Lloyd, colleagues continue to butt heads over moving agenda items forward

The discussion became testy at times during the final listed agenda item for the Front Royal Town Council’s Monday evening, August 9, work session. The topic was an ordinance amendment requiring a council majority consensus to move an item to a meeting or work session agenda. The current code, approved in August 2019, allows items to be brought to meeting or work session agendas at the request of two council members.

That has become an issue in the wake of first-term Councilman Lloyd’s insistence that his ordinance proposal would have legislatively forbidden private sector businesses and other entities within town limits to mandate employee or member COVID-19 vaccinations to maintain their employment status, be brought to a meeting vote. At issue for several of his colleagues, including the mayor, was that the opinion of the town attorney was that municipal governments in Virginia have no legal standing upon which to pass such legislation contradicting State authority, that it would not be enforceable and likely lead to legal action against the town if it was enforced, leading to a clear work session majority consensus not to approve his proposal.

Mayor Holloway and other opponents of bringing the matter to a meeting vote called it “a waste of council’s time”. On July 26, after a 49-2 majority of public speakers urged passage of Lloyd’s proposal in front of a packed room of an estimated 150 people, Lloyd’s proposed ordinance was defeated 3-2, with only Joe McFadden joining Lloyd in support of the likely legally unenforceable ordinance. And several majority voters made it clear that their opposition rested largely on the legal issue.

Disgruntled citizens leave the July 26 Council meeting following the council’s 3-2 defeat of Councilman Lloyd’s anti-vaccination mandate ordinance proposal. Royal Examiner Photos by Roger Bianchini

As Royal Examiner reported at the time, things turned hostile toward the council majority following the vote – “Scattered boos and a loud ‘Evil Triumphs’ was heard, along with ‘We won’t forget this’ among other negative comments aimed at the council majority of Letasha Thompson, Gary Gillespie, and Vice-Mayor Lori Cockrell.”

“This is not about process, this is about what happened last month. This is not about what could come up in the future – dog walking or whatever else – this is just about punishing me,” Lloyd said of the July 26 meeting of public comments and vote.

Letasha Thompson, who initially called Lloyd out at a pre-July 26 work session for his insistence on a public vote indicating he might have political motives beyond his council term in seeking a public show on the matter, was first to respond to Lloyd’s “punishment” assertion.

“You’re missing the bigger picture, and the bigger picture is it was not enforceable,” Thompson began, leading to her and Lloyd attempting to talk over each other, at which point the mayor intervened, giving the floor to Councilman Gillespie. Referencing the pre-2019 rule which required mayoral approval to move an item to council agendas, Gillespie readdressed earlier discussion pointing toward a consensus to keep the two council member number to bring an item to work session agenda, but requiring the change to a majority consensus to move an item to a meeting agenda.

“It’s not being done, in my opinion, as a punishment to you or what you have said, it’s not that way. But I think that moving forward if there is something that council does not have a majority for, or an appetite for, even if it’s three to three … the mayor can break the tie if he wants.”

Earlier Lloyd justified moving his proposal forward to allow public opinion to be expressed – “It is not a waste of time … that process has value” he insisted. He also noted his professional disagreement with Town legal staff, in asserting a Town Charter “Policing Powers” basis for the legality of his proposal.

You’re an attorney, you’re not our attorney,” Mayor Holloway responded pointedly.

One interesting fact noted during Monday’s (Aug. 9) work session discussion was that of those 51 signed up to speak on July 26, only 14 listed Front Royal or Warren County as their home address. And with the lone two speaking against Lloyd’s proposal, Stevie Hubbard and Gene Kilby, being known Town or County residents, that meant just 12 of the 49 speakers supporting Lloyd’s proposal on July 26 were Warren County residents. A number of those out of the area speakers pointed to their or spousal ties to Valley Health, the regional medical provider poised to mandate employee COVID-19 vaccinations for all their employees, including at the new Warren Memorial Hospital/Office complex in town.

Still at odds – On Monday, Aug. 9, a council majority agreed to move a compromise of the mayor’s proposal to require a majority consensus to move items to council agendas. The majority will be required only to reach meeting agendas, not work sessions.

Eventually, with his only potential ally McFadden absent due to an out-of-town training assignment, it became apparent the majority consensus was to move forward toward the apparent compromise of two members to get on a work session agenda, a majority to move to a meeting action item.

“It’s an awful idea, probably the worst since I’ve been on council, it’s a horrible idea,” Lloyd commented as a four-member majority, including the mayor, were agreeing to move the compromise Holloway’s initiative forward to a meeting vote.

Prior to adjourning to closed session for interviews for its unilateral EDA board of directors, during “Open Discussion” Gillespie suggested council revisits its decision to pull out of Liaison Committee meetings with the County Supervisors. Pointing to discussions with Vice-Mayor Cockrell, he said, “For the good of the community, we have got to get along with the County …we’ve got to find commonalities … We all have got to find a way to be able to get along, play nice, and I would like to start this liaison committee back up.”

A verbal majority consensus was voiced, and the mayor instructed Town Manager Hicks to reach out to County Administrator Ed Daley to coordinate a return to liaison meetings.

See these discussions, and earlier business to be addressed in a coming related story, in the Town video.