Tederick joins Morrison on the ‘might-be mayor’ candidates list

It may take some quick hand movements as exhibited in this file photo of Matt Tederick, to perform budgetary magic for the next mayor, interim or elected. Royal Examiner File Photo/Roger Bianchini

FRONT ROYAL – Former mid-1990’s Warren County Supervisor and long-time Warren County Republican Committee activist and sometimes political candidate Matthew Tederick is believed to be one of the three final candidates, one of whom will be appointed interim mayor of Front Royal on Tuesday night, May 28. Tederick  joins Chris Morrison among names circulating on the grapevine list.

Contacted over the Memorial Day weekend, Morrison verified that he had been approached about the vacant mayor’s seat but has had no indication that he might be on the final three candidates list.

Morrison was initially appointed to council in 2017 to replace Tharpe when he won the mayor’s office after Tim Darr’s retirement. However in his first electoral run, former Town planning commission member Morrison finished out of the top three spots in the 2018 election.

During his stint on council Morrison championed adoption of a property maintenance code and unsuccessfully sought to have it expanded to rental protections as well.

Chris Morrison, right, says he has no indication he is a finalist for the mayoral appointment. Where might Jacob Meza, left, come down in the mayor’s vote? The smart money says he could be the third vote in the Tederick column, with Tewalt and Thompson in the no column – leaving it up to Vice-Mayor Bill Sealock to create a tie or a majority consensus appointment.

Also contacted over the weekend, Tederick said he had been approached on Saturday, May 18, by a lone councilman who asked if would be interested in the interim appointment. Tederick said he was told council was having difficulty reaching a consensus on an appointment. Without having cleared it to reveal that council contact’s name, Tederick said he would err on the side of caution and not give a name.

“I don’t particularly want to, but I said out of a sense of duty I can help out. I can run a meeting for six months if necessary,” Tederick told Royal Examiner. The six-month timeframe references the likely November date of a special election for mayor to serve out the remaining year on Hollis Tharpe’s two-year term.

“Probably not,” Tederick said of throwing his hat in the ring on extending that service an additional year by running in the special election on whatever date is set by the court. November is the next scheduled local municipal election, though the Town’s next election is not until November 2020. The court could set an earlier than November 2019 date for a special mayoral election but likely won’t with an election date looming less than six months away.

As for being the potential frontrunner for the mayoral appointment, Tederick said that Board of Supervisors Vice-Chairman Tom Sayre had stopped by his house on Tuesday morning, May 21, and told him he heard that was the case.

“That was the first I heard about it,” Tewalt said noting the town council’s adjournment to closed session from a work session the previous evening during which the mayoral appointment was one topic of discussion. It was in the wake of that closed session that Vice-Mayor William Sealock promised a vote on an interim mayoral appointment on May 28, coming from a pool of three finalists of six people initially under consideration. In response to a question Sealock did say he thought the May 28 vote could be a split one.

Behind closed doors is where the interesting things are said, written – and erased.

Asked if he found it ironic that he might be plugged in to fill out the term of an old political adversary like Tharpe, Tederick expressed some surprise – “I don’t know where that comes from. I don’t really consider him a political adversary,” he responded.

Tederick dismissed a past confrontation over an old criminal charge on Tharpe’s record during the former mayor’s first run for council as a consequence of his role then as chairman of the Warren County Republican Committee. As for his role as chairman of the grand jury that forwarded the April 15 indictment of Tharpe for solicitation of prostitution, Tederick said by judicial instruction he was not at liberty to discuss the work of the grand jury.

While maintaining his innocence and intent to fight the charge in court, on April 19 Tharpe announced his resignation, effective May 2. Tharpe said he was resigning in order not to allow his legal situation to become a distraction to the conduct of town business.

With Vice-Mayor Sealock and Councilman Gillespie to his right, Mayor Hollis Tharpe chairs council work session in June 2018.

Asked if he had any clues as to a third potential name in the mayoral appointment running, Tederick referenced a Warren County Coalition Facebook post with a name he recalled as Rob Larson.  Coalition spokesperson Melanie Salins said local businessman Al Larson has submitted his name and asked to be considered as a candidate for mayor.

But if we don’t know anything about Larsen or his political history and Chris Morrison’s political history is a relatively short one, that is certainly not the case with Tederick.

The former county supervisor and county Republican Committee chairman has been a prominent and sometimes divisive political figure for over two decades. He has butted heads with past councils and councilmen, particularly over business and taxing issues; and developed a reputation for personalizing political disputes.

