The Cape Charles Rotary Club will host a political debate for the Town of Cape Charles Town Council candidates, Ellen O’Brien and Herb Thom. The Forum is scheduled for Tuesday, October 26, 2021, at 6:00 p.m. at the Cape Charles Civic Center, 500 Tazewell Avenue. The Forum will also be broadcast live via Facebook on the Municipal Corporation of Cape Charles page.
Seating for the event will be on a first-come, first-seated basis limited by fire code regulations. Questions for the candidates may be submitted by the Civic Center audience, on the Facebook Live session via comments, or emailed prior to the Forum to cape.charles.rotary@gmail.com.
Inquiries regarding the Forum may be sent to cape.charles.rotary@gmail.com.
Can someone provide a link for the requirements of running for town office, be it Council Member or Mayor? Do you have to be a full time resident of the Town of Cape Charles and if so, is there a requirement to forfeit one’s office if one no longer resides in town? Just curious.
When in doubt, always seek out what the law says, instead of asking someone’s opinion.
In this case, on a presumption that in Cape Charles, laws still mean something to more than a couple of people, the relevant law would by the CHARTER OF CAPE CHARLES, which in essence is the CONSTITUTION of Cape Charles at https://law.lis.virginia.gov/charters/cape-charles/
It states, and again, this is only if words still have concrete meaning, something I doubt more and more each day, as follows with respect to town officers, to wit:
Cape Charles, Town of
County of Northampton
History of incorporation
Cape Charles House Company, incorporated, and made body politic and corporate, to erect buildings and improvements on lands situated at Cape Charles, 1852, c. 297.
Incorporated by an 1886 Act of Assembly.
Charter, 1886, c. 315; repealed 1938, c. 367.
Charter, 1938, c. 367; repealed 1974, c. 340.
Current charter
Charter, 1974, c. 340.
Amendments to current charter
2002, c. 125 (§§ 1.2, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.5, 4.1, 4.4, 4.5, 4.8, 4.9, 5.2 [added], 6.1 [repealed])
Chapter 1. Incorporation and Boundaries.
§ 1.1. Incorporation.
The inhabitants of the territory comprised within the present limits of the town of Cape Charles, as such limits are now or may hereafter be altered and established by law, shall constitute and continue a body politic and corporate, to be known and designated as the town of Cape Charles, and as such shall have perpetual succession, may sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded, contract and be contracted with, and may have a corporate seal which it may alter, renew or amend at its pleasure by proper ordinance. (1974, c. 340)
§ 1.2. Boundaries.
The territory embraced within the town of Cape Charles is that territory in the county of Northampton, Virginia, established in Chapter 367 of the Acts of Assembly of 1938, pages 582-609, and that territory added by the orders in the annexation proceedings in the Circuit Court of Northampton County, Virginia, entered on November 13, 1957, and recorded in the Common Law Order Book 19, at pages 107-108 in the Clerk’s Office of said Court; such order of annexation entered on September 24, 1965, and recorded in the Common Law Order Book 20, at page 341, in the Clerk’s Office of said Court; and an order of annexation entered on November 21, 1991, and recorded in the Civil Common Law Order Book, at page 619, in the Clerk’s Office of said Court. (1974, c. 340; 2002, c. 125)
Chapter 2. Powers.
§ 2.1. General grant of powers.
The town of Cape Charles shall have and may exercise all powers which are now or hereafter may be conferred upon or delegated to towns under the Constitution and laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, as fully and completely as though such powers were specifically enumerated herein, and no enumeration of particular powers by this Charter shall be held to be exclusive, and the town shall have, exercise and enjoy all the rights, immunities, powers and privileges, and be subject to all the duties and obligations, now appertaining to and incumbent on the town as a municipal corporation. (1974, c. 340)
Chapter 3. Mayor and Council.
§ 3.1. Election, qualification and term of office of councilmen and mayor.
(a) The town of Cape Charles shall be governed by a town council composed of six councilmen and a mayor, all of whom shall be qualified voters of the town to be elected from the town at large.
end quotes
Other town officers, as would be expected, are in there, too.
Don’t they teach about any of this in grade school down there?
To be “qualified voters of the town,” it would seem, again, only if words still have meaning in this country, that they would have to be town residents, unless you have a really loose set of laws down there that allows someone living in another town or another state, or even another country, to vote in town elections down there.
If that is the case, then anybody in the world could be a qualified voter of the town.