Council Generation Gap? – Meza scolds Tewalt for rudeness

The Front Royal Town Council is poised to proceed with a consultant-driven “headhunter” search for its next Town Manager.  However, that decision was not reached without a somewhat surprising Monday (Feb. 6) evening exchange between 34-year-old Jacob Meza and 74-year-old Eugene Tewalt.

At the work session, Vice-Mayor Tewalt, Council’s one holdout against spending a projected $21,000 to have the Town Manager hunt orchestrated outside Town Hall, restated his preference for an internal, Human Resources-directed search.

Eugene Tewalt, above far left, and Jacob Meza, below photo far right, weren’t seeing eye to eye across a 40-year generation gap at a Feb. 6 Council work session. Photos/Roger Bianchini

“I think we can do this on our own,” the former Mayor and Town Public Works Director told his colleagues.  However, realizing he was now facing a 5-1 deficit with newly-appointed Councilman Chris Morrison jumping on board with the majority, Tewalt changed course.  Rather than continue beating a clearly “dying horse”, Tewalt pivoted to who the Town should hire to direct the municipal manager search.

The majority agreeing on the consultant path was poised to proceed with a familiar face – Springsted.  However, Tewalt suggested Council look elsewhere if it were fully committed to the consultant path.  Referencing past experiences with Springsted, Tewalt said he felt the company didn’t deliver enough specific detail on previous consulting projects.

“Don’t make blanket statements like that,” Meza chided.  As Tewalt began to reply that he was simply stating an opinion from past experience – experience that includes 10 years on Council and two years as mayor after a quarter century on Town staff – Meza injected, “It’s rude.”

According to biographical information received at the time of Meza’s January 2016 appointment to assume Daryl Funk’s then-vacant seat, he is a California native who first lived in Front Royal from 2001-05 while attending Christendom College.  After leaving the area to pursue additional education, Meza returned to Front Royal in 2010 and is employed by Valley Health.