CCT Subcommittee #1 advanced four local charter bills, recommending all for reporting — three by unanimous 7-0 votes and one by a 6-1 margin — covering governance reforms in Waverly, Hopewell, Pocosin, and Front Royal.
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Madam Chair raised a flag about changing the composition from district members to at-large members, asking for the origin story of what prompted the change. Senator Diggs countered that the city was having problems finding people from each district and that the change is not an attempt at a power struggle or to disenfranchise anybody, adding that council members elected by district would still be expected to seek candidates within their districts.
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“Under their existing strong mayor system, the elected mayor also serves as the town's chief administrative officer, which has proved to be problematic.”
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Sign in to subscribeGood morning and welcome to county cities and towns sub number one. We're gonna kick off our meeting by taking attendance first. So Madam Clerk, if you would open the roll. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Thank you so much. And we will close the rolls. Nope, you're right here. And so. Okay, great. We're going to take up Senator Aird first because Senator Aird, you've got two bills before us. Good morning. Good morning and thank you so much. Can we start with Senate Bill 281? Perfect. Thank you. Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the committee. Senate Bill 281 is a relatively straightforward local charter request from the city of, excuse me, the town of Waverly in Sussex County. The bill basically updates their 1926 charter to transition them into a town council form of government. Essentially, as you probably have heard many times before, under this structure, the town council would remain fully elected by the voters. The mayor would be selected from among the council, and the council would hire a qualified professional town manager to oversee their day to day operations of the town. Just for comparison sake, under their existing. Under their existing strong…
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