The town council is holding four public hearings to find out whether the public approves of changes to the town’s charter. Photo by Reena Singh.
Herndon’s town council heard from another crowd of residents about proposed changes to the town’s election process.
Residents for and against changes to the number of years councilmembers and the mayor serve and moving the election to November spoke out at Nov. 11 town council public hearing.
“Frankly, I feel these are two separate issues,” said former councilmember Richard Downer after thanking the town council for bringing up the potential changes. “I’m sorry they got mixed together.”
The proposal changes the number of years the town council and mayor serve - four - as well as staggers them so elections are still held every two years. The vice mayor will be decided by the town council every two years. Additionally, the proposal changes the town elections from May to November.
According to Town Attorney Richard Kaufman, the bill will go into effect next July if both the town and General Assembly approve the proposal. Since there will be no election in May, the next town election will be held November 2016.
“There has been some concern about this transitional period,” said Kaufman.
He suggested that the council change the proposal so that it either starts earlier, making councilmembers run for re-election early, or start it later so council has to run for re-election once more before the staggered changes begin.
There were others who had concerns about moving the elections to November.
“I strongly feel the election should remain in May,” said Downer.
He said keeping it in May keeps the town to one precinct and not get into “political clutter.”
Other residents, many of whom were also former councilmembers, agreed.
“I’m very concerned that if you move these elections to November, they will turn partisan, because in past elections, we see more of a partisanship happening,” said Steve Mitchell.
He supported having the terms for councilmembers be every four years in staggered elections, but felt that the mayor should still have to run for election every other year.
Former Herndon mayor Steve DeBenedittis wrote a letter to the town council stating his opposition to all three parts of the proposal.
“These changes would benefit politicians but would not benefit the Town of Herndon citizens in any way,” he said.
He believes the proposal, if passed, will weaken the town’s election process.
“I ran in three locally-focused May elections and proudly served three two-year terms concurrently with the town council,” he wrote in the letter. “I never proposed changing the town’s electoral process not because ‘we’ve always done it this way’ but because our current system is the best of all possibilities that exist in Virginia. During my service I spoke to many people but no voter ever told me that they wanted to vote less frequently. No citizen ever told me that the town council should be less accountable to the town they serve.”
The next public hearing on the proposal will be at 7 p.m. Nov. 25 in the Council Chambers. The town Council will not approve of the proposal until after the Dec. 4 public hearing session.
For more information, visit https://www.herndon-va.gov/Content/Government/Town_Council/town_elections/default.aspx?cnlid=1347.