Haymarket rectifies $194K budget shortfall
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By Dan Roem
Source: Gainesville Times
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18 2008

The Town of Haymarket will not be taking in as much revenue as expected to complete its 2007-08 budget, which forced the Town Council to accept spending reductions on Monday.

Previously, the council approved a $1.5 million for the last fiscal year, but because Haymarket businesses are not making as much money as expected, they are submitting fewer tax dollars.

A total of $194,867 less, according to Haymarket Chief Financial Officer James Naradzay.

“Our businesses took a hit,” said Naradzay as he discussed the finer points of the revised budget outside Town Hall. The town wanted $275,000 in tax receipts from local businesses, but after some number crunching, Naradzay figured that the town would take in less than half of that: about $130,000.

“For years, we were counting on Bloom and it just [didn’t] develop fast enough,” he said, referring to the main grocery store and shopping center in town.

So Naradzay and Town Manager Gene Swearingen recommended the following spending reductions, which the council unanimously approved:

• Operating expenditures such as overtime pay, fuel and paper, by $77,827

Kennedy Resubmits Haymarket Town Center Deal
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By Dan Roem
Source: Gainesville Times
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12 2008

There is yet another turn in the ongoing saga that is the Haymarket Town Center land development deal; developer Gerry Kennedy has resubmitted a $2.3 million contract for the property after pulling an identical offer just last month.

The move is the latest twist in a battle over the property that has been at the center of an odd series of events since December.

Kennedy said he offered to buy the Town Center property again and move four historic buildings to it because of pressure from residential and business communities.

He pulled his initial offer because of a dispute with the Haymarket Planning Commission over a deceleration lane along Jefferson Street.

Without specifically identifying Haymarket Town Councilman Bob Weir by name, Kennedy previously said that there was “one particular individual” on the town council and planning commission that had been “dead-set against the project” and thus had “the ability to tie the thing up and delay it.”

Weir sits on both panels and voted against the project in January, citing concerns ranging from the business model to how well the council followed procedure to long-term consequences.
Entities ranging from the Haymarket-Gainesville Business Association to tenants currently on the property told Kennedy that his exit from the deal would hurt the potential for an increase in walk-up traffic through Haymarket.

“They think this project not moving forward is detrimental to the existing businesses in the town,” said Kennedy.

Haymarket Town Manager Gene Swearingen said he received the new version of the contract last Tuesday, March 4, though Kennedy said he made up his mind later in the week.

“I'm excited that he's still interested in doing this,” said Swearingen. “I just hope we can figure out a way to move forward.”

A discussion involving the Town Center property was set to be included during Thursday's Town Council meeting, which occurred after press time.

As of Tuesday, the town manager was not sure whether the council could automatically vote to accept or deny the contract at that meeting, or if it would have to hold public hearings first.
“We're still working with our attorney on that,” he said.

The council voted 5-1 in favor of it last time, with Weir being the only dissenting vote.
Kennedy is hoping for a quick process this time, saying that if the deal is approved in the next couple of weeks, the next step would be to resubmit a preliminary site plan to the Haymarket Planning Commission.

Previously, the planning commission did not vote in favor or against recommending the project because....

Kennedy Resubmits Haymarket Town Center Deal

Article has been condensed.
Filing deadline nears in towns
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By Aileen Streng
Source: InsideNoVA.com
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22 2008

Time is running out for candidates interested in running for an elected office in one of Prince William County’s four towns.

“The drop-dead deadline is March 4 at 7 p.m., but we suggest getting in their paperwork well before that, so we can check to make sure they are not missing something,” said Diana Dutton, administrative elections manager for the Prince William County Board of Elections.

As of this week, only 10 candidates have filled the necessary paperwork with election officials to have their names places on the ballots for the May 6 elections in Dumfries, Haymarket, Occoquan and Quantico.

The offices of mayor and all the seats on the town councils of Haymarket, Occoquan and Quantico are up for grabs.

In Dumfries, three seats will be open on the Dumfries Town Council.

While one candidate each has filed for the position of mayor in Haymarket, Occoquan and Quantico, far fewer have thrown their names in for seats on those town councils — two in Quantico, one in Haymarket and none in Occoquan.

