Dumfries mayor wants to make some changes

By Aileen Streng

Published: July 26, 2008

Dumfries Mayor Fred Yohey wants to make some changes to how the town council and town staff conduct busi-ness.

While not all the Dumfries Town Council members agreed with Yohey's proposals, they did discuss them at a meeting earlier this week.

Yohey introduced "Proposed Policy Rules for the Dumfries Town Council" at the July 1 Town Council meeting, the first such with the three new council members—Dorothea Barr, Nancy West and Willie Toney.

While Yohey had shared his proposed rules with the new council members about three weeks before they took office, the other council members did not receive copies until days before that meeting when it was included in their board meeting packets.

Discussion on the proposed rules was deferred to the July 22 meeting in order to give all the members a chance to study them.

And most of them had questions and comments about the rules, which ranged from televising all town council meet-ings to requiring the town manager to provide a schedule of his meetings to the mayor.

Currently, the town broadcasts its regular town council meeting on the first Tuesday of the month, but not its work sessions, which are held on the third Tuesday of the month. This week's meeting was a work session and was not televised.

"As we can see from tonight, there is a lot that goes on at a work session that the public does not see," said West. "It's like reading the last chapter of a book without ever having read the first chapter. You don't know what lead up to that."

Before the discussion of Yohey's rules, the council had a heated debate about an already approved lease agreement for the police department.

Still, not everyone favored the proposals including the televising of all meetings.

"I make a motion that we don't put this up for a vote," said Councilman Clyde Washington. "I don't want to move this forward. I don't want to do any of these things."

"Let's at least discuss them first," Yohey said. "I've been working on them for months.

"After what we see happening here tonight, it's a big accomplishment to get a written agreement on anything," Yohey said.

None of Yohey's 11 proposed policy rules were voted on during the work session, but they could be at the council's August meeting.

There was a great deal of discussion about Yohey's proposal to require the town manager to "post his schedule of meetings with non-town government officials so that individual members of the town council can be briefed on these meetings."

Town Manager Dave Whitlow questioned the need,

"My policy has always been that what I share with one member, I share with all members," Whitlow said. "I felt I was briefing the council on things that were coming up, on meetings I've been to which resulted in information that needed to be shared with the council."

"Of all the policies you have proposed, I think this one teeters the closest to the micromanaging level," Toney said to Yohey.

"I thought this was a compromise I could live with because for two years I've been trying to figure out how you could be mayor of a town and not go to any meetings that are held in town hall," Yohey said. "I'd like to know what the schedule is so I can get together with [the town manager] after meetings and ask what happened."

"But we are still brief on those items," said Councilman Cliff Brewer.

"This would be a check to see if we are being briefed on everything," Yohey said.

Whitlow pointed out that there are some issues discussed in meetings that need to be work on over time before they are resolved or need to be brought to the attention of the council.

"We don't want to waste your time on issues that we don't have the answers to yet," Whitlow said.

"I know you have felt sometimes that you've been excluded from meetings with developers or the landfill," Whitlow said to Yohey. "There is a real advantage to separating staff from the decision mak-ers.

"Even if you come to a meeting as an individual and are not speaking for the entire town council, your lan-guage and your words to them are taken as something with more authority than staff has," Whitlow said. "There is a great advantage to staff to be able to negotiate with people on an issue before asking the council to weigh in."

"Sometimes I need to go down to [a local restaurant] to find out what is going on in town," Yohey said. "It's embarrassing when someone asks me about something and I don't know. There has got to be a better way. I was just trying to come up with a compromise."

"I have felt for a long time that there has been a lack of communication between the mayor and the town manager," West said.

"I don't know what the problem is or even if there is a problem," Barr said. "Maybe you could get together once a week and just talk. Maybe it's just that simple."

"This is getting to the point of being silly," Yohey said. "It's like Dave and I are fighting or something. It's no big deal. I guess everybody has a different style. If the system says I can't go to meetings, I guess I will just have to live with it."

"I'm sure Fred and I can sit down and work out something that makes sense," Whitlow said.

"I think you should be commended for showing some foresight in coming up with policy changes," Toney said to Yohey. "That is not to say we will agree with them all. But it shows someone is taking some interest in this body."

Staff writer Aileen Streng can be reached at 703-878-8010.