Council - Special Meeting

and your following, Lord, to everyone in our community and following your guidance. We thank you for the way you have raised us. And Lord, please be gracious in the next fiscal years also as we close this year out. And as always, Lord, please be our first responders. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. We'll continue with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I want to welcome everybody for our closing meeting for the fiscal year. And I'd like to welcome everyone that is viewing from home. Welcome to our council members that are attending electronically. We will continue now with the roll call. I see that we do have a forum. We'll go ahead with the roll call. If we don't mind, let's do it verbally, please.

Cornette.

Present.

Hayes. Present. Gates. Present. Spencer. Present. Jennings. Present. Atwell. Present. May. Carter.

Okay. We will need an approval of our minutes of June 15th meeting. Second. Move and second. Any questions? Any comments? Any Anything anyone wants to change there? None being heard, all in favor of accepting the minutes of June 15th meeting. We need an approval of the agenda for tonight.

So are there any additions?

I've got one quick. This isn't an agenda change, but the accounts are on this agenda. And there were two additional accounts that came in by the end of the fiscal year. But after the agenda packets were sent out, you'll see those in front of you. One was the annual payment for the town attorney and one is for new optics for the police department that are purchased out of excess funds.

Okay, I'll second the motion.

Okay, Dr. Gates, did you need to amend your motion?

That was me.

Oh, I'm sorry.

So I will amend it with these two invoices included in your accounts.

I'll second it.

And then we have a motion and a second. All in favor of the agenda? And it is unanimous. Okay, we have no public hearings scheduled for the night. We have no public presentations. We will move right along to public comment time. And the first person we have for public comment is Eddie Loudon. Mr. Loudon, if you'd please approach the podium, try to speak into the microphone, and give us your name, address, and then the floor is yours, sir.

Good afternoon, everyone. My name's Eddie Laufen. I live at 704 Wasson Valley Road in Marion, Virginia. I'm here to request an addition to the events occurring Saturday at Riverbend and Sunday between the baseball game and the fireworks. I got this idea Sunday morning, watching CBS Sunday morning, And the comment was made during that program that everyone should take the time to read the Declaration of Independence. And the comment was made, most people have read the first paragraph and are familiar with it. So I printed the Declaration of Independence and started reading it. Again, I totally agree with the comment. I had never read past the first paragraph, or at least I did not remember reading it. And I thought with this weekend being the 250th celebration of this great nation, reading the Declaration of Independence, the very article that started our independence, would be appropriate. At the River Bend, there's a car show and music on the 4th of July. And then there's a ball game and fireworks the following day at the baseball stadium. And I would personally like to be able to read the Declaration of Independence at both events. I have copies of it here with me if you'd like me to pass them out to you.

If you'd hand them to Chief Testament, he'd be more than happy to hand them to us.

Have you discussed this with Ken, Eddie?

With who?

Ken.

I have not.

How long will it take you to read that?

Approximately 10 minutes.

Wow, you think you can keep people's attention for 10 minutes?

You know, it would be worth it to me because the time that I'm taking to read the Declaration of Independence is not interfering with anything at either event.

I think it's a great idea. I'm not sure you can keep people's attention that long.

Well, even a band can't keep people's attention unless they like the song being played.

I mean, I think it's a great idea. I'd maybe. Yeah, I think you would have to coordinate it with Ken. What do you think, Andrew?

Oh, I thought you said Avery. She asked you a question, sir.

Yeah, certainly. I can get you in touch with Mr. Heath tomorrow. Okay. I'll grab your contact information if that would be okay and have you call him. He kind of handles the programming. Certainly for the... things on the 4th at Riverbend. The stuff on the 5th is more in conjunction with the county, so I don't know how much of a grip he would have on that programming, but I'd be happy to share your info.

Okay. Do you want that information now or after the end of the meeting?

You can, if you want to write it down, you can hand it over to me.

As far as you were talking about the events at the stadium on the 5th, I think I may have a contact person for you, but if you'll message me, then we can talk about that. It's not a town matter.

