This rather makes it appear that the Town Charter and/or Code would have had to have been changed before said 3 year contract could have gone into effect. The other localities that I found to have gone with a longer contract for Town Manager, have specifically generated ordinances/charter changes in order to support those. My guess is that the reason for that was this state code.

So, should the town council have been looking at such a contract without having first established that there was such a need as to warrant Charter and/or Code changes. I never heard of any discussions concerning those changes except for some mumblings on how they could enter into the contract first, then change the  Charter/Code afterwards. Maybe there are some lawyers out there who have a better understand of the intent of this State Code and would care to comment.

Is it possible that the 3 year contract was merely a ‘smoke screen’ simply to get people riled up so that they wouldn’t see what was really going on. If so, then you have to wonder who the ‘they’ is in this situation. Certainly with Showalter and Carter being the last to find out anything, they are ruled out.

Of course, the town attorney was in the meetings so if this was actually an issue, one would expect it to have been raised.

Fortunately, the State Code also makes sure that the public will know the full extent of the severance packages of any individuals to which they have or shall be awarded. If it is consistent with the document read by Mr. Barber, there are some pretty vague places that I hope will be clarified before the deal is finalized.

§ 15.2-1510.1. Public announcement of severance packages for certain officials.

Severance benefits provided to any departing official appointed by a local governing body or school board shall be publicly announced by the local governing body or school board, respectively, prior to such departure.

(2006, c. 254; 2007, c. 257.)

It sounds like the details should be pretty specific to me, but I am sure that someone can argue that the Letter of the Law was met in Mr. Barbers statement. However, I wonder if it will truly meet the Spirit of the Law. After all, it is the citizen’s money being used for any such severance benefits.

Here’s what the Town Charter says:

1) He has 10 days in which to deliver all property, books and papers:

§ 2.1 2. Surrender of Papers and Property.–If any person, having been an officer of said town, shall not within ten days after he shall have vacated or been removed from office, and upon notification of request of the council within such time as it may allow, deliver to his successor in office all property, books and papers belonging to the town or appertaining to such office, in possession or under his control, he shall forfeit and pay to the town a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars, to be sued for and recovered with costs; and all books, records and documents used in any office by virtue of any provision of this act, or of any ordinances or order of the town council, or any superior officer of said town, shall be deemed the property of said town and appertaining to said office, and the chief officer thereof shall be held responsible therefor. (1954, c. 240)
2) This raises the big question of who his ‘successor’ is going to be if the job has not been advertised and the position filled by that time. The Town Charter again comes to the rescue:

§ 2.14. Duties of Mayor.–The mayor shall preside at the meetings of the council, voting only in case of a tie, and perform such other duties as may be prescribed by this charter and by general law and such as may be imposed by the council consistent with his office. He shall perform the duties of the town manager during the absence of the town manager or while the office of town manager is vacant. He shall have power to investigate the acts of the various town officers, members of the police, fire and public works departments and all other departments of the town government, whether elected or appointed. The mayor shall have and exercise all power and authority conferred by general law on mayors of towns and not inconsistent with this charter; and shall, from time to time, recommend to the council such measures which he may deem needful for the welfare of the town. (1 954, c. 240; 1968, c. 173)
Clearly, it will be Mayor Ballengee who is taking over the Town Manager’s roles until such time as the position is filled. Christiansburg is lucky to have an Assistant Town Manager, Barry Helms, who is very experienced to be the ‘right-hand’ of the Mayor.

This should make for a fairly smooth transition period, providing ample time for the Town Council to begin development of a job description, job advertising, and the interviews required to find the ‘right person’.

Perhaps the Council will even choose to add some citizens to the review committee as they did with the position of Police Chief. Or, if they choose to handle it like the Rescue Squad, let the members (citizens) elect the person they want to fill the position:) (Wouldn’t that be a hoot!)

Time will tell, and I’ll be watching to see what is done. I am sure it will be an interesting process however it is done.

An additional side note to this is also found in the Town Charter:

§ 2.06. Compensation.–The council shall by ordinance or resolution fix the salaries of all officers and employees of the town elected or appointed by it, or appointed by its authority and may so far as is not inconsistent with the provisions of the charter, define the powers and prescribe the duties of all such officers and employees. To effectuate the powers conferred by general laws as well as the powers herein specifically granted, the council may employ all such persons as may be necessary. (1 954, c. 240)
and in the Town Code:

Sec. 2-3. Record book for ordinances and resolutions–To be kept by Clerk of Council.

