Tederick to move from interim mayor to interim town manager

Matt Tederick upon assumption of the Front Royal Interim Mayor’s seat in late May – Royal Examiner File Photo/Roger Bianchini

Following a Tuesday evening (October 15) closed session to discuss personnel matters and the Town lawsuit against the EDA, in a surprise move a 4-1 town council majority, Tewalt dissenting and Meza absent, approved appointment of Interim Mayor Matt Tederick as Interim Town Manager to succeed Joe Waltz. Waltz’s last day is November 8. Tederick’s appointment will take effect November 9. He will have to resign as interim mayor prior to that.

Exactly when the winner of the two-man race to finish the final year of Hollis Tharpe’s resigned term will be sworn in following the November 5 Mayoral Special Election remains to be seen. The electoral result will have to be certified by a Circuit Court judge.

That mayor’s race is between Tharpe, the man Tederick succeeded upon Tharpe’s resignation effective May 2 while facing a criminal charge of solicitation of prostitution at a local massage parlor, and Eugene Tewalt, who as noted above cast the lone dissenting vote Tuesday night against Tederick’s interim town manager appointment. So Tederick is facing an undetermined tenure as interim town manager under the mayoral leadership of one of two people who do not appear to be big supporters.

To add to the soap opera flavor of the situation, Tederick was foreman of the grand jury that indicted Tharpe on the solicitation charge on April 15, four days before Tharpe announced his pending resignation to fight the legal charge and keep the Town government out of that legal crosshair. That solicitation charge was later dropped by Special Prosecutor Heather Hovermale due to the massage parlor’s proprietor’s invocation of her Fifth Amendment right not to self incriminate due to related charges against her.

The motion to appoint Tederick Interim Town Manager was made by Vice-Mayor Bill Sealock. However the vote was called by Tederick, leaving some concern that he should have recused himself from direct participation at even that level on appointment to a six-figure salaried Town job. Other legal concerns were later expressed due to a Town Charter prohibiting “council members” from appointments while serving in their elected office. Tederick was appointed interim mayor by a 4-2 council majority, Tewalt and Thompson dissenting, on May 28.

Attempts to reach Town Attorney Doug Napier for comment on the legal dynamics at play in the appointment prior to publication were unsuccessful. However the fact the appointment won’t take effect until Tederick has resigned the interim mayor’s position to assume the interim town manager’s post may accommodate any Town Charter issues.

As for his chairing the open meeting and vote following the closed session, reached Wednesday afternoon Tederick promised he would not have broken an unlikely tie vote – only five council members were present in Jacob Meza’s absence – in his favor.

“I wouldn’t have done that,” Tederick laughed over the phone.

Tederick said the idea of his again filling an interim role in a key Town position, this time a high-paying administrative staff position, was first broached to him on Saturday by a councilman he declined to identify.

Tederick also revealed that at a meeting the day following Waltz’s October 9 resignation notification, the town manager had informed him and Vice-Mayor Sealock that the in-house staffer he thought most suited to serve in an interim town manager’s role indicated he was not interested in the job.

“We went into Executive Session last night under personnel matters and the issue was broached – it was, what do we do? The same councilman threw out my name. And I said I’m not comfortable being in this room,” Tederick said of his reaction to closed session discussion of his appointment.

The interim mayor said he has expressed a belief that whoever was a candidate for the interim job should begin “shadowing Joe Waltz as soon as possible. We have a $47-million dollar corporation to run – we can’t have no CEO,” Tederick observed, adding, “I can’t imagine ever in my life being interim in either of these positions. The Town is in a challenging position. I am just trying to do my part to fill gaps and stabilize the ship.”

Asked if unlike the mayor’s position, he might seek the slightly better paying town manager’s job on a permanent basis, Tederick quickly replied, “No! No! No!”

Asked if that was three “no’s” with three exclamation points, Tederick said, “Yes, you can write it that way.” He added that he has personal business interests he wants to get back to and would make a primary priority the search for and hiring of a permanent town manager. It is a process he said from discussion with one Town staffer in a position to know, a process that could take three months on a fast track and up to six months if that fast track fails.

Tederick credited Administrative Assistant Tina Pressley in the Town Manager’s Office for that estimate, noting that Pressley has served with eight town managers here and seen the process and timeframe between each hire.

After that first priority of finding a permanent replacement for Waltz, Tederick said his second priority as town manager would be to help guide the Town into its next fiscal year budget process; followed by an already begun initiative to improve the Town’s communications network and public information dissemination to its citizens – “I think everyone recognizes the need for that,” Front Royal’s own “Interim Man” observed.

We asked Tederick about the coincidence of the vote on his appointment as interim town manager coming the same night that across town at the Warren County Government Center, County
Board of Supervisors Chairman Dan Murray was re-raising the idea of consolidation of the two governments.

The Interim Front Royal Mayor said that while he supports the idea of public consideration of consolidation of the two municipal governments into one elected countywide governmental apparatus, he has stayed on the sidelines of the debate.

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During Tuesday’s Town Council meeting at the Villa Avenue Community Center Tederick had caught criticism for his attempted fast tracking of votes on a slashing of water-sewer utility tap fees.

Former Mayor Stan Brooks address the Town Council. Photo by Mark Williams, Royal Examiner.

In fact Tederick caught some friendly, if pointed criticism from former Front Royal Mayor and Councilman Stan Brooks during public comments for referring to Town reserves as a “slush fund”. Brooks noted the term implied hidden money used for illegal purposes.

Tederick apologized, replying that he did not realize the criminal implication of the term.

Contacted about Tuesday’s end of meeting development regarding Tederick’s pending appointment as interim town manager, Brooks quipped, “I guess now Matt will be managing the Town’s ‘slush fund’.”

As noted in our related tap fee story, Councilman Tewalt declined to elaborate on the reason for his vote against Tederick’s second interim Town appointment.

Hollis Tharpe, Tewalt’s opponent in the upcoming mayoral special election, was also initially hesitant to go on the record when contacted about it. However, Tharpe quickly turned his focus toward the process leading up to the council vote approving the appointment.

“I don’t think any citizen knew this was coming – again in closed session council has chosen to hide from the public. They have shunned the public in making a decision without public input or involvement. Just like they did with the interim mayor’s appointment they have put their own self-serving interest over the wishes of our 14,000 citizens,” Tharpe said.

Asked about his mayoral opponent’s vote against the appointment, Tharpe replied, “Gene and I agree on quite a few things, and have over the last 14 years I think the record will show.”

We also asked Tharpe about the mention of Town-County governmental consolidation across town at Tuesday night’s Warren County Board of Supervisors meeting.

“It is good material for a conspiracy theorist – things were running along good under Hollis; then you go back to the grand jury he (Tederick) volunteered to be foreman of; then Matt is mayor; and next town manager; and suddenly there is consolidation talk again,” Tharpe replied.

But as one conspiracy theorist once lamented, “What’s the point of having a conspiracy theory if everyone is going to conspire against it?”