By JIM BUTLER
Some call it splitting hairs, others the letter of the law.
Either way Alexandria City Council President Cynthia Perry unleashed a maelstrom when she scotched an effort to override Mayor Jacques Roy’s GAEDA veto.
The council chambers had a number in attendance who apparently intended to speak for an override. It didn’t happen.
On the agenda was discussion of Roy’s veto message, a castigation that pulled no punches.
But City Clerk Donna Jones, an employee of the Council, said the message could not, under home rule charter provisions, be discussed, since it was neither proposed resolution nor ordinance.
Council members received the message on April 28, the clerk said. None took steps to put a veto action on the May 5 agenda.
Some say the responsibility is the clerk’s.
The charter says:
“Ordinances vetoed by the mayor shall be submitted promptly to the city clerk who in turn shall submit them to the city council at the next regular meeting following receipt thereof.”
Alderman at-large Jules Green moved to add the matter to the agenda, which under state law requires a unanimous vote. After a second and Malcolm Larvadain’s yes, Perry voted no, ending the roll call , effectively sustaining the veto and letting the air out of the room.
Roy subsequently commended Perry for her “courage and discernment” regarding a “vain and useless act” – the Council’s vote to rescind a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement with the Greater Alexandria Economic Development Authority.
Under council rules the matter cannot be addressed again for six months unless five members move to do so due to “substantive” changes.
Reconsideration can only be moved for by a person on the prevailing side of the vote, presumably in this case that to add the veto to the agenda, and that only due to new information.
Moving on, the Council confirmed at-large member Jim Villard’s appointment of Brad Smith to the seven-seat GAEDA board, leaving it with one vacancy – Lizzie Felter’s District 4 choice.
Earlier Tuesday the Authority apparently failed to have a quorum in its second attempt to hold a meeting scheduled for April.