To the Editor:
Unfathomably, Del. Tom Rust (R-86), The Town of Herndon’s representative in the Virginia General Assembly (GA), voted against the Town’s bill to change the language in our town charter to reflect Town elections to occur in November instead of May.
The Herndon Town Council took up the issue of moving elections to November, after several years of this being informally discussed by several previous town councils. In 2014 the town council decided unanimously to bring this issue forward for a town-wide discussion and to place it on the public hearing agenda for consideration. Initially, there were two issues on the table: 1) Whether or not to change the terms of the council members from two years to four years, and 2) Whether or not to move the town’s election from May to November.
After much discussion at an unprecedented number of highly advertised public meetings, it was determined that there was no significant support for extending town council members’ terms to four years, while there was significant support for changing town elections to November. So the change was made.
As routine, a charter bill was sent to the General Assembly to change our town’s charter language to reflect November elections. The bill was sponsored by our state Senator, Jennifer Wexton. Del. Rust refused to sponsor it.
Bills such as these are passed routinely by the GA every year, with Del. Rust also voting for them. Del. Rust also voted for the state law that allows cities and towns the autonomy to make these election date changes. In this year’s legislative session, four other Virginia towns submitted similar charter bills and they passed unanimously by the House and Senate, including unanimous votes in sub-committees. Tom Rust voted for them.
But when it came to Herndon’s charter bill, Del. Rust and other Republicans voted to send it to another committee, which would knowingly kill the bill. Del. Rust refused to allow it an up or down vote on the House floor. Later, the House committee refused to hear the bill and so it died in committee.
This is unprecedented political gamesmanship at the expense of the Town of Herndon. This only helps divide the town and brings unnecessary controversy and negative press to the town. Why do we have a local government if our state delegate is going to try to usurp its authority in Richmond?
We need a state delegate who is more interested in serving the Town than in furthering his own personal interests.
Barbara Glakas
Herndon