Working with Localities
“I like to listen to communities first. It’s up to a community to decide what its future is going to look like…” Obenshain in The Recorder, October 19, 2023
Checking in With Harrisonburg
Harrisonburg is the center of the old SD26, and has been represented by Obenshain for 20 years. It is also home to many apartment complexes for JMU students. In 2015, After several fires caused by carelessly discarded cigarettes, the fire chief asked City Council to prohibit mulch up against apartment complexes with vinyl siding. The change in rules passed unanimously by a bipartisan City Council.
In 2016, at the request of apartment complex managers, Obenshain sponsored legislation (SB736) that singled out Harrisonburg and prohibted the city from implementing the ordinance. The bill passed and the following was written into law.
CHAPTER 217 An Act to address local ordinances concerning the installation or use of landscape cover materials.[S 736]Approved March 1, 2016
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. § 1. Notwithstanding any provision of law, general or special, any ordinance in effect and any ordinance adopted by the governing body of the City of Harrisonburg shall not include in any local fire prevention regulations a requirement that an owner of real property who has an occupancy permit issued by the City use specific landscape cover materials or retrofit existing landscape cover materials at such property.
In 2018, Obenshain introduced and then rescinded SB554, which again singled out Harrisonburg.
In 2019, a fire ravaged an apartment complex, displacing 43 residents and destroying their belongings.
Deliberation by Harrisonburg City Council
After the 2016 state law directed at Harrisonburg was passed, the Harrisonburg City Council met to discuss ways to achieve the goal of public safety within the limits of the new state law. The City worked with local apartment managers to make this as easy as possible for them. Local apartment managers were cooperating to implement the measure.
This video illustrates the scope of the problem, the danger to residents, the evidence used by the fire professionals who requested the ordinance, and the care given to making sure Harrisonburg was in compliance with the Dillon Rule.
Education Moment: What is the Dillon Rule? In Dillon Rule states, localities have limited power. They must be “given” authority to do something not enumerated in their powers by the state government. This is why the General Assembly had to vote on allowing Sipe Center in Bridgewater to sell alcohol. Virginia became a Dillon Rule state with the adoption of the 1902 Constitution that was designed to limit local power, including the power to protect the voting rights of African American residents and elect mixed-race local governments.
At 1:24:50, we meet the CEO of the Virginia Apartment Management Association (VAMA). Who protests the changes being offered at this meeting. VAMA started contributing to Delegate Wilt’s campaign fund in 2016 and Obenshain’s fund in 2017. Between 2016 and 2023 Wilt and Obenshain have received $8,000 from VAMA.
At 1:22 Council Member Kai Degner asks whether the city staff were consulted by anyone taking this matter to the state level. The answer is no. Wilt and Obenshain submitted legislation to overturn a local safety ordinance with NO prior consultation with the staff of the largest jurisdiction in their respective districts.
Commentary: Knowing this, can you really trust Obenshain to put local leaders and his constituents first?
Real Mark Obenshain 