While the BoS did vote to repeal the zoning ordinance passed in last Tuesday’s meeting, in the final closed session Robert Duer did make a motion to postpone the action dates until staff could give the Board a time table during the work session on the 25th. The entire resolution can be read Here.
Looks like 'The Boss Man' sitting on the bow, directing their efforts. Who is the Executive Director of The Whites…
This is truly a landmark resolution. For nearly 2 years, the entire Board of Supervisors, save Granville Hogg, refused to listen to their constituents. Finally, in November 2015, these same constituents, sick of the unresponsiveness of the BOS to their desires, replaced 2 of the supervisors with ones who promised to listen to the voters. Even after that election, the old BOS members who had repeatedly refused to listen to the citizens passed the 2015 zoning over the obvious objections of the public – sort of a last thumbing of the nose by the lame duck supervisors and a few who remain.
This resolution is what it took to bring the county zoning in line with the 2009 Comprehensive plan, which was the result of extensive public input reflecting the desires of county residents.
It it a shame so much time and effort was put into the fight over the 2015 zoning plan, when this time and effort could have been spent much more productively on health care, schools, internet technology and other core, essential needs.
Congratulations to Supervisors Duer, Murray and Hogg for listening to the voters and fulfilling your campaign promises in passing this resolution.
Maybe now we can begin to concentrate on more critical needs, instead of self serving. personal
agendas.
From afar, this disabled combat veteran salutes all of you people in Northampton County, Virginia who have stood up for law and order in your county and your rights under the law as citizens of the State of Virginia in a very orderly and professional manner, and thus, have affected change in your county in a positive manner that should serve as an example of citizenship all over this nation!
Well done!
Editor’s Note: Duftys request to the court to have the BOS reinstate the 2009 ZO which has not been accomplished yet;it will be scheduled in the weeks to come along with more Public Hearings.
Above here, David Boyd says the Duer Resolution was truly a landmark resolution, and for awhile, as an interested observer, I had to agree with him.
But subsequent events have truly left me wondering – was it really?
Based upon the position of the BOS as expressed by their attorney Bruce Jones in Virginia Circuit Court recently, I am thinking that the Duer Resolution was really a sham, a bamboozle, a political snookering of the electorate in Northampton County by the BOS which the people of Northampton County thought was put in place in elections in 2015 to represent their interests.
In a recent court hearing attended by Bruce Jones on behalf of the BOS and Supervisor Duer, where attorney Jones was accompanied by Katie Nunez who was said to be smiling like a Cheshire Cat, attorney Jones argued very eloquently on behalf of the BOS and Supervisor Duer, the Resolution’s author, that the Duer Resolution was in reality a nullity.
It is an invalid legislative action which has no force and effect of law, either in Northampton County or in Virginia Circuit Court.
Mr. Jones’ argument, which was said by observers to be quite cogent and compelling, is that for the Duer Resolution to be legally valid, according to the Virginia law he cited, it would have had to have been approved by one of the supervisors who the electorate of Northampton County voted out of office in November of 2015.
In other words, according to the legal theory put forth in Virginia Circuit Court recently by Mr. Jones, which apparently is based on arcane law from the time of King George III when he had charge of Virginia, if an old BOS is voted out of office by the people of Northampton County because of their policies, and a new BOS is voted in to change those policies, unless the new BOS has express permission from the old BOS which was voted out, the policies of the old BOS cannot be changed or altered by the new BOS.
Apparently, Mr. Jones, a very knowledgeable and quite competent attorney-at-law, took the new BOS members aside after the Duer Resolution was passed, and he told them they had committed a grave error in passing the Duer Resolution that put them afoul of the law in Virginia, which of course, would open them up to potentially damaging civil rights lawsuits from the aggrieved residents of Northampton County who want honesty, integrity and forthrightness in their elected public officials.
Thus, the new BOS then dispatched Bruce Jones to Virginia Circuit Court so he could rectify their error by getting the Duer Resolution nullified.
If that all sounds bizarre, believe me, it is.
So, this drama in Northampton County concerning the 2015 re-zoning of the county by the old BOS is far from over.
In closing, I would once again like to thank the Cape Charles Mirror for carrying on the vital function of a free press in examining this matter further, on behalf of the citizens of Northampton County and to the benefit of those of us in the candid world observing from afar.
Paul R. Plante. P.E.
Viet Nam 1969