The Mathews County Board of Supervisors, meeting Tuesday night, took a number of actions that will impact county residents, including extending the deadline for 2022 tax payments, setting a date for a public hearing on the proposal to transfer the Confederate monument and land under it to a private organization, and accepting a bid for the construction of broadband towers.
The board voted unanimously to extend the due date for personal property tax payments to Jan. 5 rather than Dec. 5. Real estate taxes will still be due on Dec. 5.
The penalty for late payment of personal property taxes will begin on Jan. 6, and interest on late payments will begin to accrue on Feb. 1. In addition, the board will have a public hearing at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 6, on eliminating the $25 per vehicle license fee the county charges, as well as a discussion on the possibility of providing personal property tax rebates to Mathews residents.
The actions were taken after County Administrator Ramona Wilson reported that board members began receiving complaints about the increase in personal property taxes after tax bills went out recently. While the assessed value of vehicles was 30 percent higher this year than last year, she said, the board had approved only an effective 7 percent increase in tax relief during last month’s board meeting. Residents already received 28 percent in relief, she explained, and the 35 percent the board approved last month was only 7 percent more than that. In addition, Mathews Treasurer Wendy Stewart said the 35 percent only affects the first $20,000 in vehicle value. Anything above that is taxed at the full rate.
Stewart said eliminating the $25 vehicle license fee would provide total tax relief of $317,180 to county residents, and Wilson said that this amount, added to the approximately $250,000 that the additional 7 percent in tax relief is already providing, would bring total tax relief to over a half million dollars of the $1,134,604.67 that Stewart said the county would otherwise collect in additional revenues based on the increased value of vehicles.
Supervisor Dave Jones explained that his understanding had been that the relief would affect the value of the entire vehicle, while supervisor Mike Walls said he had forgotten about the 28 percent relief already in place.
“Sorry we were wrong,” he said. “People are struggling enough to get through life, let alone the holidays.”
Confederate monument
The board also set a public hearing for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 6, on the proposal to transfer the Confederate monument and the land under it to an outside organization. Although not named Tuesday night, Wilson previously confirmed to the Gazette-Journal that the designated recipient organization will be Mathews War Memorial Preservation, Inc., established by Port Haywood resident Sonny Fauver.
Wilson told the board that before the public hearing can be held, the board had to address several issues. One was that a title search had to be completed to confirm that the county owns the property to be conveyed. She said that search has been done and that the information has been sent to the surveyor. Another issue was the plat itself, which had delineated more land to be transferred than the board had approved. Those revisions had to be made, she said, and they had not been completed as of Tuesday. If the document is received by Friday or Monday, she said, then the county can work on subdividing the property in preparation for the public hearing.
“The parcel has to exist before we can advertise deeding it,” she said.
The final issue is that, before approving the parcel, the board has to approve a waiver to the subdivision ordinance, since the parcel under consideration for conveyance doesn’t meet the minimum 10,000 square feet required for subdividing a parcel in the downtown business district.
The board then voted to meet at 3 p.m. this coming Tuesday in the historic courthouse to address these issues prior to the Dec. 6 public hearing.
Broadband towers
The board voted unanimously to enter into a contract with Edward L. Muller Construction Company for the construction of two monopole communication towers in the county at a cost of $738,538. The towers, which will be county-owned, will be paid for with American Rescue Plan Act funding.
After two bids for the construction of the towers that the county received in early October exceeded the amount the county had budgeted for the project, the board last month directed Wilson to negotiate with Muller Construction, which had placed the lower bid, in order to possibly come to an agreement.
The county had ordered new surveys of the properties where the towers will be placed, at Mathews Volunteer Fire Department Station 2 on East River Road at Bohannon and the Mathews Volunteer Rescue Squad building on Cricket Hill Road at Hudgins, because of mistakes made in the first surveys completed. The amount of land needed for the towers was reduced, and it was determined that the projects would not be located in wetlands, eliminating the need for mitigation measures, thus reducing projected costs.