The Clerk of the Council shall enter in a well-bound book copies of all ordinances and resolutions passed by the Council. The book in which such ordinances and resolutions are thus entered shall be known as the “Ordinances and Resolutions of the Town of Christiansburg.” The Clerk of the Council shall index such book. (Code 1972, § 2-3)

This should make it a lot easier for those of you who are using this as a way to look up information. However, let me remind you that while the Charter gives certain powers to the Mayor and Town Council, the Town Code then takes those powers and distributes them to others, well, one other, the Town Manager.

The Town Charter puts the burden of doing these things squarely upon the shoulders of the Town Council and the Town Manager. In giving those responsibilities to the Town Manager, the Town Council & Mayor DO NOT give up accountability. They are accountable for how the Town Manager performs. The Town Council and Mayor have a responsibility to followup, to audit, to monitor, and anything else necessary to insure that the tasks that they have delegated to the Town Manager are being performed properly. Should they find that this is not being done, then they have a right and a responsibility to make the necessary changes to correct the problems. This includes actions up to and including removal of the Town Manager from his position. The Town Manager works under a year to year contract and all that is really involved is for the council to vote against reinstating his contract again.

That said, once again I will point out that it is the responsibility of Town Council and Mayor to monitor the Town Manager’s performance. If they are not doing this, that is not a problem that would go away with removal of the Town Manager. It would simply establish the dynamics whereby similar problems would lead to discontent with any future Town Managers.

Over and over again, in the minutes, at the Town Council meetings, and in discussions with citizens, I have heard where problems have been brought to Town Council’s attention, the problem has been referred to the Town Manager, sometimes (not very often) a followup question asking in the problem was resolved was asked, and the answer was “Yes”. Then, months, and sometimes years later, the problem is again brought forward with citizens asking when the issue is going to be fixed.

This would indicate that there is no index of problems/complaints with documentation noting actions taken by the Town to correct or review the situation, measures taken (or not taken), and verification with the complainant that the issue has been resolved. However, since they are required by law to keep just such a record and to hold complaints in an active file until they are resolved, there must be one somewhere. Obviously, there is no verification by the Town Council other than to ask the Town Manager. It might be a nice step for Town Council to start something new and do followup with citizens to see if things are corrected to the satisfaction of citizens for a change.

Have fun with the Town Charter, it is quite informative.

While I was doing this, I found something kind of interesting:

What this means to me is that members of Town Council have a right and a responsibility to ‘police their own’. I have found nothing in the Town Council Minutes since July 2001 to indicate that this process has ever been utilize, but it is available. Why heck, if applied it could generate funds for the town, sort of a ‘user’s fee’:)

Anyway, the newer ‘bookmarked’ version of the Town Charter will be online soon at myvaresources.com. I’ll post an announcement here, on facebook, and send out the usual email notices when it is completed.

This shortening of some people’s terms (those who were elected in May of 2008) will mean that those people will need to run again and be elected in the November election.
There is one apparent hitch in this ‘get-along’ in that the shortening is restricted to 6 months. Given that the Town of Christiansburg elected officials don’t take office until September (rather than in July as other jurisdictions do) it appears there will need to be some overlap.

Is it possible that for a 2 month period we could have more than 6 Town Council Members? Suppose the 3 incumbents ran in November and were defeated, could we possibly have a situation where for 2 months we would have 9 Town Council Members?

What a mess? Well, the Town of Christiansburg set their starting dates in September while State Code says they state in July (§ 24.2-222. Election and terms of mayor and council for cities and towns. Apparently, this date was established in the 1954 Charter for the Town of Christiansburg. Since one of those council members affected has put forth that he will be seeking legal recourse to the shortening of his term, it may be that things will get interesting…again.

(Town Council Videos of this meeting should be available later today at myvaresouces.com.)
_________________________________________________

§ 24.2-222.1. Alternative election of mayor and council at November general election in cities and towns.

A. Notwithstanding the provisions of § 24.2-222, the council of a city or town may provide by ordinance that the mayor, if an elected mayor is provided for by charter, and council shall be elected at the November general election date of any cycle as designated in the ordinance, for terms to commence January 1. No such ordinance shall be adopted between January 1 and the May general election date of the year in which city or town elections regularly are scheduled to be held therein.

