Local Government
Town Attorney’s retirement unexpectedly announced – ‘private citizen’ Tederick circles the wagons against Holloway critics
After wishing long-time Public Works Department employee Billy Sears a fond farewell into retirement at the Monday, December 13th Front Royal Town Council meeting, Mayor Chris Holloway unexpectedly added a second name to the pending retiree list – Town Attorney Doug Napier – effective at the end of the year. It was observed by Vice-Mayor Lori Cockrell that Napier’s retirement after stints with both the Warren County and Front Royal municipal governments, would end 44 years of municipal legal department governmental work.
Mayor, say ‘cheese’ Chris, council and staff gather to bid farewell to retiring Public Works employee ‘Billy’ Sears. Enjoy retirement, Billy – and you too, Doug, at far left above, and center stage below, after the town attorney’s retirement at the end of the year was announced by the mayor. Royal Examiner Photos by Roger Bianchini
The second round of fond farewells followed before things took a turn for the more combative during public comments on non-agenda items of concern opened by the Town’s recently (Dec. 8) retired “interim man” – interim mayor (May-Nov. 2019); interim town manager (Nov. 2019-Dec. 2020); and “town manager transition team” and “Business Development Director” (Dec. 2020-Dec. 2021), Matt Tederick.
As for meeting agenda items, several were discussed at a work session convened at 6 p.m. in the Warren County Government Center caucus room adjacent to the main meeting room where the fireworks were about to be set off shortly after 7 p.m., the naming of the Front Royal Economic Development Authority (FREDA) Board of Directors and members of the Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee created to replace the mass-resigned Urban Forestry Board in the wake of that former environmental advisory committee not being consulted on the Happy Creek defoliation project undertaken during Tederick’s interim town manager stint, were prominent, as was the movement toward the planned implementation of a Town Building Department to oversee in-town inspections and authorizations for building projects and commercial and residential additions projects.
About that almost leaked report
But back on the unscheduled meeting-items front during public comments, now private citizen and long-time county Republican Committee official and power broker Tederick referenced a story “in The Report” (WC-FC Report) by former town councilman, county supervisor, and attorney Tom Sayre quoting a source Tederick noted he didn’t often agree with politically, former Front Royal Unites Vice-Chair Stevi Hubbard. That story was based on Hubbard’s assertions concerning an alleged leak of the now, twice publicly released by the Town Administrative Office investigative report into the process by which Mayor Holloway’s non-conforming, in-town subdivision application was approved outside normal planning department processes.
As Royal Examiner previously reported of those releases, and as the Town’s now outsourced Richmond-based Public Information contractor Joanne Williams and Williams Media noted, nothing illegal or against existing town codes was done during that process. However, according to Napier’s report several interim or short-term planning department officials reported feeling pressured by Town Manager Steven Hicks, sometimes in the presence of the non-conforming subdivision applicant Mayor Holloway, to fast-track approval of Holloway Construction LLC’s proposed six-unit subdivision without normal approval of a road system to town standards being accomplished first.
Based on Hubbard’s story presented to “Report” reporter Sayre, Tederick lashed out first at Town Planning Commission member and former Town surveyor Darryl Merchant and current County Supervisor Walt Mabe for their alleged roles in an apparently aborted leaking of the planning commission-initiated investigation of the Holloway non-conforming subdivision approval process conducted by, of all people, Town Attorney Doug Napier. It may be worth noting that Mabe unseated “Report” reporter Sayre from his Shenandoah District supervisor’s seat two years ago.
Glasses snapped into place, Matt Tederick launches attack on theoretical ‘cabal’ of local power players, including your humble photographer/reporter, out to take over the world, or at least the Helltown section of it, to nefarious ends, or as he said, “If you’re for it, the cabal is against it. If you’re against it, the cabal is for it.’ Below, retiring Town Attorney Doug Napier reacts to well wishes as Town Manager Hicks listens. Tederick made sure to let Napier know he did not think of him as part of the referenced ‘cabal’ (even if the town attorney did prepare the allegedly leaked planning commission report on irregularities in the approval process of the mayor’s non-conforming subdivision application).
Tederick then managed to involve Royal Examiner Publisher and 2020 three-way race Holloway mayoral opponent Mike McCool, former Town Manager Michael Graham, County EDA Board Chairman Jeff Browne, not to mention your humble reporter, in an alleged (perhaps deep state?) conspiracy, apparently to discredit Mayor Holloway and Town Manager Hicks for their described roles in attempting to fast-track the Holloway subdivision approval process, as reported in the Front Royal Planning Commission report prepared by Town Attorney Napier.
