During its regular meeting last week, members of Glasgow Town Council responded to concerns raised by citizens, but offered little in the way of clear answers to questions raised both at last week’s meeting and the previous meeting on July 14, leading to frustrated exchanges between Council members and the citizens in attendance.
Tensions began during the public comments portion of the meeting, during which several citizens spoke to either reiterate questions and concerns that were raised at the previous meeting or to raise new ones.
One citizen, Mary Reynolds, noted that the town truck that she had asked about at the July meeting now had a town decal on it, and asked if there was a mileage log kept for it. Mayor Paul Williams replied that the town kept a mileage log for all of its vehicles. Reynolds then asked if the truck was only for use within town limits, to which Williams replied that the truck was for town business and that he could “take it to Richmond if I wanted.”
During the period of the meeting dedicated to “other council comments,” Williams explained that answers to the questions that have been raised by citizens at Town Council meetings would be provided by Town Manager Allyson Finchum “because that’s where the job is going to be done” after council approves them.
Citizens began asking if the town manager should be required to attend the work session the Council voted to hold at the July meeting, and Williams tried to calm them down, noting, “We’re not going to get anything done with 20 people taking.”
When asked by one citizen if there would be an answer to her questions - which were about the amount of money in the town’s savings account and whether the town was still participating in the Virginia Investment Pool program – at next month’s meeting, Williams replied, “Hopefully,” which prompted more questions from the crowd.
“I’m not going to tell you that she is definitely going to get that done because we have a lot of things that need to get done,” he said. “We’re going to get the town work done. Insurance and questions about finances, we’ll get to.”
Williams also pushed back on comments about the lack of transparency from Council.
“You guys act like we’ve been doing stuff outside of this meeting hall,” he said. “We have a meeting every month. Everything we do in this town we do at that monthly meeting. … We’re discussing what we need to do in public at these meetings. If nobody’s at the meeting, it doesn’t mean we’re not being transparent. It means no one’s coming to the meetings to hear what we say.”
Council member Natalie Harris offered answers to some of the questions that were raised during the public comment period.
In regard to whether or not Glasgow has a town attorney, she said that Finchum, in an effort to reduce expenses for the town, had advised Council to discontinue the practice of having an attorney attend every Council meeting. Harris noted that there was an attorney in Roanoke, Mike Lockaby, whom the town retained to seek advice from for “special situations.”
She also provided some clarity on the terms of the rental agreement between the town and Deb Farina, the chair of the town’s planning committee, to rent space in the old library building for an antique store.
Harris said when the proposal came before Council at its April 14 meeting, Farina had initially offered $150 per month in rent and that she had “sarcastically” suggested a rent of $200 per month, which Council ultimately agreed to. She also said that Williams had commented that the town should pay for the utilities for the space, which she opposed. The agreement was approved in a 5-1 vote, with Harris voting against it.
Harris reiterated her desire to hold a work session to provide answers to the questions raised by citizens, referencing her motion from the previous meeting.
Williams said, however, that the motion “wasn’t voted on for some reason.”
At the July 14 meeting, Harris made a motion to hold the work session, which was seconded by Brandall Branch. Williams called for a vote of those in favor, but did not ask if anyone was opposed. An audio recording of the meeting made by The News-Gazette picked up at least three distinct votes in favor – Harris, Branch, and William Thomas.
Williams did not respond to requests for comment or to clarify his statement regarding the vote.
Council member Marcie Hill also addressed the citizens who spoke, asking if they “really realize what it really means to be a mayor or a Council member or the town manager,” and noting that there are “limitations to what you can do in any of these seats up here.”
She went on to say that, while she agrees that there are a lot of things in town that need to be addressed, there are some things that need to be prioritized over others, such as cleaning up the town and making repairs and improvements to the town’s wastewater treatment plant, which received a notice of violation from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality in March due to sludge build-up from the plant making its way into the James River.
“Yes, a lot of things are important, but they have to take a backseat to these crucial things,” she said. “You want water coming to your house. You want sewage to go away from your house. That’s what’s important, not where the truck is driven.”
She also noted that there are limits to what the Town Council can do with some things, such as property near the railroad tracks or Dominion Power’s utilities, and that even things that the Town Council and town manager can do can take time to implement. She asked the citizens to be patient in waiting for answers to their questions.
“When you have complaints, comments, [or] concerns in open session, that may not be the best time to answer the questions,” she said. “They might need to do research to get the correct answer. Give people time to put their thoughts together and do their research on some of these things.”
Hill specifically commented on the desire raised by several citizens at both the July and August meetings to have the town playground cleaned up and the equipment there repaired or replaced, again emphasizing that the effort would likely take time and may require help from citizens to plan and fundraise for the repairs to be done because “there’s only so much money to go around.”
Earlier in the meeting, Williams expressed a desire to form a Parks and Recreation Committee for the town and asked for volunteers for it. Following Hill’s comments, one resident in attendance volunteered to be on that committee.
In an effort to address concerns about funding for some of the town’s amenities and civic organizations, Hill made a motion to amend the budget to reallocate the money budgeted for compensation for the Council and the mayor ($4,200 in total, enough for $50 per month for each member and the mayor) to be spent on “something,” noting that it wasn’t much but “it’s a start.”
Vice Mayor Tom Camden seconded the motion, which passed in a 4-1 vote. Harris voted against it and Branch was not in attendance. The vote prompted applause from the citizens in attendance.
Following the vote, Harris addressed the crowd, saying that the issue had come up before and she had stated her opposition to it then, so “this is kind of a punishment for speaking out.”
Hill told Harris to “put your money where your mouth is,” adding that she was willing “to spend their money,” referring to a comment Harris had made to the citizens earlier in the meeting about the town potentially having to raise taxes in order to pay for things, specifically for potentially bringing some staff positions back to full-time.
Harris told The News-Gazette over the phone last Wednesday, the day after the meeting, that part of the reason she had opposed removing compensation for Council members when it had first been raised was due to the fact that, at the time, she had no other source of income like other members of Council did. She has since begun to collect Social Security, but also opposed the motion due to it being made for all members of Council, and not just an individual member or members donating their own compensation stipends back to the town.
State code requires any changes to compensation to elected officials be made through an ordinance and require a public hearing before said ordinance can be voted on.
Hill did not respond to requests for comment on her motion or Harris’ accusation that the motion was in some way a punishment for her.
Note: This article has been edited to correct an error in the reporting of the amount of the proposed rent for the antique store operating in the old town library building.
