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Reader questions how City Manager Spore can sign document binding council to matching funds for Hampton Roads Transit Authority.
Spore doesn't have the authority and the document was signed in 1999 and never ratified or approved by the Virginia Beach City Council. This raises the question of the document's legality as well as any action the city manager or council takes regarding it.
How Mr. Spore or the other City managers who signed off on what is alleged to be the enabling agreement/document [AD]for the Transportation District of Hampton Roads [HDHR] is not clear - where they got their authority do so. I say this as the "Transportation District Act of 1964." (TDA) says who can be on HDHR and the city manager is not one of the people listed to serve/act under TDA.
The language of Virginia law ["Transportation District Act of 1964." (TDA)]seems to be very clear and it says, ". . . The governing body of each participating county and city shall appoint from among its members the number of commissioners to which the county or city is entitled; TDA § 15.2-4507.A. The entitlement addressed above covered is found in the words immediately preceding this provision of TDA, "A. Any transportation district commission created shall consist of the number of members the component governments shall from time to time agree upon, or as may otherwise be provided by law. . . . . " TDA § 15.2-4507.A.
In addition to this provision of TDA § 15.2-4507.A. we find two additional places that says who can serve of HRTD [TDA § 15.2-4507.A.Art. 3 and 4.
Art. 3. In the case of the Transportation District Commission of Hampton Roads, such commission shall also include one member of the House of Delegates and one member of the Senate, one of whom shall be a resident of the City of Hampton or the City of Newport News and one of whom shall be a resident of the City of Chesapeake, the City of Norfolk, the City of Portsmouth, the City of Suffolk, or the City of Virginia Beach. The member of the House of Delegates shall be appointed by the Speaker of the House for a term coincident with his term of office and the member of the Senate shall be appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules for a term coincident with his term of office. The members of the General Assembly shall be eligible for reappointment for successive terms. Vacancies occurring other than by expiration of a term shall be filled for the unexpired term. Vacancies shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointments.
Art. 4. The Chairman of the Commonwealth Transportation Board, or his designee, shall be a member of each commission, ex officio with voting privileges. The chairman of the Commonwealth Transportation Board may appoint an alternate member who may exercise all the powers and duties of the chairman of the Commonwealth Transportation Board when neither the chairman of the Commonwealth Transportation Board nor his designee is present at a commission meeting.
As Mr. Spore and the other city managers who signed off on the AD are neither members of The governing body of each participating county and city, a member of the House of Delegates or the Senate nor The Chairman of the Commonwealth Transportation Board, or his designee I am at a loss to explain their actions as it seems to be they are not in conformity with the Dillon Rule which in considering the language of TDA it is to be remembered that the power of a municipality, unlike the state legislature, must be exercised pursuant to an expressed grant, and in the particular manner specified, if one is specified." South Hill v. Allen, 177 Va. 154, 163,City of Richmond v. County Board, 199 Va. 679, 685, 101 S.E.2d 641, ___ (1958).
A. Any transportation district commission created shall consist of the number of members the component governments shall from time to time agree upon, or as may otherwise be provided by law. The governing body of each participating county and city shall appoint from among its members the number of commissioners to which the county or city is entitled; however, for those commissions with powers as set forth in subsection A of § 15.2-4515, the governing body of each participating county or city is not limited to appointing commissioners from among its members. In addition, the governing body may appoint from its number or otherwise, designated alternate members for those appointed to the commission who shall be able to exercise all of the powers and duties of a commission member when the regular member is absent from commission meetings. Each such appointee shall serve at the pleasure of the appointing body; however, no appointee to a commission with powers as set forth in subsection B of § 15.2-4515 may continue to serve when he is no longer a member of the appointing body. Each governing body shall inform the commission of its appointments to and removals from the commission by delivering to the commission a certified copy of the resolution making the appointment or causing the removal.
Virginia Code § 15.2-4507
Notwithstanding the above, however, except in any transportation district containing any or all of the Counties of Hanover, Henrico, and Chesterfield or the City of Richmond, being so delegated by the respective local governments, the commission shall not have the power to regulate services provided by taxicabs, either within municipalities or across municipal boundaries, which regulation is expressly reserved to the municipalities within which taxicabs operate. In any transportation district containing any or all of the Counties of Hanover, Henrico, and Chesterfield or the City of Richmond, the commission may upon proper authority granted by the respective component governments, regulate services provided by taxicabs, either within localities or across county or city boundaries. Virginia Code § 15.2-4515.A.4.Art.2.
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