Williamsburg council defends $103 Million budget, new library being re-evaluated
Good morning! Today, WJCC school board gets proposals for renaming James Blair Middle School; we'll show how York school board used loophole to take on a colleague outside the public eye.
Corrected Edition — we changed our initial publication to correct the FOIA requirements to show they apply when 3 or more members of an elected body discuss public business, regardless of how many constitute a quorum.
Williamsburg’s city council moved a step closer to approving its $103 million budget Monday, with council members saying the proposed new library may have to be scaled back.
Many of the 10 citizens who spoke at the council’s work session suggested cutting out the proposed $26 million library, now that James City Council is planning to build its own just over the city line.
They also criticized the city’s plans to implement an admissions tax and raise water rates, meals and lodging taxes, saying they would hurt the economy.
“These are all regressive taxes in that they are levied irrespective of the incomes of those paying the tax, thereby making living in the city less affordable for those in the lower income brackets,” retired business executive Bob Wilson told the council in an open email sent out Monday.
“The more you tax something the less of it you get” said Steven F. Kennedy, a stockbroker. Kennedy waved an economics textbook at the council and recommended they read up on basic economics.
But council members responded that they have been listening to all their constituents, and that many of the $9 million in cuts made to the original proposed budget stem from their ideas.
City Manager Andrew Trivette proposed cutting $932,000 from the operating budget and eliminating 29 projects worth $15.3 million from the capital budget.
“Things are changing” on the thinking about the proposed new library, Mayor Douglas G. Pons said. He said the city has not committed anything beyond the initial $27,000 study on the proposed new building, which he said could well change.
Councilwoman Stacy E. Kern-Scheerer said the existing library would be hard to renovate because the stacks are fixed and cannot be moved without collapsing the roof, and it had other deficiencies as well.
Wilson also suggested William & Mary should be asked to provide a greater contribution to the city’s $6 million fire and emergency budget. The university pays no real estate taxes and students account for 20-40 percent of the city population, depending on various estimates. There is no exact count of the city’s student population.
How York school board used a loophole in public meetings law to rein in a colleague
York County School Board members used a loophole in the state’s public meetings law to agree privately on how they would limit comments by one of their own at board meetings.
In a move aimed at avoiding a lawsuit from the school superintendent, the board has been waiving the comment period used by board members to talk about anything they choose since their March meeting.
Board members told us they wanted to limit comments from board member Lynda J. Fairman, who voted against the change. She represents the 5th district, which covers Bethel Manor Elementary, Tabb Elementary, Tabb Middle and Tabb High schools.
Fairman has a contentious relationship with School Superintendent Victor D. Shandor, verbally sparring with him and taking actions which he says violate his employment contract. While we do not have a copy of that contract, the policy manual for school board governance and operations states “the superintendent or his designee will act as the official representative of the School Board in its relations with all employees…the Board will deal only with the superintendent in respect to all matters for which he is responsible.”
School board members asked Board Chair Kimberly S. Goodwin and District 2 Representative Zoran Pajevic to work with Shandor to discuss steps to minimize conflict, Goodwin told us.
At the March 24 meeting, the board began removing the regular agenda item that allowed board members to bring up anything they wanted to at their meetings.
This decision appears to have been made in a series of conversations by board members talking two at a time. Doing so allowed them to use a loophole in Section 2.2-3701 of Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act, which only kicks in if three or more elected officials get together to discuss public business.
Fairman’s behavior led a majority of the board to remove her from the post of board chair last May. In January the board stripped her of her committee assignments and deactivated her security badge, which is provided to all board members to give them access to school facilities.
Del. A.C. Cordoza, who represents parts of York County, Hampton and Poquoson and like Fairman is a Republican, asked the attorney general for an opinion on the legality of Fairman’s removal from the chair position.
Attorney General Jason Miyares wrote an opinion, which is not legally binding on the school board, concluding the board did not have the legal right to remove Fairman before her term expired in January. He said state code governing school board members makes no provision for removing a chair.
Fairman has said her first amendment rights had been violated and she was speaking with legal counsel about taking action against the board. She said voters of her district have been deprived from full representation.
The board has scheduled a closed-door meeting Wednesday to discuss potential litigation, which one board member told us has to do with Fairman.
Shandor declined to tell us what the subject of the meeting will be, and Fairman has never returned half a dozen telephone calls and emails over the course of the past three months.
In a Feb. 10 memo to the board, the superintendent accused Fairman of “repeated violations of the board’s norms and protocols/code of conduct, school board policy and law.”
Shandor’s comments, contained in the 8-page memorandum, outlined a dozen instances where Fairman took actions he said violated his contract.
“Violations of the Superintendent's employment contract can expose the entire Board to an action for breach of contract,” his memorandum warned.
WJCC School Board gets suggestions to rename James Blair Middle School today
Potential new names for James Blair Middle School will be publicly unveiled to the Williamsburg-James City County School Board today.
Board members voted last month to ask the committee set up to review renaming James Blair to bring proposals for new names today, without committing to approving the change.
Proponents of changing the middle school’s name say James Blair -- founder and first president of William & Mary -- should not be associated with the middle school because he was a slave owner.
Faced with a poll showing 53% of stakeholders wanted to keep the name, Board members opted to give the community more time to learn about the issue hoping to change minds on the issue.
But they told the committee to continue its work and bring back proposed names to today’s meeting, with Board Chair Sarah G. Ortego stressing “we will not entertain names of any human beings, alive or dead.”
The 15-member committee polled 1,724 people who were students, parents, staff and residents in the school’s district.
Only 37% of those polled wanted to change the name, 53% were opposed, and 10% were unsure.
Several board members who were otherwise in favor of changing the name openly worried that ignoring the results of the poll would lead the public to conclude their opinions did not matter.
“I think the survey really gives a voice to the community and in my opinion the community has precedence over the (naming) committee,” Roberts District representative Daniel R. Cavazos said.
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Passings
Willie Edward “Eddie” Atkins, Jr., 87, April 30.