Council fails to add police chief to in-town residency requirement

An impasse over how many Town of Front Royal department heads should be required to live within the county limits led to the failure of the expected addition of the police chief to an in-town residency requirement on Monday night.  That somewhat unexpected development opens up the candidates’ pool in the current search for a new police chief.

Currently only the Town Manager has an in-town residency requirement.  And following work session discussions, a Council consensus appeared to have been reached to add the police chief to that short list.  However, after John Connolly’s amendment to remove four of 10 department heads from a county residency requirement died without a second, the unexpected happened.  Jacob Meza and Chris Morrison sided with Connolly to defeat Vice-Mayor Eugene Tewalt’s motion, not only adding the police chief to the town residency requirement, but 10 other department heads to the in-county requirement.

Mayor Tharpe, center, appeared the dividing point in a generational, and perhaps somewhat point-of-origin, line of demarcation on mandating community residency for Town department heads. From left, are William Sealock, Eugene Tewalt, the mayor, John Connolly, Jacob Meza and Chris Morrison. Photo/Roger Bianchini

Only William Sealock sided with Tewalt on adding all 11 proposed changes to the Town’s employee residency requirement.

Speaking for those against too-strict a residency requirement, John Connolly said he feared the Town would unnecessarily limit the qualified applicant pool by forcing candidates to move perhaps short distances across county lines.  Jacob Meza and Chris Morrison agreed.

That council may be divided irrevocably on the residency issue could be illustrated by Tewalt’s preface to his vote, noting he wanted the proposed code changes to go even further toward establishing in-town requirements for other department heads.

In explaining his support, Sealock said he believed if the Town was paying department heads six-figure salaries, they should be living and spending their money in this community.

Meza countered that rather than induce candidates to choose the town as their preferred residency, council was simply forcing them to pull up roots that might only be several miles out of the county limits.  Meza and two of his colleagues agreed that such a policy could be a counterproductive strategy in seeking the best people for important Town jobs.