The cities of Staunton and Waynesboro will each select a new mayor and vice mayor at organizational meetings scheduled in January. In both cities, the current mayor did not seek re-election so a new face will soon bang the gavel with the support of the majority of his or her fellow City Council members.
The duties of the mayor in a council-manager type of local government is considered largely ceremonial and does not give the member any more legislative power than other members of Council. The primary role of the mayor is to preside over Council meetings similar to a board chairman. The mayor also commonly represents the city at business ribbon cuttings and economic development announcements.
The mayor in Staunton and Waynesboro is not selected by voters. Council members are elected by voters to serve four-year terms.
The position of mayor and vice mayor is instead chosen by current Council members at an organizational meeting held in January every two years following the November election.
The city manager handles day-to-day operations of the city and is bound by whatever action is taken by City Council. The City Council approves the budget and determines the tax rate in addition to setting community goals and developing a strategic plan for the city, among other duties.
Staunton City Council
Staunton will hold its organizational meeting for its seven-member City Council on Tuesday, Jan. 7, at 5 p.m.
Mayor Stephen W. Claffey and Vice Mayor Amy Darby did not seek re-election leaving both posts in the Queen City up for grabs.
In November, Adam Campbell was re-elected to Staunton City Council after a one-year term filling a seat vacated by former Mayor Andrea Oakes, who resigned from Council abruptly last January.
Newcomers Corrie Park, Jeff Overholtzer and Blake Shepherd will join Campbell and current members Brad Arrowood, Michele Edwards and Alice Woods on Staunton City Council.
If experience is an indicator of who might take over as mayor, Arrowood, Edwards and Woods began their terms on Jan. 1, 2023. Staunton voters selected Campbell for the open seat in November 2023. Park, Overholtzer and Shepherd will begin their freshman terms next month.
If popularity is a factor, Campbell received the highest vote total in November’s election with 7,231 votes. In the 2022 election, Edwards received the most votes with 4,616 people choosing her in the at-large election.
The organizational meeting is open to the public, in person and via Zoom. There will be no opportunity for public comment. The meeting will be held in the Rita S. Wilson Council Chambers on the first floor of City Hall. City Hall is located at 116 W. Beverley St. in Staunton.
Staunton City Council meets on second and fourth Thursday of each month at 7 p.m.
Waynesboro City Council
The organizational meeting for the City of Waynesboro will take place prior to the Jan. 13 regular meeting for the five-member Waynesboro City Council.
Current Mayor Lana Williams did not seek re-election in November. Ward B member Bruce Allen also did not seek re-election.
Recently elected Ward A representative Lorie Strother and at-large member Jeremy Sloat will join Terry Short, re-elected in November to Council for a four-year term, and current council members Kenny Lee, and Jim Wood, who served this last term as the city’s vice mayor.
Wood and Lee were both elected in 2022 and began their terms in January 2023.
Short was first elected to Council in 2016 and previously served as both mayor and vice mayor. Short has indicated this will be his last four-year term on Council. Despite having the most experience, Short told AFP he will likely not seek the post of mayor for the River City due to other civic endeavors including serving as chair of the Virginia Municipal League’s legislative committee.
Wood, currently the city’s vice mayor, will likely not be selected to lead due in part to a controversial incident at the start of his term where fellow Council members, including Lee, denounced his actions and asked him to step down as vice mayor. Short went further and asked Wood to resign his seat on City Council in the aftermath. Wood did neither and did little to address the matter publicly.
Wood used a gay slur to refer to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on social media two days after city leaders requested Buttigieg’s approval for a federal grant for city transportation project. The letter sent to Buttigieg was to connect Waynesboro to the Claudius Crozet Blue Ridge Tunnel and prominently featured the names and phone numbers of City Council members including Wood.
Wood’s slur made national headlines, and the transportation secretary’s husband, Chasten Glezman Buttigieg, acknowledged his comments in a tweet saying in part that “we all know where he [Jim Wood] stands on homophobia.”
Lee, who would appear to be next in line for the role, told AFP in November 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 told AFP. “I will be honored. It’s an honor to serve, and that would be just another honor on top of that.”
Waynesboro City Council meetings are held in Council Chambers in the Charles T. Yancey Municipal Building at 503 W. Main St. in Downtown Waynesboro. Meetings are held on the second and fourth Monday of each month at 7 p.m.
The meetings are televised live on the Government Access Channel and available on the official city YouTube channel.
Related stories
Staunton
Read more stories on Staunton City Council on Augusta Free Press.
- Staunton: Voters re-elect Adam Campbell, elect three new members to city council for 2025
- Adam Campbell seeks re-election to Staunton City Council with focus on local business, spending
- Corrie Park, a teacher, veteran and business owner, seeks seat on Staunton City Council
- Jeff Overholtzer brings journalism, IT experience to run for Staunton City Council seat
- Blake Shepherd runs for Staunton City Council with team spirit, knowledge of city’s history
- New Staunton City Council members focused on affordable housing in 2023
- The mayor resigns, a whistleblower was fired: What’s going on in Staunton?
- Staunton mayor resigns: Political control of City Council now up for grabs
Waynesboro
Read more stories on Waynesboro City Council on Augusta Free Press.
- Next in line? Kenny Lee open to the idea of serving as mayor in Waynesboro
- Terry Short wants to move ‘big rocks’ in final term on Waynesboro City Council
- Waynesboro: Lorie Strother to be a voice for the East side in new role as Council member
- Waynesboro: Independents win two of three contested seats on City Council
- Waynesboro: Why did 1,505 people leave the At-Large line blank on their ballots?
- Interview: Waynesboro City Council candidate Terry Short Jr. talks with AFP
- Interview: Waynesboro City Council candidate Lorie Strother talks with AFP
- The next level: City Council candidate Lorie Strother looks to help Waynesboro ‘move on up’
- Unfinished business: Terry Short Jr. hopeful for another term on Waynesboro City Council
- Waynesboro City Council member asks Jim Wood to resign over Pete Buttigieg slur
- City Council members, city residents, urge Waynesboro Vice Mayor Jim Wood to resign
- Waynesboro vice mayor hits Buttigieg with gay slur after asking for federal money
- Embattled Waynesboro Vice Mayor Jim Wood has his supporters: Who are they?
- Anonymous email: ‘Armed,” ‘dangerous’ MAGA neighbor threatens AFP editor
- ‘I’m number one’: The sign guy who defended Waynesboro Vice Mayor Jim Wood
- Pete Buttigieg is aware that Waynesboro’s vice mayor called him ‘Pete Buttplug’
- Waynesboro elects Facebook talk show conspiracy theorist Jim Wood vice mayor
- Ward C candidate Kenny Lee: ‘There should be people that look like me on City Council’
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Crystal Graham