With that being said, that's why I'm here.

thank you thank you thank you thank you yes and uh we certainly hope that you get to do that uh i don't believe there's any motion that's necessary on this matter okay uh next we have dr charles watson And before you begin, sir, I want to say that I shared your historical representation that you shared with us the last time with someone who confirmed it and added to it. And we'll talk about that another day.

Well, actually, yesterday I was on my way down here when I figured out that I'm meeting today. But yesterday was the 250th anniversary of the Commonwealth of Virginia. In June 29th, 1776, in Williamsburg, Patrick Henry was selected governor. And do you know who was there at the Fifth Virginia Convention in Williamsburg? A man from right here in this area here, he had bought land at Royal Oak. It used to be called Indian River, and then it became the middle fork of the Holston, and then it became Royal Oak. And then he changed the name to Goodwood, or somebody changed the name to Goodwood because Royal wasn't a very popular topic at that time. But, yeah, I think... if you look at the comprehensive plans, zoning and all that, if you look at the vision for Marion, and you look at particularly the tourism thing that the Chamber of Commerce put together from 2023, which I think when the people planned the The Planning Commission came up with a comprehensive plan in 2023. They must have read that. Because in that document, what did people like most about Marion? Tourists. They liked the beautiful scenery and friendly people. And down there, the most... people that visited, of the visitors, the most places they went were to the lake, the mountains and to museums around and I think Marion ought to have a museum practically dedicated to Arthur Campbell. Arthur Campbell was in what's now with Bill to sign the Fincastle Resolutions. He was elected from here, this area here from Royal Oak, Fincastle County at the time, which was a big, humongous area. He was elected to Williamsburg and when he was in Williamsburg he signed the preliminary stuff to the actual Declaration of Independence. But Virginia already declared independence. But as far as Mr. Laughlin goes, I would be more impressed to read one sentence in the Declaration of Independence ten times than the whole thing for ten minutes. But the part that says, we only choose to be self-evident. All men are created equal. They are endowed by their creator. for certain inalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and governments are instituted to protect those rights, That's the key phrase in the Declaration of Independence, because it's saying to King George and to the people Americans were saying to them, hey, look, our rights come from God. We don't claim you as a king anymore. Our king is King Jesus.

So that's just a little historical piece.

But to close out the year, I want to thank you all for serving. I know it's a big-time commitment and maybe a brain commitment, too. I'd like to thank Andrew and Tony. I saw these guys out there mowing today. I mean, they're training. They're just, they're manicure stuff. They're really great. One thing I would like to mention, my vision for Marion really doesn't include tattoo paulers, and it doesn't include... gambling games, the preferred name is skill games for the people that are promoting them, and it doesn't include vaping. Last week, I was down at 20 Watermill Road. 20 Watermill Road is the water pump station. And I was down there inquiring what this guy there was doing. He was shirtless, had tattoos all over his body, all over his hands, and he was vaping as we talked. We talked a little bit, and he absolutely wouldn't listen to me and explain why he shouldn't be there. He had come through the town road closed sign, and he'd come through about six signs that I have posted, no trespassing, that sort of stuff. And he was down there at the town water pump station. And I said, look, the girl that was with him with the baby, she was a whole lot more reasonable in understanding, but she was trying to beg him to leave. He would not leave, and he did threaten me with, I'm going to blank your blank. I called 911, but, you know. But anyway, that's something to be on the lookout for people down there at the pump station. They don't obey the rules. The people that come down there usually don't obey the rules unless they're fishermen or something like that. But I did want to thank everybody for serving this past year and hope this next year is a good year. My wife and I drove around Marion, and it's amazing how some of the neighborhoods that used to look really – Not very good. Look a whole lot better. Look really nice. We went up to the Carnegie School. I hope something really big, something really important can be done there. I hope something can be done to commemorate, to thank Arthur Campbell for what he did. At 15, he was captured by the Indians serving in the militia. He lived with an Indian chief for two to three years. He managed to escape to the British and fought for them, but then after a while he fought his uncle. Well, you know, there are two historical markers down there at Park Boulevard about Arthur Campbell. I don't know if you read them lately, but they're really good. Okay, the last thing is I did bring my feelings about Marion And this is... It's upside down. Oh, excuse me. This, I got this, I thought I'd gotten it at Trisha's, but I didn't. I got it at a little... store up from her they were a bakery but they didn't last very long but life is better in a small town and probably all of you know it uh our family loves it here in marion and uh hope we can keep it nice place to live thank you thank you always appreciate your comments

And that concludes everyone that signed up for public comment. Is there anyone else here that would like to speak? Here's your chance. And none being heard, we'll move along to council members and committee reports. And we'll begin with Dr. Gates.

