Scott Lloyd resigns from Front Royal Town Council after 15 months in office

Citing potential conflicts of interest between his personal business interests and public service as an elected official, self-described policy attorney Scott Lloyd announced his resignation from the Front Royal Town Council, effective at the end of Monday evening’s meeting of March 28. The announcement appeared to take his colleagues by surprise, particularly Vice-Mayor Lori Cockrell seated to Lloyd’s immediate left. – “I’m dumbfounded,” Cockrell began, adding that while she may not have always agreed with him on policy issues, she believed that his “heart was always in the right place”.

“I don’t know what to say, but I whispered to him at first, that my first thought was that I wanted to hug him – but I think that might be inappropriate,” Cockrell told her colleagues, drawing laughter and lightening council’s collective mood somewhat. Lloyd was lauded by his colleagues for his contributions to council during his relatively brief tenure. Mayor Chris Holloway told Lloyd, “You did ask a LOT of questions,” also drawing laughter from the council dais.

Vice-Mayor Lori Cockrell and Mayor Chris Holloway listen as Scott Lloyd, left, prefaces the reasons he has decided to resign from town council. Below, Lloyd and Cockrell share a laugh with the rest of council after the vice-mayor described her initial reaction to Lloyd’s comments on his resignation decision. Royal Examiner Photos by Roger Bianchini

Lloyd noted he campaigned for and was elected to serve a 4-year-term, only 15 months of which he will serve. While indicating he felt he was letting those who voted for him down, Lloyd said he believed the move necessary to maintain the integrity upon which he campaigned for office. Particularly, he noted, in a community still recovering from an Economic Development Authority financial scandal, circa 2014/2018, he termed “violence” against the community.

Asking rhetorically what constituents might see within the conduct of local government, Lloyd observed, “Well, they may see a town official conducting business in town limits. Regardless of how well I conduct myself, I would repeatedly be asking the people of this town to give me the benefit of the doubt. Right now I think that is too much to ask of them. The people of the town deserve to know their elected public officials are doing everything in their best interest.”

While adding, “That with the grace of God I can deliver that,” Lloyd continued, “I also think, however, that at this point people deserve not to have the question even swirling in their minds. That, I am not sure I can deliver if I keep trying to do both.”

At that point Lloyd offered this observation: “I should mention here that this line of discussion brings to mind some things that have occurred recently with our town, involving the mayor and Mr. Hicks”. – The reference an example of the type of conflict of interest constituents might perceive, rightly or wrongly, of those elected officials who do business in town. Lloyd added that he was not trying to cast aspersions at either involved public official, one elected, one appointed staff, but rather was noting the difficulty of such situations.

The town manager, left, and mayor, far right, may be wondering why outgoing Councilman Lloyd decided to reference the Steele St. subdivision ‘fast-tracking’ as a preface to his resignation.

The reference was, at least in part, to the Town Planning Commission-initiated Investigative report prepared by the now somewhat abruptly retired Town Attorney Doug Napier. That 20-page report pointed to Town Manager Hicks “fast tracking” of Holloway’s construction company’s non-conforming Steele Street subdivision permitting application through the Town Planning Department against procedural guidelines and existing zoning codes. It was a report noting that some planning department staff indicated they felt pressured, possibly with their jobs on the line, to move the permitting forward as requested by the town manager, sometimes in the presence of the mayor. The report also noted that nothing illegal, nor against any existing town code, had been done during the referenced fast tracking. At issue for those involved, and for Lloyd in the decision he was about to announce it appears, is the public perception of the ethics and potential conflicts of interest involved in such situations.

Noting that he is not a native and “did not grow up here” Lloyd added, “I have been a commuter to D.C. for most of my time since coming to town. Compared to the people who have spent their whole lives here and have families who have been here for generations, people don’t know me as well. And I think it’s probably more difficult for many to gauge what my intentions really are. Furthermore, my business goals are new compared to the occupations represented on this entire dais,” he said of his council colleagues. As noted above, Lloyd is a self-described “policy attorney” with, as he observed, a business focus on the nation’s capital 70 miles to our east.

