhart, of a letter of concern on potential impacts of the interim town manager’s budget proposal on community tourism and marketing. The letter was sent to the mayor and town council Thursday, the same day these concerns were being voiced to Tederick at the Front Royal Brewery.

Royal Examiner received a copy of that letter, which is posted in the OPINION section of the Royal Examiner website – we recommend it as a reference point to concerns expressed during Thursday’s public meeting with the interim town manager as it echoes ground Jenkins and others covered in questions posed at the Front Royal Brewery.

Veterans services Able Forces principal Skip Rogers makes a point against a headlong rush to such a sweeping change in town governmental processes with few answers forthcoming on replacement of impacted town services.

Some of that ground questioned the above-mentioned tying of a revenue-diminishing tax decrease to a budget proposal bloated by nearly $30 million in proposed capital improvements. Some of those improvements have been kicked down the fiscal road by the town council in recent years out of an unwillingness to commit Town financial resources or taxes to generate new revenue to them.

Some present at Thursday afternoon’s citizens meeting at the Front Royal Brewery also questioned whether an interim town manager should be recommending such sweeping changes to the conduct of town governmental operations. In fact, there has been speculation expressed to this writer by citizens who asked that their names not be used, as to whether this reorganizational downsizing may date to Tederick’s May to early November 2019 stint as Interim Mayor, perhaps leading to Town Manager Joe Waltz’s mid-October decision to leave the town government, effective November 8. We have not been able to contact Waltz for comment.

Others wondered if more than a single budget process, the proposed changes reflected a broader philosophical perspective on eliminating governmental functions as a means of reducing taxes and turning those functions over to the private sector. To our recollection, no sitting elected town official campaigned on such policy of reduction of town services. However, several have often expressed a desire to keep the town tax rate flat, if not reduced.

And if there was no clear response to such broad questions, as Tederick told Royal Examiner for our initial story on the budget and town government reorganization plan, he works at the will and direction of the town’s elected officials. None of those elected officials were spotted by this reporter at Thursday afternoon’s initial public reaction to media exposure of the budget and personnel plan.

However, Tederick did respond that he believes the recommended changes will streamline and improve how the town government functions. However, he was not able to provide any specifics on plans to replace existing departmental functions in the near term. That lack of a specified plan to replace staff and departmental functions earmarked for termination or outsourcing worried those citizens and business owners present.

Who’s steering the Town ship of state? Council at Jan. 27 work session prior to adjourning to closed session discussion of town personnel matters. The interim town manager has pointed out he works ‘at the will of council’ – but some wonder whose will is directing council to what ends.

Present to hear citizen concerns or not, it will be on the town council’s authority that the interim town manager’s recommendations on outsourcing, privatization and staff cutbacks will be given.

But whether the impetus for the current interim town manager’s budget and reorganizational plan originated with Tederick, council or elsewhere, it was Tederick alone, well not completely, who was in the crosshairs of concerned, sometimes heated citizen questions and comments at Thursday’s quickly arranged public meeting. Present with Tederick was the Town’s IT Director Todd Jones, who recently had “Public Communications Director” added to his titles. While not responding to questions, Jones managed to get one negative citizen review of his new job performance thus far.

“You get an ‘F’ for communications on this,” one speaker said pointing Jones’ way. What remains to be seen is how council and the mayor will be graded by the public as this story progresses.

Uh, trust us on this one, Interim Town Manager and recent Interim Mayor Matt Tederick may be thinking as somewhat glum Town Communications Director Todd Jones listens across the table. What the two town officials heard was sometimes heated criticism of a previously undisclosed plan to slash town departments and staff.

Interim Town Manager grilled on budget-departmental reorganization plan

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