Yes, I'd like to just make a little statement and then make a motion. I'd like to take a moment. This is AI. It captures my thoughts much better than I can say them. And it's quicker and it's you don't have to hear me rambling. So I'd like to take a moment to recognize the outstanding job our town manager has done during the first six months. with the town while six months isn't a long time. It has been more than enough time to see his professionalism, his work ethic, his sound judgment, and his commitment to moving our community forward. He has earned our confidence and I believe he has also earned the confidence of our staff and our citizens. He has demonstrated strong leadership while building positive working relationships throughout the organization. As our town continues to grow and the responsibilities of local government become more complex, I believe it's important that we provide him with the organizational structure he feels will best position the town for continued success. Specifically, I support transitioning to a structure with two assistant town managers, one focused on operations and one focused on administration. I also support the assistant town manager for the administrative position and that being Samantha White, at the beginning of this new fiscal year. Doing so will provide stability, strengthen our leadership team, and allow our town manager to delegate responsibilities appropriately while maintaining his focus on the broader strategic direction of our community. In this role, I'd like to make a motion that we appoint Samantha White as an assistant town manager in charge of administration.

I'll second that motion. I think that's a great idea. That is a great idea.

Okay, we have a motion, we have a second. Discussion?

Well, I think in the past we've heard all the different jobs that there are you know, that Andrew is trying to do and that Tony is doing for operations. And I think she can take some of the load and has taken some of the load off of the employees here. And I think that she would be a very good addition as assistant town manager.

OK.

There are some questions that I have. And Mr. Finnick, I'm glad that you are here because some of these questions you may need to answer. I'm unsure. In my research on looking at this, I do see that in our town code, the town manager does have the ability to hire assistants of whatever nature he seems. So that is a power that he has. In 15.2-1502, I see that local government officers may employ, when duly authorized by the governing body, deputies and assistants to aid them in carrying out their powers and duties. Dropping down to subsection C, not reading what deputy means in subsection B, assistant means a person who is not a public officer, but a deputy or a deputy, rather, but who aids or helps a public officer. So I need clarification on the public officer part of that, Mr. Fennec.

Well, up until just now, just so the council knows, our assistant manager is a public officer that is appointed by this council. So if we're going to have two, both would be appointed by town council.

Okay, that's not what it says in our code. If you want to refer to, and I believe this is our code, 15.2-1502.

15.2, I believe that's state code.

Okay. So, yes, okay. If we're looking at state code and we're working towards changing our town code to, is this part of the code that has been changed then?

I don't have my laptop with me, but I do not believe that that has been changed.

Okay. I'd have to look. So we can designate an assistant as a public officer when the Virginia Code says that they're not?

I don't think that that is preventing... So if we're not prevented from what we can, if we were prevented by the code from making them a public officer, then we couldn't.

Okay. Then going over to our town code then. Under the section 2-102 point, the employment and duties powers of the town manager, it says that subject to the consent of town council may appoint or employ or may remove and discharge such officers, employees, and assistants as may be necessary to carry out the work of those departments of the town. committed him by ordinance subject to the approval of council dropping down a few lines and and it also says that the town manager shall be accountable to the town council only if you drop down all the way to the bottom of that it the last line of that is the assistant town manager shall have all powers and duties in delegated to the town manager in his absence um i need some clarification on the word absence we would need to define which one of the two assistants would have

Take that spot.

Well, that's one of the things that I wanted to ask is that having two assistants, how would we designate?

