Waynesboro City Council member Kenny Lee will soon be one of the most senior members serving on the governing board with two years under his belt.
Lee was elected to the Ward C seat in 2022, defeating Republican candidate Jeremy Sloat.
Sloat, two years later, won the At-Large seat on Council on Nov. 5 and will be seated in January. Lorie Strother will also join Council, elected this cycle to the Ward A seat.
Former mayor Terry Short won re-election to Council, moving from the At-Large seat to the Ward B representative in the November city elections. Short was first elected in 2016 and previously served as the city’s vice mayor and mayor.
Ward D Councilman Jim Wood currently serves as the city’s vice mayor, though his tenure on Council has been overshadowed by controversy with two members of Council demanding Wood step down from his role as vice mayor, and with Short, going a step further, asking Wood to resign.
Wood made homophobic comments on a social media talk show about Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. The comments were bad, but the timing was worse. Waynesboro City Council had just submitted a federal funding request for a transportation project to Buttigieg, and the city’s letterhead listed current Council member names including Wood.
Wood sat largely stone-faced as his fellow Council members read statements asking him to step down due to his inappropriate comments. He did not step down as vice mayor, and he did not resign, choosing not to respond publicly to his fellow Council members or citizens of Waynesboro at the meeting in the aftermath of the video’s discovery.
Current mayor Lana Williams and long-serving Councilman Bruce Allen did not run for re-election.
Who will be Waynesboro’s next mayor?
The question about who the next mayor will be is a big unknown for the River City.
Short, who has the most experience, has indicated that he will likely not seek support from his fellow Council members due to his current civic and job responsibilities. With Wood essentially disqualifying himself due to his actions, it seems natural that Lee might be the next in line.
Lee told AFP on Tuesday that he is open to serving in the role of mayor.
“I would be honored if that’s what my colleagues would want me to do,” Lee said. “I will be honored. It’s an honor to serve, and that would be just another honor on top of that.”
Lee is a graduate of Waynesboro public schools and has a federal job that affords him some flexibility when it comes to his schedule. He served for 28 years in the U.S. Air Force.
Waynesboro’s mayor is not elected. The group of five Council members choose who will fill the role as mayor for the next two years at the January organizational meeting.
Video: Waynesboro City Council member Kenny Lee
Challenges ahead: ‘You just can’t do that overnight’
For Lee, serving on Council has been rewarding, but he said, he always wishes more could be done.
“I enjoy it. There’s some frustrations that come with it, naturally, because you want to do a lot of things that you know you can’t because it’s city government,” Lee said. “You know, you want to solve world hunger, and you just can’t do that overnight. Some of that is frustrating.”
Lee said he is now equipped with a better understanding of the inner workings of government.
“It’s been a fun experience. I’ve learned a lot about city government and how city government operates, and I think I have a better understanding for the next two years as we move forward growing the city.”
Lee has advocated for more government transparency since he was a candidate and would like to see citizens have a larger voice as far as setting priorities for the city.
“What I’ve learned and what I’ve observed is misinformation,” Lee told AFP. “Folks believe things happen for a certain reason, and they don’t have all the facts. I’ve worked really, really hard trying to get out the true process and make sure that folks understand what goes behind some of the decisions that are being made.”
In addition to government transparency, Lee is mindful that the city has challenges when it comes to hiring, retaining and paying employees fair and comparable wages. He said when he ran for Council that some public works and other employees were making as little as $11 an hour.
“We’ve made great strides as far as city employees and their salaries. They were increased so most are well above the $11 that was there when I came on,” he said. “We continue to look at that and address that so we can retain those employees because they are critical to the success of Waynesboro.”
Lee said that the city unfroze four positions within the police department and have increased the pay to make it more competitive.
“I think it’s always nice to have a low tax rate, but you don’t want to have a low tax rate at the expense of public safety and other areas of the city,” he said.
He’d like to see Council get more input from citizens before setting an arbitrary tax rate.
“My opinion is that we put this conversation in front of the constituents, in front of the citizens, and say, hey, if we have to do that, this is what you will see that tangible,” he said. “I think going forward, I want to make it as transparent as possible so that the citizens understand what we’re trying to do, and then let them have a voice in that process.”
Lee on his priorities in Waynesboro
While Lee has been on Council, the city has had many wins: the opening of Sunset Park and completion of the South River Preserve, a Greenway extension, groundbreaking on the West End Fire Station and the announcement of a Northrop Grumman location, to name a few.
His priorities going forward, he said, are to get the high school addition and gym completed. He’d also like to see the Nature’s Crossing Technology Center up and viable and creating revenue for the city.
“There are several things out there we’re excited about, and we think it’s going to put Waynesboro on that upward trajectory.”
Lee said that the city hasn’t done as much as he would like when it comes to affordable housing and homelessness.
“It’s a really, really complicated issue … what the city can do and what the city cannot do. We did designate some revitalization areas within the city, and those areas were recipients of the income tax credit, and so we’ll have some developments going up in those two areas that will address affordable rental property.
“We’re making baby steps, but it’s still on the radar, and it’s still something that we’re very concerned about.”
Full steam ahead: ‘We’re all in this together’
With the learning curve behind him, Lee is ready to work with the new Council to accomplish what they can for all residents of Waynesboro.
“I just want to get in and get the work going with the new members of Council and get some things done that were on the agenda that we weren’t able to address in the first two years,” he said.
He also recognizes the significance that Council will now have two minority members representing the city.
“I think it just shows what Waynesboro is. Waynesboro is a great place. It has great people, and we don’t necessarily, in my opinion, look at color as an obstacle, and I think that me being on Council and representing Ward C is evidence of that,” Lee said. “I believe the same for Lorie (Strother) being elected in Ward A. It just shows our diversity, and that we’re all in this together.
“It is our community. It is our city, and we want what is best for our city.”
Related stories
Find past coverage of Waynesboro City Council on Augusta Free Press.
- Waynesboro City Council member asks Jim Wood to resign over Pete Buttigieg slur
- Waynesboro vice mayor hits Buttigieg with gay slur after asking for federal money
- Ward C candidate Kenny Lee: ‘There should be people that look like me on City Council’
- Finally! Waynesboro receives $3.9M grant to develop property near exit 96
- $90M in grants awarded to boost industrial site development throughout Virginia
- Waynesboro, 17 years late, finally breaks ground on West End fire station
- Northrop Grumman announces plans for $200M manufacturing facility in Waynesboro
- Waynesboro embraces connection to outdoors; prepares to open Sunset Park to the public
- Waynesboro’s South River access, greenway transformed; result is ‘pretty spectacular’
- On the verge of homelessness: Waynesboro faces high housing demand, low inventory
- Waynesboro City Council to consider cottage court housing option
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Crystal Graham
