Warren County Report

“Private industry has been hiring a lot of the planners out there and they generally compensate at a higher level. So we found ourselves in the position of having to deal with those kinds of numbers to have a realistic hope of filling that position with a qualified individual,” the mayor said.

With the town’s hunt for a new town manager narrowed to two finalists, time will soon tell if employment trends impact that hiring in a similar fashion.

While incoming Front Royal Planning Director Nimet Soliman was hired at a base salary of $100,000 per year, plus benefits, the position was advertised at considerably less.

The town’s website - www.ci.front-royal.va.us - listed the position at a salary range between $48,526.40 and $77,583.48, plus benefits. That advertised upper end salary would have put the new planning director, now called the Assistant Town Manager for Community Development, in the range of existing town department heads as shown in the accompanying chart.

Soliman’s salary averages out to about $48 per hour.

The town has been trying to stabilize key positions after a season of staffing turmoil. The town has had five town managers, including three interim, in two-plus years. Initially Town Engineer Steve Burke helped fill the void left when Town Planning Director Brevetta Jordan was fired near the end of 2005. That position was filled on an interim basis two months ago by William Shelley. Both the public works and finance departments have also turned over at the top in the past year.

Interim Town Manager Robert S. Noe Jr. explained during July 24 discussion of the reclassification and associated benefit package and job requirement adjustments of the planning chief’s position, that Soliman’s acceptance of the job, whatever it’s to be called, was contingent upon council’s approval of the terms of the newly-defined position.

Among the terms approved by resolution of council was a waiver of residency requirements within the community for “up to three years” (Soliman lives in Gainesville), that a severance package equal to one month’s salary for each year of service be given for involuntary separation not due to misconduct, and a town match of 50 percent of the employee’s annual contribution to the ICMA RA retirement fund, up to a total of $2,500.

Councilman Eugene Tewalt, a former town public works director, alone opposed approval of the resolution, saying he did not believe the town needed to make concessions as presented to fill positions. However, the need to fill a crucial hole at a time planning and rezoning have become volatile and legally contentious matters for the town held sway with the council majority.

Meet Nimet Soliman

Soliman will assume her position with the town on Sept. 15. She is a 1969 graduate in Engineering from the University of Cairo, and comes to Front Royal from Prince William County, where she has been employed for 27 years. She has served as Assistant Planning Director there since 1992 and was Deputy Director for Land Development for three years prior to that.

Among the projects Soliman was involved in as Prince Williams’ assistant planning director were the creation of a Rural Crescent Area within the county’s 1996 Comprehensive Plan, establishment of fiscal methods for calculating suggested proffers from developers on rezoning proposals, and 25-year growth projections. Soliman is also Prince Williams’ staff liaison to the Washington Metropolitan Council of Governments and was responsible for developing codes to comply with newly applied Chesapeake Bay watershed regulations.