Mathews Broadband Advisory Board consultant Jeff Beekhoo told the board that it would take about 90 days to construct the two towers after approval of the contract. Meanwhile, he said, requests for proposals need to be sent out to prospective cell carriers and wireless providers that might want to have their equipment included on the towers.
The final component for providing 100 percent broadband coverage of Mathews, said Beekhoo, will be installing repeaters throughout the county to carry signals from the towers to customers. He said the advisory board will be looking at applying for Virginia Telecommunication Initiative (VATI) grants to fund the repeaters.
FOIA request
Supervisor Jones brought up the subject of a forensic investigation that’s being conducted by the county into missing documents and emails. He said that the county had received a Freedom of Information Act request for documents related to the investigation, and he reminded staff members that state law requires the public disclosure of such information “from a completed investigation.” He said that the investigation has not yet been completed, and that the county “needs to start getting straight on FOIA requirements.”
Jones then shared information about the investigation. He said that on April 19, 2021, at 4:44 p.m., documents and an email account went missing. He said the board is “anxious to find out what went missing and who did it.”
“When we get the information, there’s no problem making sure it’s released,” he said.
He then pointed out that he had made three FOIA requests for certain documents in 2018, 2020, and this year, and that he had still not received the information requested.
“If you’re gonna cater to one, you’d better cater to all,” he said.
He then specifically called out County Attorney Andrea Erard, reminding her that his request hadn’t been fulfilled, and saying, “I have a right to have it fulfilled, one way or the other.”
Discussion of racism
Jones and Walls both addressed comments made by supervisor Melissa Mason during last month’s board meeting. Mason, frustrated with Walls’s urging the board to end a presentation she was making because it exceeded the time limit placed on supervisor’s reports in the board’s bylaws, had questioned whether Walls would have challenged her on the matter if she had been a white male.
Jones told Mason that he’s a white male “and I’m not going to apologize for that.” He said he had “a profound respect” for Mason, but that they don’t always agree on matters, and that “we all get frustrated, mad, and angry.”
“I hope after the last meeting, we can move on and be kinder to each other,” he said.
A lengthy discussion ensued, with Mason explaining that action could have been taken prior to the confrontation that would have helped resolve it, and that she was sorry the public had to see it play out the way it did. She said she represents all county residents and doesn’t negate the feelings of her white male constituents, but that her reaction was because of her lived experience, and that she couldn’t deny that experience or the feelings it generated.
Walls said he had told Mason after the meeting that he didn’t care whether she was “white, red, green, or purple,” that everyone should abide by the bylaws and that “anything short of that is a double standard.”
“You played the race card on me,” he told Mason, and he asked for an apology.
Mason did not immediately apologize, but later, after Mathews resident Ray Mulvaney spoke during public comment period, she responded to Walls’s request for an apology.
Mulvaney said that the county is divided and that comments like the one made by Mason “don’t help.” He spoke of a time when a young man in Mathews needed help and the entire county came together to provide that help, without regard to color.
Mason said that her response to Walls had reflected her truth, but that she didn’t “want the engagement we had to be a reflection of what I think of the community.”
“We are divided too much,” she said. “If we had more open dialogue, those gaps could be closed. When people stand in need, this county comes together, regardless of who it is. I’m not going to apologize for my truth. My apology is to Mr. Walls as a representative of many other white males I see out here.”
Walls then rose and gave Mason a hug before Mason continued.
“Some people say they don’t see color,” she said. “Then you don’t see me. I am a black woman. See me. And see the truth I live in.”
Later, after the closed session had been held and the meeting adjourned and the small number of people remaining had dissipated, Walls and Mason were observed exiting the courthouse together, Walls using his large umbrella to shield Mason from the rain as he walked her to her car.
In other matters, the board:
—After a closed session, during which part of the discussion involved the investment of public funds, the board voted unanimously to direct Wilson to make a counter offer on a piece of property being considered for the construction of a new Mathews Volunteer Fire Department Station 1, and
—Adopted a resolution of support for the Mathews County Visitor and Information Center’s Tourism Action Plan. MCVIC Director Emily Allen presented an outline of the plan to the board during last month’s meeting and asked for the vote of support.