Biddlecomb Column: Business as usual in Dumfries

Where have you gone Chris Brown and Mike Riley?

Suddenly we long for the days when the only controversies surrounding the town of Dumfries were its ill-fated attempt to establish a horse track, the semi-annual appointment of town managers and the
dissolution of its police force.

Now Virginia’s oldest continuously chartered town is almost broke and town council meetings called to alleviate the crisis have looked less like a meeting of the minds and more like a taping of the Jerry
Springer Show.

I’ve long advocated for the General Assembly to take steps in dissolving the Dumfries town charter, but if that happened, we would never have stories like this.

In the midst of a real estate and economic downturn the town is taking in far less money than it is spending each month, according to recent stories by veteran News & Messenger reporter Aileen Streng.
With reserve funds almost exhausted, the town may be forced to take extreme measures including an emergency loan and tax increases.

It’s a common tale among small towns these days.

Other, more extreme, measures include forcing town workers to take unpaid leave, which could save more than $70,000. Another proposal, suggested by town council member Cliff Brewer, would require
the mayor and council to forfeit their pay for a year saving about $41,500. This is not unprecedented — the Occoquan Town Council works for $1 a year.

No action was taken last week on Brewer’s suggestion and some even treated the proposal with indignation.

“Lucky them,” council member Dorothea Barr said during budget meeting last week, referring to her counterparts in Occoquan. Looking for money to save, Barr took a shot at Brewer and council member
Sue Cornell, saying both should reimburse the town for expenses paid during a town council retreat neither attended.

Then, it was on.

“For you to tell me to pay when you did not pay your taxes for years, don’t expect me to pay that,” Cornell said, referring to Barr’s failure to pay property taxes and sanitation fees on time. Barr failed to
pay her trash bill on time for about 10 years, forcing the town to take civil action in 2003, according to stories in the News & Messenger.

She was also late paying town property taxes in 2005, 2006 and in June 2008. A story by Streng in September 2008 reported the following:

“While the tax bill was due June 5, Barr did not pay it until Aug. 14, less than two hours after learning that a Freedom of Information request was filed by the Potomac News and Manassas Journal
Messenger with the town concerning her property taxes, sanitation fees and other matters.”

I’m sure that was all a coincidence.

There’s a reason this is called public service. People aspire to elected office to serve the people who must pay the bills — the taxpayer. Serving as a member of town council is not a full time job; some
wonder if it’s even a job at all.

Forgoing one’s pay is a noble course to take when taxpayers are being asked to pay more and town workers are being asked to take unpaid leave. Not only should this be done, it should be written into
the town’s charter. And don’t get me started on the costs of so-called council retreats.

By forgoing their pay, council won’t solve the budget crisis, but it would at least help restore some public confidence.

Public confidence is more valuable than money when you are a small town struggling to find revenue to stay afloat. Public confidence is what attracts businesses that set up shop and pay taxes
supporting the town’s endeavors. Public confidence makes a town attractive to families looking for a place to live. That, by the way, helps increase home values, which stabilizes tax revenue.

If no one has confidence in the Dumfries Town Council, then why should people have confidence in the town itself? We can’t lay this debacle completely at the feet of a couple of town council members
(though they aren’t helping), because this type of petty bickering is tradition in Dumfries. I’ve lived here for a little more than a decade and I’ve seen enough to fill volumes.

Aileen Streng has covered Dumfries for years. How her head doesn’t explode after attending some of these town council meetings is a tribute to her professionalism and rock steady persona. Jonathan
Hunley covered Dumfries back in the late 1990s and I think his head actually did explode on a few occasions.

For the record, Hunley was personally responsible for keeping the debate over the horse track open to the public. His persistency in challenging the town council on violations of open meeting laws was
text book.

Dumfries prides itself at being Virginia’s oldest continuously chartered town. That, in a sense, is a play on words. Localities that preceded Dumfries are either no longer incorporated or have progressed to
city status. And since Dumfries is no longer one of America’s largest tobacco exporting ports, it may be time for the General Assembly to assess the need for such an old charter.

Alfred Biddlecomb is the former editorial page editor for the Potomac News and the Manassas Journal Messenger.