Front Royal joins County in declaring COVID-19 Emergency

Council social distancing – it wasn’t clear if Councilmen Gillespie and Meza were present by remote hook up due to self-quarantine or to keep the suggested gathering number under 10. Royal Examiner Photos/Roger Bianchini – Royal Examiner Video/Mark Williams

Monday evening, March 23, the Front Royal Town Council met, albeit briefly, “to depart from the regular ‘Order of Business’” – don’t blink or you’ll miss the linked Royal Examiner video.

That departure was first, a unanimous vote – Gillespie and Meza by remote phone connection, though Meza late enough to initially seem to be a “no” vote – to depart from its scheduled agenda, which had included a binding second vote of approval of setting of tax rates for Fiscal Year 2021; and then approval by a 5-1 vote, Thompson dissenting, to declare “a COVID-19 Emergency Ordinance” effective immediately, and concurrently name Interim Town Manager Matt Tederick the Town’s Director of Emergency Management.

Of course, you wouldn’t have known that the interim town manager was council’s appointed pandemic emergency manager unless you perused the three-page, 28-paragraph (16 consecutive beginning with the word “Whereas”) “COVID-19 Emergency Ordinance” approved on a much briefer motion offered by Vice-Mayor Bill Sealock, seconded by Chris Holloway.

Not until paragraph 19 of the emergency ordinance is it noted that council, “hereby appoints the Town Manager, or in the absence of a town manager, the Interim Town Manager, as Director of Emergency Management for the Town, which is currently Matthew A. Tederick, Interim Town Manager.”

Above, Chief Magalis, flanked by the socially-distanced interim town manager, oversees an empty house as the meeting was about to convene; below, one citizen, former councilman, and former supervisor’s arrival took the number present, including Royal Examiner’s two-pronged media presence, from 10 to 11 – don’t tell the governor.

Having reviewed the Town Charter earlier in the day and noting that Chapter Two states that, “In a time of public danger or emergency, he (the mayor) may take command of the police, maintain order and enforce the law … subject to review by the council,” after the meeting’s adjournment we asked Mayor Gene Tewalt about Tederick’s appointment to fill that role.

“The charter does specify that the mayor does have the prerogative if there is an emergency. But this is so huge; there is so much going on that there is no way in the world I could take care of all the information. I’d have to be down here 24 x 7 to answer questions and telephone calls; whatever. Matt is here; Matt’s present during the day and during the evening hours. So, no other one is logical that’s here that could cover it other than Matt,” Tewalt observed.

“And it’s logical that if something happens to Matt, the mayor will fall in. And if something happens to the mayor, I’ll fall in,” Vice-Mayor Sealock added with a military perspective of the “next man standing” in crisis situations.

As for her dissenting vote, Letasha Thompson said it was solely based on Tederick’s lack of experience in emergency management, coupled with the workload, particularly in budget season, the interim town manager already has on his plate.

“As we got into this emergency situation, from my research as to what other municipalities were doing … I feel like it should be someone with, at least some training in emergency management, maybe not the experience – because how often do we have this kind of emergency? But at least have the education behind it. And I think Matt’s plate is beyond full at this moment, and then to have this added is just overload at this point.”

Letasha Thompson deadpans for the camera prior to meeting’s adjournment – it’s just allergies, I swear, Councilwoman …

The Emergency Director’s perspective
After the meeting, we contacted Tederick by phone and he explained his perspective on the assignment, noting that he will not be working alone, benefitting from not only the County Emergency Management team in place but a new hand he has called out of retirement, perhaps easing Thompson’s concerns to a point.

Tederick noted that with the pandemic response situation escalating at all levels across the nation, including last week’s Warren County Emergency Declaration, he had reached out to former Interim Front Royal Police Chief and Warren County Sheriff’s Office Major Bruce Hite for help.

“He’s a tremendous asset. And we’re fortunate to have money in the budget to pay for his services,” the interim town manager said of budget cuts he had made elsewhere in the existing Town budget. Tederick said Hite was hired out of the Town Administrative Office last week and would be paid out of the General Fund at a salary of $6,000 per month.

“He’s coordinating with the County Emergency Management team and the Town Police Department … Our next step is to facilitate connection with the County Emergency Services Plan because we fall under that. We had a good meeting with those involved on all levels – I feel much better today than I did yesterday,” Tederick said of pulling together help on a variety of issues he said have been keeping him up at night.

