After hour-and-a-half in closed session council fails to finalize contract with Joe Waltz – appoints Finance Director B.J. Wilson interim town manager

A nearly hour-and-a-half closed session Monday night, November 28, led to a unanimously approved motion by Amber Morris, seconded by Gary Gillispie, to appoint Town Finance Director B.J. Wilson interim town manager, effective immediately. The motion and vote would appear to indicate issues with the contract proposal on the table that would bring popular former Town Manager Joe Waltz back to his old position in Front Royal’s Town Hall. And don’t take our word for his past popularity among Town staff or citizens, as citizen letters to the Royal Examiner’s OPINION page and mayoral and council comments of November 9 indicated when the initiative to bring Waltz back was unveiled.

He’s back – Joe Waltz joins George Sonnett as permanent fills, respectively, to the Town Manager and Town Attorney spots

Fates connected? – File photo, circa 2018-19 of from left, Town Finance Director B. J. Wilson, then Electric Dpt. Director David Jenkins, and Town Manager Joe Waltz. At least Jenkins has gotten in and out easily thru retirement. Below, file photo of now-Interim Town Manager Wilson during tenure of another interim town manager, Matt Tederick, at right.

And then add comments from one councilman at Monday evening’s meeting of November 28th. During reports of members, now second newest member with the arrival of Special Election winner L. Wayne Sealock, Skip Rogers raised the topic of a pending contract with Waltz. “We’ve got a great opportunity to extend an offer, which we’ve already done, to Joe Waltz who is a very well known entity in this town. He’s been our town manager prior and circumstances happened that he has come back … He is a guy who is known. I have spoken to many of our department heads that highly respect him. So, he’s a guy who I think we need to do what we can to extend an offer and to really bring to closure a hiring,” Rogers told his colleagues.

“I want to ask the council, Mayor, to as soon as possible – immediately if possible – to convene a special session to finalize an offer that was made to him, so that this community can get back on the right track. We’ve had a number of issues over the course of the last year or so with the town managers. And I think we’ve got an excellent opportunity to bring some stability to this community. So, I want to ask council to move on this as quickly as possible,” Rogers concluded.

Monday evening, Nov. 28, Skip Rogers was unequivocal in his support for Joe Waltz’s contract to return to the town manager’s job being finalized as soon as possible. Below, Waltz awaits a call into closed session on Nov. 9, after which he was tentatively appointed town manager pending ratification of a contract, initially cited to take effect Nov. 21.

“We have a closed right after this,” Amber Morris pointed out of the coming closed session as the meeting’s final agenda item. The first of three items listed was “the discussion, consideration, assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, disciplining or resignation of specific public officers, appointees, or employees of any public body, specifically the Town Manager” (emphasis added). Other topics included the potential leasing of town property and legal advice regarding an “Agreement with Discover Front Royal” as required by Virginia State Codes. A final Closed/Executive Session notation was that “Council may take further action in open session.”

Just about an hour-and-a-half after convening to closed session at 8 p.m., at 9:29 p.m. council emerged from its Closed, Executive Session, at which point Mayor Chris Holloway called for a motion. Councilwoman Morris immediately responded: “Yes, Mr. Mayor, I move that council, there being no executed town manager contract, appoint Finance Director B. J. Wilson as interim town manager, effective immediately, with a salary increase of 10%.”

Seconded by Councilman Gary Gillispie, a roll call vote approved the motion without dissent, at least none apparent, and Mayor Holloway adjourned the meeting after 40 seconds in open session. In the wake of his call for immediate action to finalize a contract with Waltz, Royal Examiner contacted Councilman Rogers for comment on the lack of that action. As 10 p.m. approached, Rogers deferred any comment to the following day.

And on Tuesday, noting he was limited in what he could say due to the content of closed session discussion, Rogers told Royal Examiner this: “I’m disappointed with the council’s decision to seek other candidates, but I will now defer to the council on the process which will follow.”

Three weeks after his tentative appointment, that Town Hall hallway seems a little more distant as council ponders contract terms with Waltz.

That there are possibly fatal contract issues between Waltz and the town council is highlighted by the above action in the wake of council’s 5-0 (Thompson absent) November 9th endorsement of Waltz as town manager following another closed session discussion and motion first reported in the above-referenced story. That November 9th motion made by Councilman Gillispie read in its entirety: “Mr. Mayor, I move that council appoint Joe Waltz as town manager for the Town of Front Royal pending ratification of contract. Agreement dates the 21st day of November 2022.”

Well, as of November 28th no contract has been agreed upon by the two parties. Royal Examiner made an initial inquiry last week for a copy of the contract on the table with Waltz from the council clerk. We were told it would be available publicly once ratified. A subsequent emailed query to the town attorney following last night’s meeting was yet responded to by publication.

Open session business

Earlier open session business had been pretty routine, with a nine-item Consent Agenda approved as presented and four public hearings drawing no public comment. However, one of those public hearings, for a Special Use Permit (SUP) for a short-term tourist rental at 206 Lee Street (currently cited as 24 Stonewall Drive) raised an individual property rights versus neighbors’ expectations of a residential standard of access to on-street parking at their properties debate that split council down the middle. The addition of a driveway as a condition of approval was apparently a late addition from information in the agenda packet, which cited no recommended conditions from staff or the planning commission following its public hearing of October 19.

The applicant was listed as “the Minick Group LLC” and its proposal was to rent the entire, relatively small single-family home to short-term visitors. A representative for the applicant described unpaved space for two cars on site and estimated no more than three cars on site from the short-term rental at any one time. Following some discussion, Councilwoman Morris’s initial motion to approve the SUP application as initially presented by staff, with the addition of the driveway, drew a 3-3 tie, Morris, Thompson, Rogers voting “no” and Vice-Mayor Cockrell, Gillispie, and Sealock voting yes. Mayor Holloway broke the tie with a “no” vote. Thompson’s motion, seconded by Morris, to approve the application without the paved driveway addition drew the same 3-3 vote, this time with Morris, Thompson, Rogers voting “yes” and Cockrell, Gillispie, Sealock “no”, and the mayor again breaking the tie, this time with a “yes” vote.

A fully-manned Front Royal Town Council, with Mayor Holloway chairing the Nov. 28 meeting, was unable to resolve contractual issues to finalize a contract with Joe Waltz to return to the town manager’s office after a 3-plus year hiatus in the energy management field. Below, the live-stream broadcast noted council’s nearly 90 minutes behind closed doors on Nov. 28. How much of that 90 minutes was devoted to discussion of contractual issues with the contract proposal for Waltz’s return to Town Hall, only those inside know.

The other three public hearings items were unanimously approved with little council discussion, and as noted above no public comment. The other short-term tourist rental SUP application was at 200 East Main Street where two upstairs apartments were to be rented over a commercial space. The applicant was local real estate developer Douglas Ichiuji. That application passed quickly without dissent.

The other SUP application was for LifePoint Church’s re-opening of a day care center at 111 North Shenandoah Avenue. After expressions of appreciation from several council members for the new daycare center, it too passed without opposition.

The final public hearing was for a Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Amendment adding $14.64 million “to carry forward unpaid balances on purchase orders not completed” as of the June 30, 2022, end of the past fiscal year. Following Gillispie’s observation that all the transferred money was to pay for already approved projects, it too passed without opposition.

Watch the Town video of the full open meeting session of Nov. 28.