Haymarket council challengers prepare for May 6 election
By Dan Roem
No matter the outcome of the Haymarket Town Council election on Tuesday, one thing will be certain: The council makeup will change.
Voters will be casting ballots to install a new six-member town council May 6. Mayor Pamela Stutz, who casts tie-breaking votes while presiding over council, is running unopposed.
Of the four women on the current council, only Sue Shuryn is running for re-election. Susan Edwards is the only female challenger and she is joined by nine men competing for the six open seats.
Shuryn, along with Bob Weir, Ozzie Vazquez and John Cole, are the current members whose names are set to appear on the ballot.
Jay Tobias and Charles F. King Jr. are among seven non-incumbent challengers, including Edwards, Bryan Garcia, David Leake, Sean Roberts and Christopher Johnson.
Of the challengers, only Tobias and King responded to interview requests before press time.
Tobias
Tobias is a former council member who lost a re-election match in 2006. A financial professional known in part for his public disputes with the town police chief, Tobias is focusing his 2008 campaign on money issues.
“I want to see the council and the town survive this economic downturn, and I think they need good financial leaders to make that happen,” he said.
A five-year resident of the town, Tobias said he is qualified to be one of those leaders because of his management degree from George Mason University and his work “in the financial field,” though he said company policy prohibits him from tying the name of his job to his electoral bid.
Initiatives supported by Tobias during the last year include Gerry Kennedy’s $2.3 million Town Center development offer, the implementation of a 4-percent meals tax and the progression of the Street Scape project.
He called the Kennedy project “a very important piece to the development of the Town Center, as well as the financial stability of the town moving forward.”
The $2.3 million price tag did not bother Tobias, though some have said the selling price was too low. Kennedy's offer to move four historic buildings from around town on to the Town Center property was a “priceless” contribution, Tobias said.
Tobias supports the location of the new town hall to the Harrover property on the east side of town, but reckons the structure itself will probably cause some disagreements.
“Is it going to be exactly what everyone wants? No,” he said. “But we’re going to build it the best we can and make it an inviting place for people to come.”
As for the meal tax, current council members Weir and Shelia Jarboe voted against it but Tobias said it is not that bad.
“I think that the meal tax, it’s not evil by any means,” he said. “It’s not something I think the council wanted to put into place.”
The meal tax was instituted because the council needed money for the Street Scape project, which is designed to make the town more pedestrian-friendly.
Town Manager Gene Swearingen originally estimated the tax would produce about $240,000 for the Street Scape, though the most recent projections show it should earn more than that.
“I think the biggest thing is to make sure the current council and future councils [realize] that those monies are earmarked for the Street Scape and that they use those monies appropriated,” said Tobias.
Tobias also wants to examine how the town physically collects tax revenue.
“Perhaps it’s possible to adjust it where you collect it on a semi-annual [basis],” he said, suggesting the town collect half in October and the other half in April so it would have some “operating income” throughout the year.
King
Unlike Tobias, King has lived in Haymarket for more than 50 years and can trace his family roots to the town back to the 1700s.
He opposed the Kennedy project, though he declined to elaborate during a Monday interview.
“Most people know the reservations I have or had about it,” said King.
At a March public hearing, King said, “The walking-town concept: There’s nothing here to draw people to it. It’s just not here.”
King went on to say, “And if you give anybody special privileges…so you can sell this piece of property, it’s not fair to the business owners and the residents who have followed the rules all through the years.”
The former vice-chairman of the Haymarket Planning Commission has not sat on council before and does not even plan to promote himself too vigorously before the election.
“If the residents want me, then they will vote for me,” he said. “I don’t plan on doing any real campaigning or anything at all. It’s just a town council seat.”
That is in sharp contrast to fellow Kennedy opponent Weir, who has already placed campaign signs around town.
King described himself as someone is who is “very conservative when it comes to business.”
One of his goals on council would be for the local government to take a “slower approach to development and everything that’s taken place in the town.”
Changing tax rates to make future budgets work is something King is unsure about doing.
“The times are different; it’s just a different world right now,” said King. “And I don’t really know what the answer is. I don’t have any specific answers…except you just have to look at everything very hard and from every angle you can.”
Had he been on council during the last term, he said he would have liked to have slowed “some things down.
“I think the council’s done a pretty good job, reasonably,” King said. “I have no specific problems with anybody. It just seems…the current town’s emphasis [has been] on the business community, I feel.”