HAMPTON ? Molly Joseph Ward is resigning as the city's mayor on Friday to take a position within President Barack Obama's administration.
As long as the federal government is operating, she will begin a job as the Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director for the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs on Monday. A federal shutdown would delay that start date.?
She will work under Director of Intergovernmental Affairs David Agnew to engage mayors and municipal leaders across the country concerning issues facing localities. The position will force her to move to Washington, D.C.
Ward leaves the city's top elected post with nearly three years left on her term, meaning the city council will need to appoint an interim mayor within 60 days.
Throughout her mayoral term, Ward has focused on state and regional issues while pushing senior-level staff to coordinate neighborhood curb-and-gutter issues.
She most recently won reelection in May 2012 scooping up nearly two-thirds of votes while beating challenger Councilman Donnie Tuck. She framed that campaign around her willingness and ability to push state and regional officials to advance projects that benefit the city.
Ward has also hung her hat on the community rallies that supported the National Park Service monument at Fort Monroe.
On Nov. 1, 2011, she stood in the White House's Oval Office, just behind Obama's right shoulder as the president signed a proclamation creating the national monument.
"We are thrilled and grateful that the president has chosen to use his authority under the Antiquities Act ...," said Ward, at the time of the proclamation.
At the City Council dais, Ward took office in July 2008 just months before the Great Recession began strangling property values in Hampton Roads. The economic downturn has forced the city to scale back services will increasing the property tax rate. Property taxes are the city's largest single sources of revenue. The City Council is now considering a series of programs and reforms to improve the quality of the city's housing stock.
Ward's participation in Fort Monroe's evolution from a military post into a public community and tourism destination hasn't always been smooth sailing.
In April, Attorney General (and Republican gubernatorial candidate) Ken Cuccinelli issued an opinion booting Ward and Vice Mayor George Wallace from the Fort Monroe Authority Board of Trustees, citing a conflict of interest because the pair are also members of the City Council.
Ward and Wallace, both Democrats, decried the decision as being politically motived. The attorney general's decision forced the City Council to appoint new representatives on the authority's board.
For the past two years Ward has served as chairwoman of the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization, the group which steers the region's transportation policy and interests.
Her term was scheduled to end this month. Ward was known for her conciliatory, consensus building style while leading the board, which will face critical decisions soon as to how to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for roads.
Ward is known for praising her colleagues in both parties, including Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms, a Republican and State Sen. Tommy Norment, who also sit on the board.
On Monday, Ward said the City Council will need to "nurture" downtown and Coliseum Central, plan for sea level rise, and maintain its strong relationships with NASA, Joint Base Langley-Eustis and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center after she resigns.
She also highlighted the city's need to maintain a partnership with the Fort Monroe Authority and National Park Service as the historic property continues its transition.
Ward will need to move to Capital Hill, an area that is not uncharted territory for her. She has been asked to attend several White House related events in the past two years.
In March 2012, she addressed the White House Conference on Conservation concerning the community's effort to lobby for the Fort Monroe monument.
On March 19, Ward tweeted that she was at a White House "Celebration of Ireland" with Obama and Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny.
Prior to being elected mayor, Ward served as the city treasurer from 2002 until 2008. She is also an attorney and "of council" with the law firm of McDermottWard, in Hampton.
Ward received her undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, and her law degree at the College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg.
Staff Writer Austin Bogues contributed to this report.
Brauchle can be reached at 757-247-2878.
Hampton mayor resigns
What happens next?
Vacancies in the office of mayor and councilmen from whatever cause arising shall be filled by a majority vote of the remaining members of the council, or if the council shall fail to act within sixty (60) days of the occurrence of the vacancy, by appointment of a majority of the judges of the circuit court of the City of Hampton, Virginia. The person so appointed to fill the vacancy shall hold office until the qualified voters shall fill the same by election and the person so elected shall have qualified. Such election shall be held and conducted in accordance with the general laws of the Commonwealth relating to the filling of vacancies in the office of mayor and city councilmen.
Source: Hampton City Code
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