“That’s probably a fair criticism,” Tederick said of the latter issue. “Over the past decade I’ve tried to work on that. I never intended to but on occasion my wife would see something written and advise me to change the wording – to focus more on policy and less on the individual addressing the policy.”

One example was then-Councilman Tom Conkey taking Tederick to task in 2012 over criticism directed independent North River Supervisor’s candidate Tory Failmezger’s way. In Failmezger’s case it was Tederick’s description of the candidate as “an elitist” for the design of his home.

“During this most recent election, he used part of a quote printed in the Washington Post to prove that Tory was an ‘elitist.’ The full quote spoke of Tory’s dedication to recreate one of Thomas Jefferson’s homes,” Conkey noted, adding, “When challenged, Mr. Tederick countered with the question ‘How many people build a copy of Jefferson’s house?’

“The obvious answer to that question is certainly ‘Not many.’ Mr. Tederick’s response begs the question ‘So what?’ Why does Mr. Tederick have the right to tell someone what kind of house a person can live in?” Conkey asked.

Okay, that was the 2012 Matt Tederick, perhaps the 2019 version is a kinder, gentler one – Tederick promises he is working on that.

Matt Tederick puts on his attorney look to argue against the old Town Hall-Afton Inn swap in 2014. It didn’t work as a council supermajority of five held sway in an effort to push Afton Inn redevelopment – which was underway until an EDA embezzlement civil suit glitch put things on hold, hopefully temporarily.

There have also been times when the former county supervisor has appeared to come down distinctly on the County side of Town-County issues. During a contentious 2010 open letter exchange with council candidate and fellow Republican Bret Hrbek Tederick suggested lost PILOT (Payment In Lieu Of Taxes) fees attached to Town North Corridor water-sewer utility bills had been an illegal “gouging and extorting” of corridor businesses. The fees were a Town-County agreed-upon way to compensate the Town for lost tax revenue from the enabling of commercial and industrial business development on County land by extension of Town central water-sewer outside the town limits.

The alternative to the PILOT fees establishment as part of the 1998-99 Corridor Agreement approved as a first – and probably LAST – of its kind by a three-judge panel would have been a hostile and hotly-contested Town annexation move on the County’s North Corridor where that development was planned. And while those PILOT fees were eventually struck down by the court it was on a wording glitch that allowed corridor restaurants to successfully argue the PILOT fees were a pass-through tax on customers, rather than a tax on the businesses themselves as was the intent of the PILOT fee-utility bill contracts.

But Tederick says such past criticisms of the Town are policy based, steeped in his conservative, pro-business stance, rather than a sign of a pro-County bias.

“I am very much pro-County and pro-Town. I live in the same house I grew up in, right in the middle of town,” Tederick says of his roots. “I am pro-business and for the taxpayers. In the past the Town has had some very liberal-leaning and non-business-friendly tendencies. I was very critical of that … I’m a conservative and pro-business – and for keeping taxation as low as possible.”

So Tederick could fit right in with the incumbent younger, anti-tax council members were he to gain the appointment Tuesday evening. The remaining question will be can he bring any substantive alternative revenue-generating ideas other than internal loans or a promise at a yet-to-be-specified budgetary “creativity” to maintain the level of services citizens desire and demand, even the ones who don’t like tax increases to generate the revenue to pay for those services.

Tederick noted his past appointment by council to a Blue Ribbon Budget Committee with past Town Mayor Jim Eastham, past Town Budget Director John O’Neill, Jim Kelley and Wilma Swiger – “All of our recommendations were voted on individually and all but two were unanimously passed,” he pointed out.

One other stance that brought Tederick into conflict, not only with a five-member council supermajority, but also a majority of impacted downtown business people, was against the old Town Hall-Afton Inn swap in 2014. Tederick was a vocal leader of the opposition to that effort. It was an effort designed to create positive marketing and redevelopment movement on the huge, historic building sitting vacant and deteriorating at the head of the Town’s Historic Downtown while owned by Northern Virginia developer Frank Barros.

And with Afton redevelopment on apparently temporary hold as details of the EDA civil litigation are worked out, as well as approaching deadlines on the Town’s first right of matching any offered purchase price on the now Barros-owned old Town Hall, a mayor’s perspective on those two buildings could be important over the next six months.

The political and economic drama continues in River City.

Tune in Tuesday evening for council’s vote on appointment of an interim mayor.

The smart money is on…

Could Main Street Pawn owner Ralph Waller, already known as the ‘Mayor of East Main and Chester Streets’ be a sleeper candidate for mayor of the WHOLE town? Probably just a coincidence he, wife and dogs were circling Town Hall at conclusion of May 20 closed session discussion of the mayoral appointment.