Council will have to direct which one will fall if the town manager is absent for whatever reason. Which assistant would... rise to that level. Since we're getting close to being complete on the revisions, we can go back and once council states which one of the two, administration or operational, we can amend that.

We can amend that. Now, my question to council is what happens to our human resources position?

The human resources position is kind of like Tony. Tony's CERT director with the additional responsibility of assistant town manager, so it would be the same thing. She would still operate in the capacity as human resources director with the additional responsibility of assistant town manager.

Okay, so she would continue in her present duties and then expand her duties. That's correct. Which she's already doing, by the way, anyway. And that is because in past, for the public's knowledge, town managers have decided to cross-train numerous employees to do numerous tasks so that they can... so that we can hire less people and work more efficiently. I would assume that that is the answer to that. Mr. Fennec, can you inform us of any changes to FOIA that become effective July the 1st? in regards to how we vote and whether we can take items that are not on the agenda and vote on them.

Voting always has, that's not changed. It has to be open and present to the public. My microphone's on. I'm wearing it. So I don't think that there's any change in that regard.

Okay. What I have found through just a little bit of research that I was able to do was the FOIA has changed in the new FOIA guidelines, rules for items added after the meeting starts. And my research says that items added to the agenda after the meeting commences will be considered and discussed. during the meeting. However, final action such as voting, adopting, or making a binding decision cannot be taken on those items unless it is a time-sensitive matter or it is properly identified as a closed meeting item. That would mean that the closed meeting would have had to have been identified. And what I see that these new FOIA rules is for more transparency. So my question to you, again, is something comes up during council members' time, such as it just had, and a council member makes a motion to take an action that's not on the agenda after tonight, starting tomorrow. Can we vote on that item since it wasn't on the agenda?

As you just read, you can if... Council believes that that's something that needs to happen immediately. In this case.

But that doesn't apply to what we're talking about now. And the motion in a second is still on the floor. We're still in discussion if anyone. So after tonight, that would apply. right okay so uh today uh today is the close of those and um i'm sure that you're looking at the foia rules uh i did not get here with my laptop oh no no no that don't mean right now um you're still our foia officer and uh we uh uh we'll wait for that uh now Does anyone, yes, anyone else have any questions?

Okay, if it's not clear to people here, can we put it on the agenda for the first meeting? We don't have to do that. I mean, I don't think we do.

You can postpone it to the next meeting if you want to.

I'm for it now, but...

Understand again what... Any changes are effective July 1st.

so we can go ahead and vote on it tonight you can or if you want it or if you want to postpone it and you're not clear on um and also since we don't know who is going to actually be the first and the second town assistant town manager uh i'm i'm not completely comfortable with and that's why i brought this up because i found this just this morning and

It would be my fault that Andrew would know that. And I would think he would have the power to do it anyway.

Well, but no, he wouldn't be here. He would be absent. And see, that's that's why I question the word absence, because I mean, I know, but he probably knows who he wants to do that.

Well, that would be up to council.

That would be our decision. Okay.

And we can make that once we know we have a two structure. Yeah. Party. We can.

add that to the code yeah okay okay so is everybody comfortable with what we've discussed uh councilman atwell do you have anything to add to the conversation any questions or your i don't think so i just sort of been taking it all in but no i think i'm good okay all right so uh that is where my research has led me i am myself not ready to vote but if council is ready to vote then we may take a vote all in favor then we're unanimous okay now we need to put it on the agenda to delegate what authorities to what

assistant town managers that we have make a motion we refer to the ordinance committee to work with mr finnick to delegate how when andrew's out of the office how who becomes the town manager acting town manager i second that motion well i i've got a question would the personnel committee be involved in that i don't think so but i think ordinance is what we're trying to create here yeah okay

Okay. To bring you up to speed, Councilman May, we are a motion and a second, and we have just voted on making Samantha White the Assistant Town Manager. You arrived 30 seconds. Too late to vote. Sorry.

I apologize.

Is there any remedy for that?

You've already voted, but I think that... Now that Councilman May is here, does he... You can ask him what his vote is, but I think you've not voted to make her the assistant. She would be one of two assistants.

Do you you may make any comments that you would like to say?

