Waynesboro Mayor Bobby Henderson has decided to back out of a planned run for re-election in November.
Henderson, who was elected to the Ward C seat on Waynesboro City Council in 2018, had announced last month that he would run for a second term.
But on Monday, the mayor posted a message on Facebook that he had reconsidered, citing increased job responsibilities with his day job.
“Being on council is great, but it is also very time-consuming,” wrote Henderson, a retired Virginia state trooper who now serves as vice president of a fire investigative company. “With only 24 hours in a day, working 14-16 between work and city council has become exhausting. There are two other candidates willing to step up and lead for the next four years. I am going to put my focus on my family and my fulltime job.”
Henderson had announced his intention to run for a second term back on May 12. A day later, he posted a lengthy item on his Facebook page in response to a criticism from a city resident over City Council’s vote in April to approve the $2 million Sunset Park.
Poring through the response, you can sense that there might be more to his decision not to run for a second term than his day job.
For background, remember that a small, but vocal, group of residents had raised issue with the Sunset Park decision, citing 14 full-time openings in the city PD and “crumbling” infrastructure.
“Why do we have fourteen open positions in our police department? Why is our downtown crumbling? I would agree it comes from failed leadership, unfortunately the failed leadership started with a council back in 2007 who chose to listen to political party leadership rather than the professional leadership of the city manager,” Henderson wrote in his response to the critics.
“Those councils were so proud of having cut our taxes back to one of the lowest tax rates in the state they did not care about our city growth or our city employees. The sad truth their failing was caused by buckling to party politics. They failed to plan and invest, they failed us and future generations. Here we are, living a failure to plan,” Henderson wrote.
“When I ran in 2018, I sat on the (s)tage at the Wayne Theater and promised our community if they elected me, I would not kick the can down the road for future councils to fix. I would make the tough calls and work with our council and staff to move our city forward. I have kept that promise, with the help and support of my fellow council members and the great city staff, and support from a large contingent of city residents who chose to let me fight for them. We are planning for the future of Waynesboro, yes adding a park is planning for the future and planning for recurring revenue source,” Henderson wrote.
“My responsibility is not the republican or democratic political parties. My responsibilities are an entire city of people; to three hundred city employees that work hard for the citizens 365 days a year and must be properly compensated. I voted last year not to equalize the tax rate. Our public workers do not need empty words of public support they hear from activists at a public hearing they need the supporting words backed up by financial support in their paychecks.
“Our city is moving forward, with our growth, quality of life infrastructure and a growing workforce we are attracting more industry to our city.
Leadership is about teamwork, building and surrounding yourself with a team of experts in different fields of expertise. Then the leader listens and lets your team advise you what options we have, to move forward or stand in place. Waynesboro has a professional city manager who has assembled a talented team who are frugal with tax dollars and smart with how and where to invest the money,” Henderson wrote.
No doubt his day job is time-consuming. But it also seems that Henderson is maybe frustrated with the nonsense part of local politics, and who can blame him.
Story by Chris Graham
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Chris Graham
