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Editor’s note: After his speech at last Wednesday’s council meeting, The Herald asked Farmville Mayor Brian Vincent to recreate it for our print and online readers to see.

I have a well-traveled record of speaking for myself on partisan ideology in local government. I’ve spoken about it every election year, because unfortunately Virginia has an election….every year. And every year I ask for grace to be extended to each other and to remember that we are all in this endeavor, this enterprise together. Lately, there’s been a lot of whispers amongst community members. I’ve had a handful come up to me, concerned about different things they’re hearing on the ground, about those who are endeavoring, a small pocket, to inject hyperpartisan ideology into local government. 

I’m not here to pontificate upon those specific actions in public. But what I will do is continue to draw lines in the sand here in this council chamber. My belief is that partisan ideology often erodes trust and functionality in local government. It creates dysfunction. It creates chaos. We see it across the Commonwealth. We see it across the country. When you inject ideology into local government, services suffer. Infrastructure maintenance is deferred and suffers. Communities suffer. It’s not advantageous at our level, nor would I argue is it helpful at any level. 

Brian Vincent details Small Towns Conference

I recently spoke to the VML Small Towns Conference. I welcomed the folks to the conference, and I did so with that same address. Which was that we should all be warriors who stand for integrity in our locality and stand as bulwarks, firewalls, to ideology injected into our local politics. I’m not here to celebrate or condemn people’s viewpoints, but I’m here to say that experience has shown that dysfunction and chaos follows ideology being injected into local politics. So, what I’ve always said, every year, every time, and it’s rare that I get up on the microphone and speak at length, but I always say that I will draw the battle lines at calm and order in this chamber. Because I believe it’s in the best interest of the people. We are here to serve the public, not to serve an ideology.

Now, there are events that are transpiring nationally, events that, honestly, I was unaware of until my wife made me aware of them today. Because I don’t travel in the hyperpartisan ideological chambers that some people tend to these days. But I would hope that we can continue to be a place that recognizes that we’re all neighbors, and that we’re all in this enterprise together. And as I said at the beginning, we can continue to extend grace to one another. That has always been my mission, sitting here. And it’s been mine and mine alone. I don’t extend that mission to these council members, I don’t speak for them on this front. This is my own mission.

And if you disagree with the idea of staying calm and having order in our public business, then I do ask: What is it that you stand for? Who do we want to be? Because in my mind, we’re all Americans. And the road to prosperity is not paved by just 70 million people being psyched and 70 million people being disenchanted, and 200 million people going, “What’s wrong with everybody?” We get there by working together. And we need leaders who speak to all of America.

Well, I thank you for the time to express that. I thank my council members for the time to express that. And now we’ll go into the invocation, you’re welcome to join, if so inclined. Per usual, you’re welcome to not join if not so inclined,  and Mr. Vice Mayor Reid will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance… of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God.

BRIAN VINCENT is the mayor of the Town of Farmville. He can be reached at Bvincent@farmvilleva.com.