“People are very last-minute in doing this sort of thing,” Dutton said. “Maybe they just haven’t gotten around to bringing their papers in.”

Haymarket
Haymarket’s 678 registered voters will be choosing their mayor and the six members of the Haymarket Town Council.

Incumbent Mayor Pamela Stutz has filed for reelection, as has incumbent Town Councilman John C. Cole.

Cole was under a much tighter deadline to file his election paperwork since he left this month for a six-month deployment to Iraq as a civilian employee of the U.S. Department of Defense.

Aside from Cole, the other Haymarket Town Council members are Natasha Sikorsky, Sheila Jarboe, Robert Weir, Oswald Vazquez and Susan Shuryn.

Occoquan
The 584 registered voters in Occoquan also...

Filing deadline nears in towns

Weir Rejoins Haymarket Town Council
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By Dan Roem
Source: Gainesville Times
THURSDAY, JANUARY 24 2008

The Haymarket Town Council unanimously voted against approving the resignation of council member Bob Weir during a continuation meeting Thursday night, allowing Weir to rejoin the council to serve out his term in office.

Weir had resigned from his post during a Jan. 14 special session to discuss the recently-sold Town Center property. His reasoning came because he thought the council had overstepped its bounds by pre-empting the town Planning Commission regarding variances in the Town Center property.

Weir Resigns from Haymarket Town Council
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By Dan Roem
Source: Gainesville Times
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16 2008

Haymarket Town Council member Bob Weir abruptly resigned from his post Monday evening during a special session regarding the sale of the Town Center property to developer Gerry Kennedy.

Weir was the only council member to vote against the $2.3 million sale of the property the prior week, but said he had “accepted that deal” and had “moved on from that.”
He had threatened to resign once before, in December, if the council were to break with an unwritten policy and hold a special meeting to vote early on the project, instead of waiting until its regularly scheduled January meeting.

The “straw that broke the camel's back,” he said Wednesday, came when Mayor Pamela Stutz called for the special session. Weir said he felt that session was the council “essentially firing a preemptive shot at the [Haymarket] planning commission” by indicating that the council would ultimately override the planners' concerns on the issue.

“The council holding a meeting, giving the planning commission their input before the site plan was even received, diminishes the role of the planning commission,” said Weir, who was the council's liaison to the planning commission.

Stutz said there was a miscommunication with Weir about the intent of the meeting.
“The special meeting was intended to define the roles of all the members” who were affiliated with the land deal, she said, adding, “the council had agreed to work with the developer on this plan.”

Weir went so far as to prepare a letter of resignation when he found out about the special session on Friday, just in case the Monday proceeding went awry.
Chief among Weir's concerns was that the council would allow variances in the development's site plan. Stutz admitted there probably will be a few, but said they will have to look at that on a case-by-case basis.

The now-former councilman said he was expecting the town council to make “the assertion that it didn't matter what the planning commission said, the town council was going to avoid the variances.”

He turned in his resignation when he thought it indirectly did.
According to Stutz, the town council did “not in any way say that the planning commission was going to be overruled” but rather she and the council wanted to “make sure the planning commission members were informed.”

According to Weir, the town council's special session prior to the planning commission meeting “calls into question the validity or equity of the process” and indicates that “it really doesn't matter what the planning commission does because we're going to do it anyway.”

His physical exit from the council came in dramatic fashion as he resigned during the meeting, walked out and then challenged a heckler to meet him outside.

“We have since mended fences so it's a non-issue,” Weir said during a Wednesday morning interview.

Weir's temper is well-known to those who follow Haymarket town politics, as he occasionally speaks with words that are less than politically correct.

“I think Bob's just a very serious and...

Weir Resigns from Haymarket Town Council

Sparks fly as town council debates $2.3M property deal
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Sparks fly as town council debates $2.3M property deal
By: Dan Roem
Gainesville Times
12/05/2007

The decision directly impacts everything from the meals tax to how many new small businesses can come to town.

At the heart of the debate was whether the council would follow its typical, though unwritten, policy of not voting on a topic immediately after a public hearing or whether that policy should be ignored in special circumstances.

