On November 27th, Judge Glen Tyler heard SON’s Motion for Summary Judgment in the Circuit Court. Rather than rule on substantive legal facts, Tyler requested briefs from both attorneys as to why the matter should be heard in his court, why SONs has standing in his court and why the specific section of the law, used as a means for bringing the lawsuit, was valid. In a rather startling turn of events, Tyler led County Attorney Thomas Dix around and essentially did his work for him. Oddly, no County representatives were present other than Mr. Dix which leads one to wonder about the proceedings.

The question of standing should be interesting to SONs members for two reasons. The first is that an ad hoc citizens group, which we are, must come before some court to initiate any legal proceeding and Judge Tyler’s Court is the only one available to us on the Shore. The second reason this matter is interesting is that Judge Tyler had already heard a motion by the County to dismiss the matter and ruled in favor of SONs. The question of SONs’ standing was not an issue during that court appearance and certainly begs the question of why our “standing” should now be questioned.

The issue remains: the County has improperly appointed seventeen Planning Commissioners since 1980 for terms not consistent with Virginia Law. SONs seeks to have the County do its business correctly and in conjunction with the law, nothing more.

In fighting SONs on this matter, the County wastes taxpayer money and flaunts the laws in the faces of the residents. We should not permit this, we must insist on good government and we must be prepared to challenge that government when it disregards the law.

Legal Counsel for SONs will respond to Tyler within the next two weeks.