The newest installment of the Haymarket Town Council took place Monday night as freshly-elected council member Jay Tobias, back to the council after a four-year hiatus, joined other veteran members along with the mayor at town hall for the regular monthly meeting.

While topics of discussion included the budget and spending plans, the council put off some key decisions until next month. The council has yet to fill a vacancy on the planning commission and has not appointed its own liaison to the commission either, meaning the body is two members short.

Council members entered executive session to debate the matter during the 10 p.m. hour and emerged at a stalemate on who to appoint due to the absence of vice mayor John Cole, who is expected to be back at council in August. While the names of council members vying for the liaison position to the planning commission were not made public, three town residents have put forward their names to fill the commission's member vacancy.

Included are former council member David Leake, past Board of Zoning Appeals member Rebecca Bare and former town council applicant Ralph Ring. Both Bare and Ring received write-in votes for town council during the May election even though neither publicly declared for office, with five going to Bare and one to Ring. Leake lost his seat on the council to Tobias, finishing seventh in balloting. Bare is supported by planning commission chairman Linda Landwehr.

Other present members of the planning commission include Ellie Ivancic and Stephanie Graham. The three members of the commission, absent the two vacant spots, are due to meet for their monthly meeting July 19.

The council did make one decision after re-entering its chambers some time after 10:30 p.m., unanimously naming council member Susan Edwards to lead the Architectural Review Board for her second consecutive term.

Town Manager Gene Swearingen discussed two other decisions to be made in August with the town council. The first regarded the budget, which is ongoing; the second honed in on a priorities list for the town.

Swearingen reported to the council that he met with each member along with staffers, seeking input on what items should be considered the most important for the town to pursue during the next two years. Though he did not identify what they were at the time, he did mention that he noticed suggestions were "surprisingly consistent from everybody involved."

Past statements from council members suggests the continuation of the Street Scape program is among the top-tier items for the town as the idea of creating a more pedestrian-friendly "walking town" is one of the few major items facing the town council that routinely has unanimous agreement.

The council scheduled a public hearing for its regular meeting next month to receive input from town residents about the town moving on to the next phase of the Street Scape project on two parcels of land it owns by Town Hall.

As for the priorities list as a whole, council members agreed to meet up August 7 at 1:30 p.m. for the work session. Swearingen mentioned at the meeting that the work session will be open to the public.