Article from the website: Black Velvet Bruce Li

A Mouse Roars
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By Greg L | 10 May 2007 | PWC Politics, Blogs | 6 Comments

Yesterday’s editorial in the Manassas Journal-Messenger slammed Haymarket’s police department for a series of sexual harassment incidents and abuses of authority that are stunning. What it also did, or perhaps tried to avoid by not mentioning them, was to vindicate the efforts of those who run the website townofhaymarket.info and demonstrate that the political landscape is dramatically changing in favor of those with the determination to participate in the political process and wield the internet as their means of doing so. This story, as with most of the other stories in Haymarket, came to light because of one anonymous person and the website he runs.

Haymarket OKs 4 percent meals tax
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Haymarket OKs 4 percent meals tax
By: Dan Roem
Gainesville Times
05/09/2007

After a contentious debate at Town Hall Monday night that involved flailing arms, finger-pointing and a speech made by one council member as he paced around the room, the Haymarket Town Council voted in favor of adding a meals tax to next year's town budget.

The 4-2 vote to authorize a 4-percent meals tax was enough for the motion to pass; the town charter requires a two-thirds majority for tax hikes to be enacted.

A public hearing will be held Thursday, May 17 at 7 p.m. for residents to speak about the meals tax, as well as the fiscal year 2008 budget.

If the FY2008 budget ultimately passes, the meals tax would be enacted on July 1 of this year. The tax would have to be reauthorized annually, meaning that it has a built-in one-year "sunset clause."

"We have a balanced budget," town manager Gene Swearingen told the council after it returned from a closed session that lasted a little more than 90 minutes. "I'm not real happy with it because I don't think it'll be realistic for next year."

Swearingen's original budget proposal did not include a meals tax, though an alternate budget did.

According to a statement to the mayor and council written by Swearingen on May 2, "A meals tax in Haymarket would generate approximately $60,000 for each penny of the tax. This estimate is base(d) on actual receipts and estimates obtained from restaurants and other food vendors in Haymarket."

Staking the tax at 4 percent, which the town manager said is typical for similar taxes in Virginia towns, would thus generate about $240,000 in new revenue for Haymarket.

According to vice mayor John Cole, most of the money would go toward capital improvements, such as the streetscape project along Washington Street that the council members promised to finish during their current term. To offset costs to business owners, $6,000 will be set aside for periodic advertising paid for by the town for the impacted restaurants.

Cole, Tasha Sikorsky, Ozzie Vazquez and Sue Shuryn voted in favor of the tax. Bob Weir and Sheila Jarboe voted against.

"What's going to attract businesses here," Vazquez said during the debate, "is a town people want to come to."

Vazquez said he had gone door-to-door throughout Haymarket prior to the vote to get a sense of the town residents' thoughts about increased taxes to pay for the streetscape project.

He, Vazquez and Shuryn all agreed the project would make Haymarket more like Old Town Manassas in that people can easily walk across town, stopping at stores along the way.

Among the 50 people Vazquez said he surveyed, "100 percent" of them favored either implementing a meals tax or ......

Haymarket OKs 4 percent meals tax

Article from the website: Black Velvet Bruce Li

Haymarket Gone Wild, Again
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By Greg L | 14 April 2007 | PWC Politics | 2 Comments

Chief Jim Roop of the Town of Haymarket Police Department has yet another crisis to manage. This time it’s a workplace sexual harassment complaint filed by officer Benjamin Ishmael. That’s right, a fellow male police officer. Now before your head starts to spin, this involves crude and unprofessional language used in the workplace that made the environment hostile to female officers, town employees and citizens, and not some sort of inappropriate physical contact with a fellow officer who is also male.

Article from the website: Black Velvet Bruce Li

Haymarket Police Victimize Underage Crime Victim
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By Greg L | 10 April 2007 | PWC Politics, Crime | 1 Comment

It has been reported that a complaint has been filed against members of the Haymarket Police Department, including it’s Chief, involving inappropriate conduct towards a seventeen year old girl who was attempting to report a crime. Instead of assisting this crime victim, she was apparently questioned without her parent’s consent, subjected to verbal harassment, and even asked “Why can’t you be fat and ugly?” The complaint has been filed with the Prince William Commonwealth Attorney’s office, and I would expect that the case is now under investigation.