I could vote. That's what everyone did.

Well, I've already voted. OK, we yeah, we apologize for being late.

Well, we'll move on with other matters then. Dr. Gates, you have anything further?

Nothing further.

OK. Councilwoman Spencer.

There is a motion on the floor. Yeah.

Oh, we didn't vote on the motions in the committee. Okay. Well, in the wind, we haven't.

We need to restate the motion for Todd.

Let's restate the motion for Todd since he's.

We'll make a motion. We refer to the ordinance committee to work out the scenario in our new updated ordinances that who will be in charge of the town in Andrew's absence of the two ordinances. assistant town managers. We have to make a choice on who will be the person taking.

Yes. So we're motioning to send to committee who would actually be in charge as the assistant in the absence and I wish you could reword that to define more absence because in today's electronic era where we can be on the other side of the world and communicate, what does absence mean? Does absence mean not in the building or in a coma? Not that I want a coma, but you know what I'm saying.

Not able to come to the meetings.

Not able to do his delegated duties.

Not able to do his delegated duties.

And if he can do it automatically, I mean electronically, then so be it.

Well, and one thing that I did find in my research as well was that by hiring the assistants, that in no way relieves the town manager of his duties. It, um, I did highlight it, but I didn't think it was pertinent. I'll go back to it.

Um, that is correct.

Okay. So I don't need to, I don't need to go that any further. Okay. So we need to vote all in favor of voting. Send that to committee all in favor and it is unanimous. Okay. Now, vice mayor Gates, do you have anything further? Thank you, sir. Councilwoman Spencer.

No, thank you.

Okay.

I can wait to the first meeting in July. I mean, it's not a big deal. I'm just we're time sensitive here.

So committee reports.

No, nothing. No, no. Okay.

Thank you. No council. Yes. Councilman May.

No reports. Apologies for being late.

Understood that that happens. I blame it on the train more times than not. And it is the train more times than not. Councilwoman Hayes, do you have any report for us tonight?

No.

Okay. Thank you for being here and with us on this. I'll continue with the mayor's report. And there's something that I want to read into the minutes because this is probably one of the last times that this will be read into the minutes. But it's something that I want to explain to the citizens because I pulled the mayor's powers and duties today off of our website. off of our town code, which is being amended as we speak, but it has to go through several processes, but the powers and duties in section two dash 81 dot the mayor shall attend the meetings of the council and preside there at he shall have all powers and duties of a member of council, including the same power as a councilman to vote upon all matters coming before the council. but shall have no veto power. The mayor shall acquaint himself with the conduct of each of the city departments, in addition to those under his immediate supervision, and from time to time shall report to the council thereon. With such recommendations as he shall deem desirable, the mayor shall be the official head of the town. Subsection B, the mayor shall have, possess, and exercise the same rights and powers given to him by general law or by special act, except insofar as such powers and rights may be amended or modified by the provisions of this chapter. The mayor shall have general supervision of all departments and the right to suspend all town officers and employees and the members of any police or fire board or commission except members of council. This is our town code. This is what people read when they look at the duties of the mayor. And as far as I know, we have not voted as a council to suspend any of this. So these are still the rights of the mayor's office until change.

I might speak. State law changed that back in the 90s.

I happen to have that. And the 15.2-1423, in addition to being the presiding officer, the chairman or mayor, as the case may be, shall be the head of the local government for all official functions and ceremonial purposes. He shall have a vote but no veto. In the event that there is no chief administrative officer, it shall be the duty of the chairman or mayor, as the case may be, to see that the functions set forth in 15.2-1541 are carried out if the governing body has not acted otherwise.

And that code section is what has been in place. The town of Marion, I don't think has, during my time as town attorney, been without a town manager or assistant. So we've never had it fall back to the third spot, that being the mayor.

Right.

In this case, I guess now it could be... Now the fourth spot. Now the fourth spot.

Yeah. So, you know, there would be quite a chain of calamities that would have to happen to empower the mayor to be the chief administrative officer of the town of Marion. So I just wanted to read that into the record so that the public is clear that the code is being changed and we will have an opportunity to inspect the new code as it comes out. It's quite an extensive volume and we'll have to go through in sections because each line deserves to be diligently gone over and then of course we will have public hearings as mandated when we changed that code. Is that correct, Mr. Fennec?

