Happy birthday, shire?

By Allison Brophy Champion

Published: July 1, 2008

It’s official: a consolidated government in Culpeper could turn the town into a shire.

Two months after the last private meeting about the citizen-led proposal for consolidation, Culpeper Town Council met again Tuesday night in closed session to talk about an issue many voters named as No. 1 during the May Town Council election.

Following the approximate hour-long meeting, the town provided a general update on the plan to do away with the town as it exists today, saying that Town Council was in the process of reviewing a draft consolidation plan that will then be reviewed by Richmond attorney Carter Glass, the town’s special counsel.

The County Board of Supervisors will then review the plan and offer input, perhaps as early as later this month, said former Police Chief Dan Boring, the town’s consolidation manager. Once the Board gets its look, the plan will be made public, he said.

The option for the town to become a “shire” actually made it into the town’s draft consolidation plan, Boring confirmed Tuesday night.

“Basically, a ‘shire’ is a specific geographic area in which enhanced levels of services are provided to its residents and paid for through some level of additional taxes,” he said.

Incidentally, the town of Culpeper, established 1759, celebrates its 250th anniversary next year.

Background
Last year, Culpeper businessman Joe Daniel, owner of Culpeper Wood Preservers and Jefferson Homebuilders, initiated the process to consolidate the town and county of Culpeper into a new Culpeper County, doing away with the town as it exists today.

Daniel, a longtime Culpeper resident and philanthropist for who the Daniel Center for Technology is named, started his “One Government” movement because he felt the town was not cooperating with the county in the provision of water.

Citing Sec. 15.2-3531 of the Virginia Code and after amassing nearly 1,000 signatures from town voters in support of consolidation, Daniel delivered notice to the town and county in January that the two bodies had one year to format and agree on a consolidation plan.

The town quickly took the lead since it was being asked to dissolve and hired Richmond attorney Carter Glass, considered an expert in such matters, at a rate of up to $342 an hour.

In March, the town made public his 13-page report, “Town of Culpeper/County of Culpeper: Mandatory & Optional Terms of a Consolidation Agreement for a County Form of Government.”

More options
Another option, as included in the report, would be the creation of “special debt districts” in which residents of the former town, for example, would be specially taxed to pay off old debt not incurred by the rest of the county.

Under the new county form of government, town taxes would go away and surplus revenue produced in the “shire” could be redirected elsewhere in the county.

The new county board would make the taxing decisions and Town Council would be abolished. Further, “a higher level of law enforcement services would have to be provided by the County Sheriff, unless the County established a police department,” Glass said in his report.

Questions remain
But would the county be eligible for more state funding for the new police department?

And, if not, would current personnel in the Town Police Department be in danger of being out of work?

More information on that has yet to publicly emerge.

At least one Town Councilman was opposed to Tuesday night’s closed session approach.

“I have said all along that the town should provide total transparency on the consolidation plan and encourage citizen input and questions,” said Town Councilman Steve Jenkins.

Boring said Tuesday he didn’t know how much the town had spent in legal and/or consulting fees since the consolidation process started earlier this year, but that it was “significantly below” the $25,000 the town budgeted for it.

Allison Brophy Champion can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 101 or