Expanded County-Town Liaison Committee butts heads over details of building department function, joint regional water effort, and projects financing

What was termed by involved staff as “an unusual” Front Royal-Warren County Liaison Committee meeting took place at 6 p.m. Thursday evening, March 3, in the opened-up rear portion of the Warren County Government Center (WCGC) main meeting room.

The “unusual” aspect was that most, if not all, supervisors and council members were expected to participate, as opposed to the normal respective board chairs and one rotating member of each elected body, with key staff in tow. Present were Liaison Committee and Supervisors Chair Cheryl Cullers, Supervisors Oates, Cook and Butler, the latter arriving a tad late; and Mayor Chris Holloway and all six council members. Supervisor Mabe, visiting his son in Texas coming off a serious surgical procedure, was absent.

That crowd was drawn by several key topics in the five-item agenda. The most immediately pressing of those topics led off the meeting. It was a draft Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on a return of the building inspection and permitting function for in-town limits construction and renovation projects to the County Building Inspection Department. Following council discussion last year, the Town withdrew from a 39-year-old MOA with the County to provide a building department function inside the town limits, in order to create its own department effective January 3, 2022.

Liaison Committee and county board Chair Cheryl Cullers, near the right head of the table, listens as town Vice-Mayor Lori Cockrell, left-center back to the camera, makes a point. Royal Examiner Photos by Roger Bianchini

The Town building department quickly ran afoul of the Warren County Builders Association for fees cited on average as four or five times as high as the County’s, with examples as high as $400 versus $5 and $1,995 versus $391 referenced. The potential of builders refusing to take on projects in town at such rates was broached.

Builders Association President George Cline also previously cited potential conflicts of interest with the town manager serving as Town Building Official. That concern and a stated loss of trust in the town department was propelled by the Planning Commission-initiated and former town attorney-prepared report on pressure being brought to bear on town planning staff by Hicks, sometimes in the mayor’s presence, to fast-track permitting approval of Mayor Holloway’s construction company’s non-conforming, six-unit Steele St. subdivision. A major permitting issue cited after the fact of initial approval was an access road so narrow it would not facilitate Town garbage or major fire-truck access.

LINK-“Local builders voice concerns about new Town Building Department”

LINK-“Local builders say trust must be earned after Town fast-tracked mayor’s subdivision request”

Cline and about eight to 10 builders attended Thursday’s liaison committee meeting. During that meeting, there was reluctance on the town council side to approve the draft MOA as written. A major stumbling block, voice by Councilman Scott Lloyd, a policy attorney by trade, was a minimum 10-year timeframe attached to the agreement. Whether there was a grammatical wording glitch in this condition was debated: “This Agreement shall continue until the later of 1/1/2032 or sixty days after written notice is provided by the Town.”

Eventually, to allow the process to be implemented the following morning so the builders can achieve needed permitting at prices they don’t consider exorbitant a wording change was implemented that put the duration of the agreement at “five years or sixty days after written notice is provided by the Town.” That allows the Town to withdraw prior to the end of the five-year period cited as the MOA’s endpoint without withdrawal or renewal.

County Administrator Ed Daley, standing, responded to questions about the background of the previous MOA dating to 1983, on County provision of a Building Department function to the Town of Front Royal, as well as variables involved in the 2022 draft MOA.

It was observed by County Administrator Ed Daley during what was a sometimes contentious discussion on certain terms of the draft, that a new MOA was necessary as the previous one dating to 1983 was dissolved by the town council’s above-referenced decision to create its own building department to handle inspections and permitting within the Town of Front Royal portion of Warren County. And Daley added that the circumstance of returning in-town inspections/permitting responsibility to the County had changed since inception of the previous MOA 39 years ago. That change was a state code that mandates towns with populations over 14,000 to provide a building department function. It can be done internally or be contracted out to either the private sector or another municipality.

Consequently, the key change between the 1983 and proposed 2022 MOAs appears to be that the town government can be charged for provision of that service once Front Royal’s population is over 14,000. A little online research indicates Front Royal’s population surpassed 14,000 in 2010 when it was listed at 14,440. However, the existing Town-County MOA dating to 1983 did not require a service charge at that time. In 2020, the town’s population was cited at 15,382. However, the two-page draft MOA does not address a County charge to the Town, though the previous week town council did discuss funding an additional position in the County Building Department to facilitate the in-town service.

It was observed during that earlier council work session and during liaison discussion that the county building department headed by David Beahm was short-staffed and could use additional staff support. It did not appear resolved whether council would want to transfer the person it hired to oversee its department’s function into the county building department or whether a hiring decision would be left up to the County was that path taken.

The reversal of council’s move forward with its own department was propelled by the Town’s decision to attempt to self-fund the department through building and inspection fees. During Thursday evening’s discussion County Administrator Ed Daley, an out-of-retirement former Frederick County administrator noted that it was typical for state municipalities to impose lower than break-even fees for building departments as a means to encourage development and the additional tax base it brings to a community. Daley also observed that while a minority, some jurisdictions did try to support building departments solely with fees, removing a community-wide tax base of support for what is seen by many as that community-wide benefit from additional development and an expanded tax base.

However, comments indicated this council majority opposes spreading a general tax burden on citizens for various specific uses seen by many to carry a community-wide benefit. Councilman Lloyd referenced the “subsidizing” of the builders professionally through general tax base support as something not done for other professional spheres.

