Local Government
Council divide over legal boundaries surrounding COVID vaccination mandates widens
The widening philosophical and procedural rift on the Front Royal Town Council surrounding COVID-19 pandemic vaccination issues was a recurring and meeting-opening theme on Monday, August 23. After first-term Councilman Scott Lloyd asked Mayor Chris Holloway for the floor to open the meeting, the first 35 minutes of the 2-hour-47-minute open meeting was taken up debating inclusion of Lloyd’s revised “emergency ordinance” targeting private-sector businesses within the town limits from issuing any vaccination mandates to employees.
Perhaps oddly, it was Lloyd explaining why he wanted his emergency ordinance, particularly targeting medical provider and Warren Memorial Hospital operator Valley Health, withdrawn from consideration that night. With the emergency of potential termination facing Valley Health employees as a September 7 deadline to have received at least a first dose Coronavirus vaccination – one of which, Pfizer, now has full FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approval – Lloyd finds himself facing his own emergency, he explained. That emergency is a potential conflict of interest Lloyd faces in bringing such legislation forward as a councilman while legally representing some Valley Health nurses who do not wish to be vaccinated against the worldwide viral pandemic that is attributed with claiming over 4.4 million lives worldwide, 637,000 in the U.S., over 11,600 in Virginia, and 64 in Warren County over the past year and a half.
‘Houston, we may have a problem’ Scott Lloyd may have been thinking as he explains the reason he asked for his re-tooled ‘emergency ordinance’ against private-sector COVID vaccine mandates be removed from the agenda. Royal Examiner Photos by Roger Bianchini
And while policy attorney Lloyd called his involvement with those nurses “private advocacy” thus far without compensation, it was noted by his colleague Letasha Thompson that those nurses described him as their attorney in a media report. When Lloyd stated that he had not spoken to that media outlet (NVD) about his role with the nurses, Thompson countered that the reporter had reached out to Lloyd, but that he had declined comment for the story.
Noting her July 12 work session questioning of his motive to bring his initial anti-vaccination-mandate emergency ordinance forward to a July 26 meeting vote after it had been ruled not legally supportable by the town attorney in a Dillon Rule state like Virginia, and a majority consensus against his proposal had been reached at work session, Thompson revisited her “motive” question: “I asked what was your end game – was it to win a lawsuit?” Thompson queried with the updated information.
Lloyd, as later some of his supporters present Monday evening would took offense at this line of questioning. “Informed consent (for an emergency medical situation) is being abused, and that’s only the start,” Lloyd asserted of COVID-19 vaccination mandates, “I find it odd that my motives are being questioned,” he added to scattered applause.
Lloyd, left, and Thompson, near right, began publicly butting heads over what legal staff deemed an unsupportable legislative prohibition on private sector COVID-19 vaccination mandates at this July 12 work session. Monday, Lloyd took offense, as did some of his anti-vax supporters, when his motives in continuing to revisit his anti-vax-mandate emergency ordinance proposal were again questioned.
After Lloyd reasserted that he had found legal precedent to contradict the town attorney’s opinion on the legality of his emergency ordinance proposals, first Vice-Mayor Lori Cockrell and then Councilman Gary Gillespie commended Doug Napier’s lengthy tenure, cited at about 40 years as a municipal attorney with first the county, then the town, and his performance at the head of the town legal department. It wouldn’t be the last reference to Napier’s legal background during the evening, as Lloyd supporters cast “conflict of interest” aspersions his way. In fact, the final agenda item on the Closed Session council adjourned to shortly before 10 p.m. was discussion of the town attorney’s performance, including the potential of “demotion, disciplining … and/or resignation”.
Earlier during the open meeting, some tension arose over social media posts Councilman Joseph McFadden has made targeting his colleagues or staff. At one point Mayor Holloway felt compelled to point out that when allegations against someone, with potential factual inaccuracies involved, are publicly made, lawsuits could be the result.
Scott Lloyd, left, and Town Attorney Doug Napier, far right side of table, have a legal stare down during July 12 work session discussion of legal issues with Lloyd’s initial anti-vax-mandate proposal.
But back at the meeting’s first half-hour plus, the majority that has sided with the Town legal staff’s opinion that Lloyd’s anti-private-sector vaccination mandates are not legally supportable, argued to keep it on the agenda to put it behind them once and for all. And at 7:35 p.m., Lloyd’s motion seconded by his one council ally, McFadden, to remove the new anti-vaccine mandate emergency ordinance from the agenda failed by the familiar 3-2 majority of Cockrell-Thompson-Gillespie voting no.
So, it seemed somewhat anti-climactic an hour-and-15-minutes later at 8:50 p.m. when Mayor Holloway, also a stated opponent of Lloyd’s emergency vaccine initiatives as not legally supportable by the Town, called the item to the floor. There was no public comment, at this point at least, as the matter was again presented as an emergency ordinance not requiring a public hearing – 10 speakers addressed this and related issues during the Public Comments beginning at about 8:53 p.m.
Above, Mayor Holloway ran a tight ship Monday, commenting that there would be no repeat of the disorder of July 26 during the first meeting consideration of Lloyd’s anti-vax-mandate proposal. Below, is it possible that this trio at odds for the bulk of the evening, shared a lighter moment Monday night? So it would seem, as Lloyd, Gillespie and Cockrell share a smile.
After Council Clerk Tina Pressley read the staff summary of Lloyd’s newest version of his anti-vaccination mandate into the record, Thompson perhaps surprisingly made a motion to approve it, which was seconded by Gillespie. Thompson and Gillespie were then joined by Cockrell in defeating the motion by a 3-0 “no” vote, with Lloyd recusing himself based on his unresolved conflict of interest issues, and McFadden abstaining from the vote.
However, 10 minutes earlier both Lloyd and McFadden did vote after McFadden called a point of order on the mayor’s call for a 10-minute recess. McFadden cited rules requiring a council vote on calling of a recess. After Holloway obliged, Thompson made the motion for the recess, seconded by Gillespie. The motion then passed by a 3-2 vote, Lloyd and McFadden dissenting – I guess it was one of the majority that may have needed a bathroom break.
Included in that other business, council unanimously voted to return proposed amendments to downtown apartment zoning Chapter 175 that might open the potential of a 60-unit apartment project in the middle of the Historic Downtown Business District to the Planning Commission for further review. And by guess what, a 3-2 margin Lloyd and McFadden dissenting, council approved a code change requiring a majority council vote to bring an item to a meeting agenda. Council kept the number at two members’ support to bring an item to a work session agenda for discussion to determine its viability for legal council action at a meeting.
And in other initiatives, council unanimously voted to relax codes on Bed & Breakfast uses in town Residential Districts; and also unanimously voted to amend codes to create an “Environmental Sustainability Chapter”. Several Tree Steward members including current President Melody Hotek, commended the initiative and the Town’s recent hiring of a certified Arborist to run this reworked Town function.
Town Manager Hicks may have been buoyed at positive feedback from Tree Steward members the Town butted heads with a year ago over defoliation work at Happy Creek, as his Environmental Sustainability Code Chapter was unanimously approved, and endorsed by the public, with some operational tweaking suggestions offered.
Tree Steward member David Means, among those who had butted heads with town officials over the Happy Creek tree-cutting-down, rip-rap rock episode, singled out Town Manager Steven Hicks for his work to re-establish a Town structure to deal with environmental issues.