During his 15-month council tenure, Lloyd made headlines for his initial legislative initiative, renaming a major town thoroughfare cited as Commerce Avenue after his former boss, President Donald J. Trump (Boulevard). Lloyd served as the Trump Administration Director of Refugee Resettlement at the U.S. southern border, as well as in the Department of Religious Affairs when his controversial tenure at Refugee Resettlement ended. Here, it was a road re-naming effort even his council majority of fellow Warren County Republican Committee members did not back.
He also found himself in another council minority, though a closer 3-2 one, during a 2021 effort to prevent private-sector businesses, including regional hospital and medical services provider Valley Health, from mandating employee vaccinations against the COVID-19 pandemic at facilities within the town limits. Lloyd ran afoul of the majority of his conservative colleagues here on two counts, one governmental intrusiveness on private sector operations; the second, failing to disclose a professional legal representation interest in a group of Valley Health employees fighting the COVID-19 vaccine mandate as his legislative initiative proceeded.

Having noted his relative outsider status and D.C.-oriented professional focus, Lloyd confirmed where most present by this time saw his remarks headed: “And so I’ve come to the point where the timing is best and it is most prudent for me as a private citizen and a public servant to end my time on Council. Effective at the end of this meeting I will be resigning my position on town council.”

Lloyd was intense, pausing once in apparent emotion, as he explained his professional dilemma and potentially perceived conflicts of interest leading to his resignation announcement. Below, the full council minus Gary Gillespie, absent due to illness according to the town manager, listen to their colleague explain his pending exit, effective at the end of the March 28 meeting.

What followed, as noted above, was a mutual showing of respect between Lloyd and his colleagues, with fond, and sometimes humorous, farewells and best wishes in both directions.

With council having moved directly into closed session Monday night from its open meeting, Royal Examiner contacted Lloyd Tuesday by email to ask if his anti-COVID-19 legislative initiative and resultant inquiry of the Virginia FOIA Council on a potential conflict of interest had impacted his decision.

“Valley Health had nothing to do with the decision,” he responded, adding, “Looking at my comments now, I should have trimmed down mention of my legal practice because that’s not really my concern as much as other business plans and endeavors. Those are developing now to a point where they’re not just ideas that I might pursue but are now starting to come together. Looking ahead I really didn’t want to continue to develop those as a member of Council.”

Royal Examiner told Lloyd to keep us in the loop when he is ready to go public with his “other business plans and endeavors” and he said he would.

Now “the game” begins, again: – Who will council appoint to fill Lloyd’s now-vacant seat on council?

‘Hello, Goodbye’ with a musical nod to The Beatles – then-appointed Councilman Jacob Meza bids farewell to Mayor Holloway following his resignation, effective immediately at the outset of the July 26, 2021, meeting. It was the same meeting at which Councilman Lloyd’s anti-vax employer mandate ordinance proposal was defeated by a 3-2 vote, Meza’s seat vacant.

Let’s see, Jacob Meza hasn’t been an elected town councilman for over a year now, but does his “appointment/election” by council that he resigned from last July, preclude his re-appointment until August? And does council have the stomach for another legal battle over appointment/election of a recent, former member?

In a footnote to council resignation history, it might be recalled that Meza’s July 26, 2021, resignation announcement, effective immediately, came at the same meeting at which Lloyd’s private sector anti-vaccine mandate ordinance proposal was defeated by a 3-2 council vote, Joe McFadden joining Lloyd in support, with Valley Health employee Meza’s seat suddenly vacant, and potential vote or recusal reduced to a matter of public speculation.

Perhaps often local Republican Committee officer and former Town “Interim Man” (mayor and town manager, circa 2020/21) Matt Tederick is tired of being limited to his raging “private citizen” at public meetings tour, which was decreasingly well-received by the chairs of those meetings.

Above, county board Chair Cheryl Cullers tells Matt Tederick her board has heard enough of his unsubstantiated attack on a board member and the media at Jan. 4, 2022, meeting; much it would appear below, to ‘private citizen’ Tederick’s chagrin

Or will there be a new face introduced into the town’s political mix?

Stay tuned for our next exciting episode of “As the Town Council Turns”.

Watch the Town Council March 28, 2022 meeting on this video link.