Burke poised to leave FR for City of Manassas

Town Manager to take Director of Public Works position to the east

Town Manager Steve Burke, center, flanked by Bret Hrbek, right, and Town Attorney Doug Napier at recent Front Royal Town Council meeting.

By Roger Bianchini & Norma Jean Shaw
Royal Examiner

Shortly after Shenandoah District Supervisor Tom Sayre stated at Tuesday morning’s (Nov. 1) Warren County Board of Supervisors meeting that he had information that Front Royal Town Manager Steve Burke would be leaving his position for another job, we sought confirmation.

Burke declined to confirm or deny plans to leave the Town and deferred further comment to Mayor Tim Darr.

Reached by phone, Darr confirmed that Burke had just recently turned his resignation in, effective November 25.  Burke will be leaving the Town Manager job he has held since 2011, to take a job as Director of Public Works for the City of Manassas.

“I’m not surprised he was looking … I am surprised he got the job that quick,” Darr said of Burke’s move to Manassas.  The Front Royal Mayor said he got an unexpected call late last week, Thursday or Friday, from Manassas about Burke’s application.  Apparently Mayor Darr was one of a number of locals Burke used as references.

Sayre made his comment during Board reports.  He observed that he had worked with Burke during his tenure on Town Council, and said he regretted seeing him leave the Town post.  Sayre left Council after he was elected to the Board seat vacated by Richard Traczyk’s retirement prior to the last County Election.

Darr was less than impressed by a Warren supervisor breaking the news of Burke’s pending departure.  Darr said he had yet been able to notify one councilman, Jake Meza in California on business, about Burke’s impending departure.

“We don’t meet this week or next week.  We would have liked to be the ones to announce his departure, not a member of the Board of Supervisors.  We would have announced it on November 14, at our next meeting I guess.  I think it is highly unprofessional of Tom Sayre to announce that at a public meeting.  It looks like [the County] is having the same problem I was having my first two years in office,” Darr said.

Burke was Town Engineer in Front Royal, when he was appointed Town Manager in the wake of a 3-2 Council majority ouster of Michael Graham from the position in 2011.  Perhaps ironically, it was Sayre’s absence from the Council meeting at which Graham was ousted in highly controversial fashion that allowed a three-person “majority” to oust Burke’s predecessor.