By james art 
Chesapeake-State legislators have approved a set of changes related to City City Charter elections, adjusting what is considered “supervision”, which played a significant role in the mayor’s elections in 2024.
The changes approved by both the Virginia Chamber and the Senate unanimously this month update the city charter to clarify the local election dates and conditions when the member of the Council of the meeting must resign to run for mayor and the elections to an heir if an office is released.
The legislation adopted both the Virginia and the Chamber of Virginia on January 16 and 23 respectively. The Senate version was sponsored by Republican senator Christy New Craig, while Democrat del Cliff Hayes wore the House version. This will still require approval from the governor to become a law.
Virginia is the state of Dylan’s rule, which means that the General Assembly determines the scope of the local authorities. So when a city has to update its charter, the state legislators are the ones who can do it.
The Charter amendment legislation followed a formal request from Chesapik Municipal Council in October.
During the 2024 elections, Chesapik’s city charter required council members to officially resign from the Council by June 30 if they were running for mayor, although the elections were in November. The requirement was a detention when Chesapik held an election in the city in May. In 2021, state legislation replaced the local elections from May to November, but some relevant dates were not updated in the city’s charter to reflect state legislation.
The issue led to disputes among council members last year, as some believe that the resignation clause should require the then council member Don Kerry to withdraw from the Council to challenge the acting mayor Rick West.
Kerry did not resign during her unsuccessful mayor offer. The majority of the council members then voted to dispel the issue in court – they eventually bring court cases against Carrie.
But a judge rejected this case and similar from the chairman of the Virginia Tea Party Party Nelson Veles for the conflict provision of cities and state legislation, considering “supervision” that was to be considered when the Charter was updated to reflect the state -owned legislation Legislation in 2021.
The judge’s decision to reject court cases is also based on the language in the former provision for the Charter, which stated that Kerry’s heir will not take office by July 1, although the Council will swear on new candidates in the election on November 5th at 1 January.
In the approved legislation, January 1 is cited as the beginning of the Council and the mayoral conditions. He also updated the Charter to say that the members of the council of the meeting, which make an offer for the mayor, should resign no later from one day before the next regular office for the mayor’s office, which will be 31, will be 31 December.
Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, [email protected]