Well, most of the changes were changed by state code, so our town code, though we didn't have it changed at that time, it had no meaning because it was already superseded by state code.

And my question is why have town code when we've already got the state code?

Because we're not limited on doing certain things.

And are we limited on the powers and duties of the mayor?

Yes.

Yes. Could you give me that opinion in writing? Yes. I would love to have that just for my files and records. because there are differing opinions within legal factions. I respect your opinion, but I also know that a counsel before us at some point in time saw fit to give the mayor powers and duties beyond what was—

Again, that was the case, and I've forgotten the date, but it was changed in the 90s, early 90s.

And I don't want the public to understand that the mayor doesn't actually have those powers and abilities due to changes in the state code and things like that. That is the reason for that little exercise in our code section and the updates that we're going to be doing. other than that um juneteenth was wonderful we uh had a great time um i i want to commend everybody that took part in that and glad for everybody that showed up it was wonderful and i won't keep us here any longer by continuing my mayor's report can i just add something to that a big thanks to diane hayes for the juneteenth celebration she was she oversaw it absolutely absolutely i'm glad you there's so many people uh greg rashad there's so many people that were integral in that whole operation including one of our council members who who did attend i was glad to see her there and we all had a great time and what a fantastic band but i digress um we will move on with uh the attorney's report no report staff reports

Oh, since Stanley, the accounts and remember to consider the two.

I make a motion we pay the accounts along with the two that we have here at our desk. Second.

Okay, discussion. Those two accounts would have been in the packet that was sent out to everyone that wanted to receive the council packet. Has that been amended, Mr. King, and the additional bills sent to everyone that receives the council packet? I assume that everyone receives those.

The additional bills, if not, they're available for pickup if someone would like them. But like I said, they were not available when the agenda packet went out.

Okay. All right. So I didn't know whether we went back and took care of that and made sure that we clarified that there were a couple of bills that came in late but that were being paid. Just to make sure that we're transparent. That's all.

Yeah.

Okay. Second. Second.

all in favor of paying the bills okay thank you that's all thank you and moving right along

We have the town manager's report. Chief, if you have any, I'm sorry, I'm going to throw the chief in there real fast in case he has anything that he wants to say.

I'd just like to say thanks for the town. I've been able to help with the city's buyer and the office, our rivals. But an office that kind of got made and shit, and we're performing the way we needed to. So just to give us an advantage, hopefully it's meaningful.

Thank you, sir. Thank you for everything that you do, and the PD, of course. And I will add that I've been getting on a first-name basis with a lot of the officers that are patrolling downtown, and that is very nice to have them in presence there. And we've got some nice folks, nice folks. Okay, Andrew King.

Yeah, so back, I think it was the first meeting in May, we discussed the new Atmos Gas Franchise Agreement proposal, The town attorney, Mr. Fennec, pointed out that the $10,000 that they had included in there was an old number that had been in there for many years, and he had suggested a change to $25,000. Council discussed, and it was... 50 000 was what was settled on i presented that to atmos they agreed to come up to 25 000 they said that was what was seemed to be consistent with other localities our size i did reach out to a couple other neighboring localities to see what they did and 25,000 did seem to be consistent with a locality of our population in our land area. So they have asked that we amend our counter from 50,000 to 25,000 to be more consistent with other localities in these franchise agreements.

And you suggest that we accept that?

As the town attorney suggested that the first night this was brought up, and like I said, after looking, this seems to be consistent with other like localities, and staff does suggest that this be accepted at $25,000.

Do we need a motion on that?

Yes.

Council?

So moved.

I'll second that motion. Any further discussion of the Atmos Franchise Agreement? If no, all in favor? Yes, okay.

And that's all I have.

We have no closed session scheduled for today. Is there any further business that needs to come before the town council? None being heard, I'll entertain a motion.

To adjourn.

To adjourn. Yes. Motion second to adjourn. All in favor?