B. Alternatively, the registered voters of a city or town may file a petition with the circuit court of the city or of the county within which the town is located asking that a referendum be held on the question of whether the city or town should elect the mayor, if an elected mayor is provided for by charter, and council members at the November general election date of any cycle as designated in the petition. The petition shall be signed by registered voters equal in number to at least ten percent of the number registered in the city or town on the January 1 preceding the filing.

The court, pursuant to § 24.2-684, shall order the election officials on a day fixed in the order to conduct a referendum on the question, provided that no such referendum shall be scheduled between January 1 and the May general election date of the year in which city or town elections regularly are scheduled to be held therein. The clerk of the court shall publish notice of the referendum once a week for the three consecutive weeks prior to the referendum in a newspaper having general circulation in the city or town, and shall post a copy of the notice at the door of the courthouse of the city or county within which the town is located. The question on the ballot shall be:

“Shall the (city or town) change the election date of the mayor (if so provided by charter) and members of council from the May general election to the November general election (in even-numbered or odd-numbered years or as otherwise designated in the petition)?”

If members of the school board in the city or town are elected by the voters, the ballot question also shall state that the change in election date applies to the election of school board members.

The referendum shall be held and the results certified as provided in § 24.2-684. If a majority of the voters voting in the referendum vote in favor of the change, the mayor and council thereafter shall be elected at the November general election date for terms to commence January 1.

C. Except as provided in subsection D, no term of a mayor or member of council shall be shortened in implementing the change to the November election date. Mayors and members of council who were elected at a May general election and whose terms are to expire as of June 30 shall continue in office until their successors have been elected at the November general election and have been qualified to serve.

D. In any city or town that elects its council biennially or quadrennially and that changes to the November general election date in odd-numbered years from the May general election date in even-numbered years, mayors and members of council who were elected at a May general election shall have their term of office shortened by six months but shall continue in office until their successors have been elected at the November general election and have been qualified to serve.

(2000, c. 1045; 2002, c. 30.)

For example, in the Town Council Meeting Minutes for 2003 the following can be found from the November 4, 2003 Minutes’s Town Manager Report Section:

MANAGER TERPENNY asked for Council approval to ask Delegate Nutter to sponsor a Charter amendment allowing Town purchases to follow State Code guidelines. He explained that Town Charter has never been changed egarding Town purchases and is currently way below public procurement laws. Currently, Town Charter requires bidding for purchases over three thousand dollars ($3,000.00); State law requires bidding for purchases over fifty thousand dollars ($50,000.00). Councilman Barber made a motion to allow Manager Terpenny to proceed with the request for sponsorship of a Charter amendment allowing Town purchases to follow State Code guidelines, which was seconded by Councilwoman Carter. Council voted as follows: AYES: Ashworth, Ballengee, Barber, Carter, Lester, and Weaver. NAYS: None.

Unfortunately, we are now almost 6 years after this issue was reported to Town Council and Town Council voted to approve the Charter change and no such change has occurred. I did check the Legislative Information System data for changes in Charter throughout the State and this change did not appear in list of passed, failed, or in any pending/committee lists. Unless, of course, some reason was found to indicate State officials did not think this was a good idea. (No evidence of that was found either.)

In other words, it appears that a problem was identified, a solution was found, and the ball was dropped. No further reports were documented in the Meeting Minutes to indicate if Del. Nutter had been contacted or not. One would have to assume, based upon any lack of updates to this, that it was at the Town level that communications fell apart.

If the referendum to move the vote is passed, the Town will need to update the Town Charter to reflect the new date and starting dates for candidates. This would be a good time to make an effort to go through the Town Charter looking for other issues that should be addressed and making sure that all needed updates are made. I certainly hope that the town would not plan on take 6 or more years to update the Charter for the new election date.

If the referendum fails, maybe it is still a good time to look at fixing issues that were identified 6 years ago! Either way, there needs to be some method for making sure that things are followed through on after they are presented to and voted upon by Council. Believe me, there are plenty of other such “ball dropping” events filed throughout the Minutes. But, don’t take my word for it, look for yourself …. at least until I finish my report:)

The most recent application of this section of the Town Charter would have been the Aquatic Center. However, I am sure there are other projects that meet the above criteria.

The purpose of the criteria is to prohibit any misuse of taxpayer funds by way of deals arranged by the Council Members where a perceived conflict of interest would exist.

Just something to be thinking about. Sorry, but I’m still tied up on some big projects and don’t have much time to offer more. Here’s hoping some of you pick up the ball and run with it:)

By Carol Lindstrom On March 12 at 12:00 PM