As this opening liaison meeting discussion ground to a close after just over an hour, WC Builders Association President Cline rose to offer some observations on what he had heard. His appraisal was not favorable to the Town side of the discussion.

WC Builders Assn. President George Cline, standing at the right, didn’t pull punches in assessing the town council’s process and ongoing discussion regarding its now-failed effort to create a Building Department to handle in-town construction and renovation projects. Councilman Lloyd, seated far left, seemed to bear the brunt of Cline’s ire.

“We carry a lot of the tax base here, and I take that as an offense, I really do. It really pisses me off,” Cline began seeming to focus in on Councilman Lloyd’s “subsidizing” remarks. “You all talk about performance. Watch your … video back and look at how everybody acted at this table and look at your performance. You get judged on your performance every four years. We should be able to judge you every single day because you are here for us taxpayers. You should do what the citizens ask you. And you all take it upon yourselves to develop a dumb-(posterior) program, to begin with, it makes absolutely no sense,” Cline added of the January 3rd implementation of a Town Building Department with no input sought from the local builders. “And then you all want to sit here and argue to keep all of us from working over a five or 10-year time(frame). You all grow up. It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen,” Cline concluded of much of the previous hour’s back and forth over the wording of the draft agreement for the Town handing the building inspection function within town limits back to the County.

Discussion then moved to the meeting’s other agenda topics, including Joint Tourism efforts and the creation of an independent 501-c6 entity to access grant funding; Town central water service to the Rt. 340/522 Commercial Corridor just north of the town limits; the County’s exploration of joining a Regional Water Authority based out of Frederick County – an exploration Supervisor Oates continued to point out should be undertaken jointly by the County and Town; and possible County contributions to Phase 2 and 3 of the Happy Creek Road Improvement project at the town’s eastern boundary to the county.

Supervisor Delores Oates has repeatedly urged the Town to join the County in exploring a regional water authority based out of Frederick County that would significantly increase the community’s emergency backup water supply, and expand access to water for future development. But is anyone on the Town side listening?

Past failures to communicate adequately on key projects, like council’s decision to create its own building department, were cited. However, a failure to communicate successfully seemed to continue into other agenda topics, even face to face.

To jointly explore future water sources, or not to explore – THAT is the question

A second, often frustrating discussion occurred around the County’s exploration of joining a regional water production and distribution network centered out of Frederick County, which has a great deal of underground water supply available to complement the Shenandoah River as a water source. With growth likely to be a water supply issue in the future, county officials have pointed out the Town is totally dependent on the river, with little access to water was an emergency situation to impact the river’s supply, or growth to continue at levels recently forecast by the town manager.

Thursday Supervisor Oates reiterated her call that the Town joins the County in exploring participation in a regional water authority that would involve Frederick County at its center, with Clarke County also expressing interest at this point. Oates also said that after some research there appeared to be “no obstacle” to the County pursuing a water source “elsewhere”. Repeatedly she stressed it should be a joint County-Town effort.

However, Councilman Gary Gillespie seemed to verbalize a skepticism of some on council about looking beyond the Town’s water utility as a source, particularly in the county’s north side. As to future water sources Gillespie said, “As to finding alternate water sources I would highly recommend staying local instead of putting money in Frederick County.”

As Vice-Mayor Cockrell, near left may be preparing her order for a paper shredder, Councilman Gillespie makes a point on keeping future water access and utility payments local.

Gillespie theorized that if the County went north for water, town citizens would face a $500 tax increase to make up for lost water-sewer utility revenue. Following Gillespie’s remarks, Councilman Joe McFadden said that as things evolve water utility-wise in the north corridor and beyond, it might be time to revisit the Rt. 340 North Corridor Agreement. That agreement dating to 1998-99 extended Town water-sewer beyond the town limits to facilitate commercial-industrial development north of town without annexation. Could a new annexation battle be brewing?

It was noted during discussion that the Town’s recently raised and fairly high in-town water/sewer rates were doubled in the North Corridor, a long-time sore point for many businesses there.

Eventually, with no resolution in sight, it was decided to form Building Inspection and Water Services/Study Committees to pursue solutions. Appointed to the Building Inspection Committee were Board Chair Cheryl Cullers and Jay Butler on the County side, and Gillespie and Mayor Chris Holloway from the Town. The Water Committee will be Oates and Vicky Cook on the County side, and Vice-Mayor Cockrell and Amber Morris from the Town.

But the trend toward conflicting perspectives didn’t end with building departments and future water access. It continued into the Joint Tourism effort and whether the County should contribute financially to the Phase 2 and 3 portions of the Happy Creek Road improvement project.

Unfortunately for you “sports fans” who might be glued to the TV or computer screen to see these discussions played out on video, the meeting’s location in the unblocked rear portion of the Warren County Government Center main meeting room, toward which none of the room’s SWAGIT video cameras are pointed, precluded videotaping; and Royal Examiner did not have a cameraman available Thursday evening.

However, Board Clerk Emily Ciarrocchi informed Royal Examiner that SWAGIT will be able to post her audio recording of the liaison meeting, which we will link to this story when available. And while it may not challenge Orson Welles 1938 “War of the Worlds” as radio’s greatest almost-real-life audio broadcast, with fast-forward and pause buttons it could be pretty entertaining, not to mention, informative, including the reason for Vice-Mayor Cockrell’s request for a paper shredder as alternative versions of documents were handed out, some apparently not for public consumption.