The confusing thing to this alleged co-conspirator is that the alleged Merchant-to-Mabe leaked report was apparently never publicly released prior to the Town’s releasing of it. In fact, when contacted the following morning about clarification on whether the supposedly clandestinely circulated report had ever been made public, Tederick responded: “I didn’t comment on that. I have no knowledge of that.”
However, during his Monday night comments, Tederick referenced an allegedly aborted decision to run for mayor by Mabe as further evidence of conspiracy. Tederick pointed to Royal Examiner’s non-coverage of the allegedly leaked document’s non-release as evidence of a “cabal” of behind-the-scenes power brokers at odds with his, Holloway’s, and others within town hall’s influence on town government.
But one might ask, where does an actual “cabal” lie if it does exist? – And who might be targeted next, inside or outside of town hall?
Fear & Loathing in the Front Royal Town Hall hallways? If the mayor isn’t off-limits, who might the ‘cabal’ target next, those gathered in the caucus room, below, for a pre-meeting work session, may be wondering?
Tederick singled this reporter out for a phone conversation with Ms. Hubbard in which he was said to have urged her not to use Merchant’s name in any effort she would make to take her story public – “If true, it’s a bizarre request coming from a reporter,” Tederick asserted. But as this reporter told Tederick following Monday’s meeting’s adjournment, that advice was based on the perception from a phone conversation with Hubbard that no one, not even Mabe, had seen who allegedly left a copy of the planning commission report on the Holloway subdivision construction application for the supervisor to find “under a newspaper in the Daily Grind”.
In fact, Hubbard revealed to this reporter during that phone conversation that she had never seen the allegedly leaked report. Rather, she said someone, perhaps Tederick’s other referenced source, Kristine Nelson, had read portions of it to her over the phone. And she added that from that reading, while still skeptical of him generally, she believed Holloway would be cleared of any wrongdoing in this specific instance. It was an assertion also made by the Town’s new public information director Williams Media in one-page press releases accompanying both of the Town Administration’s official releases of the report, the first a draft, the second a final version. However, as this reporter noted in introducing those press releases with the Town-released reports, there may be a distinction between having done nothing illegal or against existing town codes, versus the personal ethics of using one’s political position and that of allied municipal administrators to “fast-track” a non-conforming to town codes application through the prescribed departmental approval process. That may be particularly true when that fast-tracking is suggested to employees plugged into roles they may have been new to or unfamiliar with due to the termination of department heads, including the planning departments, accomplished during Tederick’s tenure as town manager.
With the information provided by Hubbard by phone on her knowledge and lack thereof about an allegedly leaked report she had never seen and had no verification of other than from a third party, this reporter did tell her to be careful in naming Merchant as the unseen source of the allegedly leaked document she only had second or third-hand knowledge of. It was advice on a standard of verification I would apply to my own writing and did in this case. And without additional substantiation forthcoming at the time, the allegations about a leaked but uncirculated document referenced by Ms. Hubbard to this reporter went unreported by Royal Examiner, unlike Tederick’s referenced media source.
‘The cabal has been doing this kind of stuff for years,’ Tederick warned council less than a week after his approximate two-year appointed stint in town government ended.
In the wake of his references to the published article, Tederick concluded interestingly, “I have no idea if what I just read to you is true or not. – But here’s what it looks like: it appears Merchant’s and Mabe’s actions were so dirty that even their friends (apparently Hubbard and Nelson) couldn’t stomach what they did. So, the question here is, is this the tip of the iceberg?” Tederick said as he headed for a dramatic conclusion.
As to his referenced “iceberg” Tederick observed: “But the cabal has been doing this kind of stuff for years. These people will use, manipulate and lie to anyone to get power and control. But you won’t know that. But you all know who they are …”
This reporter has a final comment, or two – If I’m part of a cabal of local power brokers, how come I don’t have a high-five or six-figure income? – Maybe because none of those alleged power players cited by Tederick are in elected or administrative positions of power tied to municipal purse strings – WAIT, that’s NOT how that’s supposed to work, is it?!?
And Hubbard’s somewhat spotty information about the alleged document leak isn’t the only story that’s not been reported by yours truly and Royal Examiner over the last year-plus based on largely unsubstantiated info or social media assertions. There’s one about the alleged dissolution of two marriages related to infidelities – and it doesn’t have anything to do with texts, which were mentioned suggestively at one point by Mr. Tederick during his cabal speeches – a “sister speech” was delivered at today’s morning county board of supervisors meeting, despite Chair Cheryl Cullers warning public comments were not to be of a personal nature – But I guess sometimes politics and personal attacks by their nature, must mix. After all, this is 2021 America.
