Dumfries police may stay put after all

By Aileen Streng

Published: July 9, 2008

The Dumfries Police Department may not be moving out of the Town Hall basement into leased space down the road after all.

At least not anytime soon.

When the Dumfries Town Council—with its three new elected members—met last week for the first time, it de-cided to reconsider the move, which had been approved only a week prior by the former council.

The subject of the lease was raised by Mayor Fred Yohey, who presented a memo entitled "Failure to Follow Prescribed Town Procedures for Execution of Police Department Lease Agreement."

"I'm most concerned about the process and the process wasn't followed," Yohey said in an interview. "The guidance that is in the town ordinance says this is the way it has got to be done and it was ignored."

Town Manager Dave Whitlow takes exception to the mayor's claims.

"There is nothing that was done here that wasn't done open and above board and that didn't involved the full knowledge and participation of the town council," Whitlow said. "I do take exception to his position."

Yohey was one of the three members dissenting on the previous vote to lease 3,000-square feet of space in the Triangle Shopping Plaza for three years until an alternative location is found or built for the police officers.

The 14 police officers and two administrative staffers currently work in about 1,000-square feet of space in the basement of Dumfries Town Hall.

The town council had agreed to spend $57,000 for the lease and $20,000 to remodel the space so it would conform to the needs of the police department.

"Why are we spending money when we don't need to?" Yohey said. "We've been downstairs for 10 years and all of a sudden we have to get this thing done so bad that we don't follow the law as to how this is supposed to be done."

The approval of the lease was the final action taken by the council before its new members—Dorothea Barr, Nancy West and Willie Toney—were sworn in last week.

"What was rush in getting the lease approved at a work session when it could have been done seven days later [when the new council members took office]. That is the key to this whole thing," Yohey said.

Whitlow has said that the majority of the council had already approved the project and he was just trying to keep it keep it moving forward.

Yohey said he believes Whitlow ignored the town ordinance regarding the execution of a contract in order to get the lease approved before the new members took office.

"I don't think he was confident that the new council would accept the lease," Yohey said. "He had more confidence in the old council."

Among Yohey's objections to the lease and the manner in which it was handled were that Whitlow did not follow town code when he presented a lease that still needed a few changes, did so at a work session instead of the council's regular meeting and presented a lease that only called for one signature instead of two.

"When the town council approved the lease it was contingent upon getting the changes in the lease," Whitlow said. "This is not unusual process at all."

Town code calls for both the town manager and the mayor to sign contracts. Whitlow said that when the changes to the lease are put in writing and the final lease agreement printed, it would include two signature lines.

The Dumfries Town Council meets twice a month in accordance to a schedule approved by the council at the beginning of each year. One meeting is called the regular meeting and the second is called a work session.

Traditionally, that has meant that matters are discussed at work sessions but voted on during the regular meeting. However, in recent years the council has taken acting during its work sessions.

"There is nothing in the town code that refers to a regular meeting," Whitlow said.

Both meetings met the state definition of a legal meeting of a governing body, Whitlow said.

"Whenever you have a quorum of elected officials, you can take action," he said.

"The reason [Whitlow] is taking exception to all this is because those very provisions [concerning contracts] are in the ordinance that talks about his duties and responsibilities. You would think he would understand that. He just wanted to get that police department," Yohey said.

"We've met all the requirements," Whitlow said. "We held it in an open meeting. We discussed it openly and freely. It was done at a time and place that was advertised. I'm missing his point somewhere here."

The council will either take up the matter again at its work session later this month or its regular meeting in August.

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