On June 9, the Purcellville town Council had its most uneventful meeting in 18 months. Council had one agenda item: to consider codification of a multi-year plan for utility rates. It is important to note this was not part of the budget adoption process (which finished at the previous meeting), but rather a forward-looking plan dealing with rates over the next 5 years.

Council voted unanimously to move forward with this plan.

This is bittersweet for me.

I am grateful the council found consensus, and I am grateful it was a short and uneventful meeting.

At the same time, I grieve the meetings that could have been this way but weren’t. Since the Mayor, Vice Mayor Nett, and Councilmember Khalil took office in January of 2025, they have pushed irrational policy through unethical and non-transparent means, all the while complaining that Councilmember Rayner, Councilmember Wright, and I refused to work with them. The irony is palpable.

I am also frustrated by the lack of any sort of acknowledgement by the Mayor, Councilmember Luke, and Councilmember Khalil of the complete about-face they have done on this issue. In the 2024 campaign they told voter after voter that they were running because Rayner Wright and Stought had just raised rates 16% and 18% and were about to continue double digit rate increases for several more years. They told the whole town we were derelict of duty, corrupt, incompetent, or a combination of all three, and that if the town voted them in, they would never do something as terrible as multiple years of double-digit rate increases.

Now, less than 18 months later, they have voted in support of a plan even more drastic than the plan enacted by the 2024 council. They have not explained what changed or offered any sort of apology for their previous claims. They likely never will.

Moving forward I will do what I have always done: Vote and advocate for what is in the best interest of our town and try to build consensus on the issues wherever possible.

I pray that this fall our town elects wise individuals with integrity who can lead our town to better days, which I continue to believe are ahead of us.