Parker seeking election changes

By Kim Walter -- kwalter@nvdaily.com

FRONT ROYAL -- After attending the annual Legislative Day in Richmond last week, Councilman N. Shae Parker is asking that the Town Council review and update the town charter.

"At an upcoming work session, I request that we look at potential charter changes," Parker said at Monday night's council meeting. He added that he'd like the current charter to be distributed to all council members for review, so that everyone could come up with changes they'd like to see made.

Parker listed a few ideas he already had for changing the town charter, including having a candidate's name placed on a ballot by petition only, moving town elections from May to November, and updating the language to make it more clear.

The Legislative Day, which was held Thursday, allows local government officials to meet with state legislators and observe General Assembly sessions.

Councilman Thomas H. Sayre said he became aware of a bill Thursday that would require localities that have May elections to pay for them out of pocket with no help from the state. It would also require payments for May elections dating back to 2009.

Sayre said that while in Richmond, he met the mayor of Blacksburg, and they discussed Blacksburg's success with moving elections from May to November.

Councilman Thomas E. Conkey agreed with Parker's idea to require a petition for a candidate to be placed on a ballot, and brought to light a further change to the town's charter.

"I would like to see that elections here in Front Royal remain non-partisan," he said, noting that there had been "a couple attempted attacks on that this year."

Currently there are no restrictions regarding partisan or non-partisan elections in Front Royal, but the town charter would be the place to make those restrictions, as was previously noted by Town Attorney Douglas Napier.

In other matters Monday, the council:

• Approved a proclamation marking April 14-20 as "disAbility Awareness Week" in Front Royal.

• Approved an ordinance allowing the town to regulate anything posted or said on the town's social media applications, like Facebook and Twitter.

• Affirmed on its first reading the advertising of real estate and personal property tax rates for fiscal year 2013, although Parker said he intends to lower the personal property estate tax once the county has officially agreed to take on the town's share of funding for Samuels Public Library. The proposed rates are the same as the current fiscal year -- 11 cents per $100 value for real estate and 64 cents per $100 value for personal property.