Even a pecan caramel cake wasn’t enough to sway the Washington Town Council to join the Board of Supervisors for a meeting to discuss sharing the cost of a new courthouse.
Jackson Supervisor Donna Comer presented Mayor Joe Whited the cake as a goodwill gesture at Monday’s council meeting, but the council voted 3-2 — with vice mayor Fred Catlin and member Jeanne Goodine voting in favor of a meeting — to table a request for a meeting by the supervisors. No date was set for future consideration.
At the August meeting of the Board of Supervisors, Comer had said someone should “show up at Town Hall with a Bundt cake” and try to talk to the town about working together on the courthouse project. Comer, bearing a pecan caramel cake in a bag, did just that.
“It’s with a heartfelt sincerity that I ask you to reconsider that invitation. We’re working on matters that are mutually important to the town,” Comer told the council. “On my way home from work … I picked up not quite a Bundt cake … but rather a caramel pecan cake. And I’m hoping that while it is a small gesture, you all will see that it is one meant to convey warmth.”
Whited said while he’s “happy to have a conversation,” he doesn’t think a joint meeting will be productive until the supervisors “make a decision about how you want to proceed.
“I appreciate the board’s interest in our views on this matter. To my mind, it is, however, premature to have a meeting,” Whited said. “I welcome their comments during public meetings, just like I have gone and provided my comments.”
Whited said he planned to donate the cake to the Rappahannock County Sheriff’s Office.
Wakefield Supervisor and Chair Debbie Donehey, who accompanied Comer, said during public comment she would prefer the town be involved in courthouse discussions earlier rather than later.
Both supervisors expressed disappointment to the Rappahannock News Tuesday about the town’s vote.
“It was disappointing that [the town’s vote] happened as quickly as it did,” Donehey said. “I would have liked to have seen or heard more discussion, but it was obvious that a couple in the town had pretty much made up their mind.”
“While I was not surprised, I was a little disappointed that they tabled it, but I left hopeful that maybe they heard us,” Comer said.
Supervisor Whitson’s proposal
Hampton Supervisor Keir Whitson, whose district includes the town, and who has spearheaded the effort to work with the town, was not present at the Town Council meeting. He had sent a letter to the town in May proposing it increase its meals and lodging tax from 2.5% to 4% — which primarily impacts The Inn at Little Washington. Money earned from the 1.5% increase would go to the county.
Whited said during a meeting in May that Whitson’s letter was “gratuitous” and a result of “poor planning by the county for the last decade.”
“I find it difficult to understand why this idea is so offensive to folks in the town,” Whitson said at the Sept. 3 Board of Supervisors’ meeting. He added that the town should consider raising meals and lodging rates “out of fairness to all the other businesses in the county whose patrons are paying 4% meals and lodging taxes.”
Whitson told the Rappahannock News on Tuesday that the “idea of tabling any joint meeting with the Board of Supervisors really comes down to this Town Council not wanting to talk about revenue sharing.”
On Monday night, Whited said the county’s reliance on the tax increase would be essentially “banking on sand,” and legally, there is no avenue for the town to make an agreement with the county like what was proposed by Whitson. He said even if the current council agreed to the proposed increase and funneled it to the county, a new council could reverse the decision easily.
“There’s no real legal-binding construct for the town to enter that sort of agreement … we could all be voted out next November, and there’s nothing binding this legally to some future payment structure, and certainly not for 30 years,” Whited said. It’s estimated that it will take the county roughly 30 years to pay off the debt service of a new courthouse.
Vice mayor Catlin was in favor of meeting with the county, but admonished Whitson’s “preconditions” laid out in the letter, and said he hopes the two bodies can “avoid political grandstanding and instead work side by side to help address the shared challenges our community faces.” He proposed if taxes were to be raised in the town, an equal raise should be made in the county.
Whitson told the Rappahannock News that he may introduce a resolution to impose a “tax overlay” on the town, which would require the town to agree to the proposal.
“I hate to see it get to that point,” Whitson said Tuesday. “I think we try to approach it in a friendlier way. But, if it comes to that point, then I certainly would encourage our board to move ahead with the tax overlay on the town, and that would require the town council to agree to it, but it would be a more formal action.”
Town’s contributions to county
The town contributes about $300,000 a year in taxes to the county, and Whited said if the rates locally were to be raised as proposed — equalling about $600,000 in revenue a year — the town would “end up servicing nearly 100% of the debt taken on by the courthouse.”
Council members Brad Schneider and Patrick O’Connell, owner and proprietor of The Inn at Little Washington, agreed that it is too early to enter discussions.
“I think the agenda that they have made is very clear,” O’Connell said. “… And that is an unacceptable one to the town.”
Without extra funding sources, county residents can expect to see a 10-15% tax increase in order to pay its debt service, which is often referenced by county officials.
“I’m not asking them to pay for half of the courthouse debt service,” Whitson said in an interview. “…We’re just asking for the town to pay into our general fund … The point is it’s additional recurring revenue we could draw on for things like our paid paramedic system, our schools, [and] the courthouse.”
County Administrator Garrey Curry told the supervisors last Wednesday that county staff is prepared to move into the design phase of the project with architectural firm Glavé & Holmes, but the supervisors ultimately decided to not take any action until they hear from the Town Council on Whitson’s proposal.
Open house for proposed courthouse
Donehey told the Rappahannock News on Tuesday that the county is planning to have an “open house” in mid-October where the new courthouse is proposed to be built in the Town of Washington. Engineers will mark the new building’s footprint, similar to an event hosted by the Building Committee in June 2023.
During that time, Donehey said the county may use the Little Washington Theatre for presentations from the architect and Q&As with residents. She hopes that members of the Town Council will attend the event to give their input.
“Until we have that, I don’t feel like [the county] can really move forward on a vote,” Donehey said.
At the supervisors’ August meeting, Whitson said the county should explore moving the courthouse to a different location, such as one of the empty lots on Route 211 near Atlantic Union Bank. Now, Whitson said he concluded that the “logical, most esthetically pleasing place to have the courthouses in the town.”
The Town Council did not discuss the issue of moving the courthouse out of town, which would require a public referendum.
