Citizens to Warren County Supervisors: ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!’

FRONT ROYAL – Nearly two dozen Warren County residents braved the frigid temperatures Tuesday evening (Jan. 22) to make their voices heard at a public hearing in which the County of Warren was holding a public hearing to amend Code Section 56-3.  The County proposed limiting each speaker to a maximum of speaking three times per year on the same subject and increasing the time limit from three minutes to five minutes per speaker. However, the board drew the ire of many in what was called an attempt to muzzle the public by capping the total time allowed by speakers to a mere 20 minutes per meeting.

Some in the community have called the proposed amendment the ‘Mark Egger amendment’ because the code was first brought to the attention of then-chairman Tony Carter at a meeting on Nov. 20, when Egger addressed the panel for the third time in 2018.

Mark Egger reminded the board that when he spoke last November, they were ignorant of Code 56-3, until he pointed it out just prior to that night’s meeting.

Egger, the father of former Front Royal Town Councilwoman Bébhinn C. Egger, issued the following statement to the board:

“I wasn’t planning on addressing you all again, but your foolish actions compel me to make another futile attempt at reason, which seems to be in short supply around here.

“First, I’d like to correct the false narrative made by your attorney Mr. Whitten, that this proposal to scrap County Code 56-3 has nothing to do with me. You all did not even know about this Code 56-3 until I pointed it out to you, Mr. Carter, when you previously attempted to shut me up. In fact, I have a photo taken right before your November 20 meeting, after you called me out into the hallway before the meeting in a failed attempt to shut me up. I told you to go ask your overpriced lawyer to go look up County Code 56-3, and here is the photo of you two discussing the Code immediately before the meeting.

Egger showed this Royal Examiner photo, taken prior to the Nov. 20, 2018 BOS meeting. /File photo by Mike McCool.

“I’d also like to correct the false narrative, also made by your attorney Mr. Whitten, that the Board has been discussing this change for several months. I know that transparency is not one of this Board’s strengths, but I dare you to take a poll right now of all 5 members of the Board to find out when they first heard of this proposed deletion of Code 56-3 and we’ll see if that is an accurate statement of Mr. Whitten’s.

“It is your meeting rules that need to be changed to agree with the County Code 56-3 and not vice versa. 56-3 allows you to hear from a member of the public if 2 members of your Board request it. What is wrong with that? Why are you trying to fix something that is not broken? You don’t care that 2 members of your Board wanted to hear what I had to say? Instead of deleting 56-3, you should be adding its wording to your meeting rules.

“Instead of trying to shut me up, you should be thanking me for doing your job for free. I started looking into the EDA over 2 years ago, after my daughter, who was a Town Councilman at the time, was verbally assaulted by the political establishment of this community for asking a few simple questions that should have been able to be answered in about 5 minutes. And her questions have still not been answered over 2 years later. I can’t for the life of me figure out why you didn’t want to hear the facts about the lunacy going on over at the EDA.

“And everything I stated to you this past year in February, May and November, was true. But you all preferred to be ostriches, with your heads stuck in the sand. A lot of problems with the EDA could have been avoided if you all had been paying attention. And now you’re spending taxpayer money to pay the EDA’s auditing and legal bills because apparently, they don’t have any money left in their checkbook. I wonder, where did all the money go?

“But you didn’t care that 30 acres and a $10 million loan were given to a shell company with no contracts and no jobs. You didn’t care that land that was said to be donated for a phony workforce housing project was actually purchased for $445,000.

‘You didn’t care that the EDA Executive Director and the Warren County Sheriff were business partners who bought $1,949,700 of real estate in 2017. You didn’t care that the Executive Director claimed to have won almost $2 million at the slot machines, which is mathematically impossible. If you believe that fairytale, why don’t you give her the $140,000 and in no time at all she’ll turn it into $2 million.

“You didn’t care that the Executive Director staged vandalism at the EDA office and tried to frame my daughter. You didn’t care that the Executive Director staged vandalism at her own house and tried to frame your fellow Supervisor Mr. Sayre. You didn’t care that through all this insanity, the EDA Board continued to express their full support of the Executive Director, and in fact gave her a raise to show their support.

“And your response is to tell me, the piano teacher, to shut up? What is wrong with you people? You need to get your heads out of your backsides, pay attention, and do your job. You should be saying “thank you” to me, so I’ll just say, “you’re welcome.” Maybe I’ll send you a bill for my services.”

Now watch the video.

Others speaking at the public hearing included Kristie Atwood, who urged the board to provide transparency.  She told the group she had evidence of criminal activities, including Class 3 misdemeanors related to the building of her home and the local building appeals board.

The granddaughter of longtime Supervisor George B. Baggarly stated that she strongly opposed the proposed change to Code 56-3, and called out Linda Glavis, who holds the same seat her grandfather held for nearly two decades.  “It’s downright disgraceful and absurd,” she stated from the podium.  “If you don’t want to hear what we have to say, resign and we will replace you…”

Glavis, listening to Leslie Matthews speak during a Tuesday evening public hearing. /Photo by Norma Jean Shaw

After a meeting that lasted nearly three-and-a-half hours and saw 21 speakers at the podium,  the board, on a motion from Supervisor Archie Fox, voted to table the issue to a Feb. 19 work session.

Here are the links to the three previous stories with Mark Eggers comments to the Board.

EDA in Focus: Believing his pleas went unheard, Egger again addresses Supervisors in May meeting

EDA in Focus: Local citizen Mark Egger gives Warren County Board of Supervisors some advice

Egger dresses down Board of Supervisors over lack of oversight on EDA board appointments and more