“I lay awake at night worrying that our wastewater treatment or water service won’t be able to operate up to capacity. The thing is to keep things functioning as this progresses. I’m committed to getting critical services delivered to citizens. We are cross-training Town personnel and have ID’ed backup personnel,” Tederick said of the Town looking ahead were the COVID-19 pandemic medical crisis to reach Warren County and Front Royal.

Should ‘something happen’ – County help is just a call away.

As a small-government conservative, Tederick expressed some frustration that Monday’s emergency declaration and his appointment were legally necessary to allow the Town to proceed under FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) guidelines as restrictions on public gatherings are suggested or mandated, and public access to governmental meetings may become limited. Front Royal and Warren County’s Local Emergency Declarations are not being undertaken in a vacuum.

As previously reported by Royal Examiner, according to Governor Ralph Northam’s Executive Order 53, beginning at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, March 24, 2020, all gatherings of more than 10 people are banned statewide, certain non-essential businesses are ordered closed, and all K-12 schools are closed for the remainder of the school year. However, these prohibitions do not include gatherings that involve the provision of health care or medical services, access to essential services like food banks for low-income residents; operations of the media, law enforcement agencies, or operations of government.

“Unfortunately, I understand why – it’s a very fluid environment we’re in,” Tederick said, adding, “I was advised by legal counsel that we needed the Emergency Declaration and needed an Emergency Manager or whatever it’s called, to facilitate electronic meetings. This meeting was 99% to allow that to happen.”

What “that” is, he explained, is facilitating live remote participation by, not only council members as Gary Gillespie and Jacob Meza were hooked up by Monday night, but citizens wanting to address various agenda or other issues while watching live streaming of meetings or work sessions if public attendance becomes impossible due to the Covid-19 health crisis.

It’s keeping us apart – but maybe technology can fix that, kind of …

“I can’t believe it takes an ordinance to accomplish due to FOIA,” Tederick offered, observing, “It is frustrating, these Draconian FOIA laws in a state of emergency. I have no problem with citizens calling in remotely,” Tederick said; though some citizens on the technological downside might not have problems with the concept, as much as they might in actually utilizing the technology to achieve such remote participation.

“We’re all in uncharted territory – no one planned for this; no one anticipated this. I have direction from council to move forward in any way humanly possible,” Front Royal’s new Director of Emergency Management observed of life under the threat of the spread of the COVID-19 Coronavirus. It is a threat declared a worldwide health pandemic by the World Health Organization.

Statistical Update
As of noon Monday, the CDC (Center for Disease Control) reported 33,404 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S., as well as 400 deaths. Of those 33,404 confirmed cases, the source of exposure remains unknown or “under investigation” in 32,416 of them.

In Virginia, including the first confirmed case – or is it two? – in the six-municipality Lord Fairfax Health District Warren County is in, as of Monday the Virginia Department of Health counted 254 cases, with six deaths and 38 hospitalizations. For some perspective on case statistics, of Virginia’s population of 8.62 million, 3,697 people have been tested for COVID-19 according to VDH.

The lack of availability of testing kits has been a sore point for health officials nationwide since COVID-19 was first identified here in mid-January. Six weeks later on February 29, the CDC reported 15 confirmed cases in the U.S., an Atlantic Magazine article recently noted.

Worldwide as of March 23, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) there were 338,307 confirmed cases and 14,602 deaths attributed to COVID-19. Of those 338,307 known cases, 232,378 were confirmed in the last 15 days.

In Europe, Italy and Spain have been particularly hard hit. Early Monday, Italy had 5,476 deaths counted out of 59,138 confirmed cases, 53,255 of those cases being counted in the past 15 days. However, a later report from Al Jazeera Monday evening had Italy’s death toll up to 6,077 and its confirmed cases at 63,928. Italy’s highest single-day death count was 793 on Saturday, March 21. Spain has counted 1,720 deaths out of 28,572 cases, with 28,142 of those cases verified in the past 15 days.

And so it goes in the fourth month since COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease-2019) was identified as a new strain of Coronavirus on the move in the Hunan Province of China in December 2019, as the final year of the second decade of the 21st century approached.

See the brief meeting declaring Front Royal in a COVID-19 emergency state – don’t blink – in this Royal Examiner video: