Meza leads council defense of tax reduction, re-flips on Valley Health recusal

Girl Scout Service Unit 14-4 leads council in Pledge of Allegiance. Photos by Roger Bianchini. Video by Mark Williams, Royal Examiner.

After the meeting’s opening Pledge of Allegiance led by Service Unit 14-4 of the Girl Scouts of the Nations’ Capital; Mayor Tewalt’s Proclamation of March as Women’s History Month in Front Royal; and Town Energy Services Director David Jenkins presentation of a graduate certificate from the Northwest Line College to department employee Preston Toms, the Front Royal Town Council got down to business.

Above, the day after International Women’s Day, Girl Scouts join the mayor and council’s female members in proclaiming March as Women’s History Month; below, the Energy Department’s Preston Toms, left, gets his graduation certification from the NW Line School from department Director David Jenkins.

Despite continued concerns expressed by citizens and Vice-Mayor Bill Sealock on behalf of himself and Mayor Gene Tewalt regarding revenue needs in the coming budget year, a Front Royal Town Council majority voted to approve an advertised real estate tax rate of 13 cents per $100 of value for the coming fiscal year. That rate reflects a half-cent reduction in the current real estate tax rate as the Town faces $29 million in capital improvement costs in the interim town manager’s budget proposal. The Town will maintain its Personal Property Tax Rate of 64 cents per $100 of assessed value.

While Sealock joined a 4-1 majority – Gillespie absent, Thompson dissenting – in approving the rate, he later explained his vote did not indicate support of the majority stance. Rather, he explained he did not want to leave the Town without any tax rate approved for the coming year, potentially derailing the entire budget process.

But Sealock was pointed in criticizing council’s tax-reduction majority, and its vocal leader Jacob Meza, for kicking needed capital improvements “down the road” for several years as he and now-Mayor Tewalt urged that revenue be generated in previous budget cycles to pay for those existing capital improvement needs.

Previous work session discussion indicated that Interim Town Manager Matt Tederick’s proposed Fiscal Year 2021 budget, including the $29 million for five major capital improvement projects, will add an estimated $1.69 million in annual debt service to the Town’s future expenses. And the council has failed to even consider its outstanding $8.4 million debt on principal payments on one already accomplished capital improvement, the new Front Royal Police headquarters.

As noted during a recent Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority meeting, that undisputed principal Town debt to the EDA on the FRPD headquarters is growing by $692 a day in the 3% interest being accumulated on that unpaid principal.

An $8-million capital improvement debt not included in the council’s CIP costs budget debate. It is a debt rising by $692 a day in interest, the EDA Board of Directors recently observed.

And as Thompson noted in prefacing her vote against the advertised tax rate, it has yet to be determined how the council will vote on Tederick’s recommendation of cutting the Town’s tourism function out of the budget.

The interim town manager called some of Sealock and Thompson’s concerns “legitimate” and wondered at a system that set a vote on the tax rate prior to the budget’s determination. Contacted later, Town Finance Director B. J. Wilson explained the necessity of getting the municipal tax rates to the Commissioner of the Revenue’s Office around this point in the budget process so that tax assessments can be made for the June billing period in the two-installment tax collection system adopted here a number of years ago.

So, it would appear the early tax rate approval issue was created by the County and Town’s adoption of that two-installment tax payment system, which added a June billing period to the end of the year, December billing that existed in the single-payment tax billing system.

From left, Jacob Meza, Chris Holloway and Matt Tederick following the adjournment of Monday’s council meeting.

On the tourism front, Blue Ridge Shadows Holiday Inn principal Mike McCarthy continued the expression of public and tourism-related business owner’s concern over recent tourism-related firings, budget freezes and re-organizational policy statements during the public concerns portion of Monday’s meeting.

However, with all those variables on the table Meza expressed confidence that whatever costs are included in the FY 2021 budget, the council can balance that budget with available reserves or simply by cutting costs in other as-yet-to-be-determined Town departments and functions.

But if a council majority and its appointed interim town manager appear committed to further cuts to the Town governmental function to realize further tax reductions to Front Royal’s already comparatively low, as Paul Gabbert pointed out during his public comments, real estate tax rate on Monday, it may have pointed to one path forward – adding to surviving employees’ duties.

I can see a problem with these, want to try my glasses on? – Paul Gabbert may have been thinking as he revisited potential long-term debt issues surrounding tying tax reductions to a budget with millions in additional revenue needs. However, a council majority appears committed to the use of reserves and departmental cuts to make ends meet.

In its final order of business, the council voted 5-0 to appoint Town Manager Administrative Assistant Tina Presley as Council Clerk, replacing the terminated Jennifer Berry; and Director of Energy Services Administrative Assistant Mary Ellen Lynn as Deputy Council Clerk. Presley has been filling the clerk’s position on an interim basis since Berry’s late January termination along with Town Planning Director Jeremy Camp, Community Development Director Felicia Hart, Engineer Robert Brown and Planning and Zoning official Matt Farace.

The Memorandum of Agreement for each position’s addition to Presley and Lynn’s existing duties includes the condition that both Presley and Lynn “will negotiate with the Town Manager such an additional salary for acceptance of these additional duties… commensurate with not only said additional duties and responsibilities but also reflect the additional responsibilities and knowledge base required”.

To abstain or not to abstain

In other business Monday, by a 4-0 vote, Gillespie absent and Meza abstaining “due to my employment with Valley Health”, the council approved an ordinance amendment pertaining to the size and display of signage for the new Warren Memorial Hospital being constructed off Leach Run Parkway.

We recalled that Meza had previously reversed a pattern of recusals from discussion or votes on Valley Health’s pursuit of a $60-million bond issue through the EDA to facilitate the hospital’s construction prior to the council’s final vote on that bond issue. Meza prefaced that vote to approve the bond issue by explaining that Town legal staff had informed him his employment with Valley Health did NOT legally disqualify him from votes on Valley Health matters so long as he disclosed that employment relationship.

So, following Monday’s meeting, we asked Meza why he had reversed the previous reversal of his employment/abstention stance regarding Valley Health matters.

As he was headed out of the Warren County Government Center following the meeting, Meza turned and replied, “Roger, I’m not going to answer any of your questions.”

I wonder if I submitted them through new Town Communications Director Todd Jones, I’d have better luck? – Hey Todd, could you ask Jake a question for me?

The blighted property, and…

Also on Monday, the council approved by a 5-0 vote the second reading of the new Blighted Property Abatement Ordinance. The new ordinance authorizes the Town to force owners’ hands in improving or demolishing structures deemed “blighted” and a public health concern. Failure to develop and enact an abatement plan or to enact a Town-submitted plan can lead to the Town’s seizure of the blighted property.

Wonder what the odds are in Vegas on the first target of this new ordinance?

Also Monday, the council approved by a 5-0 vote a $424,000 contract extension with CHA Consulting, Inc. on Inflow & Infiltration (I&I) Engineering Services. The old contract expires this month. The I&I aspect of capital improvements included in the FY 2021 Budget proposal is projected at an $8-million cost, and approximately $550,000 of the projected $1.69 million in annual CIP debt services the Town is poised to take on.

See council’s discussion and conduct of its business of March 9, along with public input, the interim town manager and council’s responses to that input, along with those meeting-opening recognitions and proclamations in this Royal Examiner video: