Purcellville’s bold leadership shift: Fraser takes the helm as interim town manager

By Valerie Cury

At the Jan. 8 Purcellville Town Council Special Meeting, a major shift in leadership occurred as the newly elected council majority voted to end the tenure of Town Manager Rick Bremseth’s employment and appoint former four-term mayor Kwasi Fraser as interim town manager. The decision, which underscores the at-will nature of the town manager position, was made by a 4-3 vote. Mayor Chris Bertaut, and Council Members Ben Nett, Carol Luke, and Susan Khalil supported the change, while Vice Mayor Erin Rayner, and Council Members Kevin Wright, and Caleb Stought opposed it. Rayner had previously voted against Bremseth’s appointment in 2022. 

Under Bremseth’s leadership, and with the support from the then majority Town Council, utility rates were increased to 16 and 18 percent, with plans for identical increases over the next 3- or 4-year period. Bremseth argued that such increases were necessary to prevent a financial “catastrophe”—even though there are strategies that could be employed, such as addressing inefficiencies in the general fund, and through policy allowing council to direct a portion of the meals tax revenue to be used for utility debt payment.

In addition to the rate hikes, proposed changes by management to the draft zoning ordinance faced criticism for being completely inconsistent with the Town’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan. The then majority council also continued discussions on a controversial proposal for a 1.2 million-square-foot industrial annexation, which if annexed would have also included additional properties in the area to be annexed—and included over 3,500 additional weekday vehicle trips.

The meeting began with Council Member Kevin Wright asking to hold the closed meeting, which according to the agenda, was “to discuss and consider the employment of an existing employee of the public body and to discuss the appointment of an Interim Town Manager” in public “for the purpose of transparency,” he said.

“That’s impermissible,” said Town Attorney John Cafferky. “That’s not something that I would recommend given the fact that the substance of the closed meeting has to do with legal matters and legal advice.” Cafferky said that personnel matters are always discussed in closed session.

Wright asked, “But if the individual we are discussing is willing to have that, would that be an issue?”

Cafferky explained “it’s not just the interest of the individual or individuals. It’s the interest of the Town Council. The Town Council is really the one that has the attorney client privilege, so that’s why those type of discussions are typically held in closed session.”

Pressing, Wright asked, “But not mandated, just typically?” Cafferky responded, “Well the Town Council can I suppose waive the attorney client privilege, but it’s not something I can recommend.”

Wright said there was no guarantee that there would be a legal issue and the closed session was just “discussing employment of an existing employee.”

Cafferky explained that the expectation would be that there would be legal issues and ramifications discussed.

Rayner said the agenda had just come out—even though it came out three days prior to the meeting. Disregarding the attorney’s advice, Council Member Wright called for a vote to hold the meeting in public. His motion failed 3-4 with Mayor Bertaut, and Council Members Nett, Luke and Khalil voting against. 

When the Town Council came back into session after one hour in closed session, they voted to remove Bremseth and appointed Kwasi Fraser as Interim Town Manager. The motion passed 4-3 with Bertaut, Nett, Luke and Khalil voting for.

Fraser is a 19-year resident of the Town of Purcellville. He has a Bachelor of Engineering in Engineering Science from Stony Brook University and a Master of Business Administration in Finance from Rutgers University. Additionally, he completed Executive Education from Harvard Business School. As mayor, he reduced the Town’s debt by $10 million, and voted against two annexation requests.

Amid heated opposition from Rayner, Wright and Stought who repeatedly interrupted, questioned the process, and insinuated that the new majority had held a private meeting to discuss Fraser’s appointment, Bertaut said, “This was the best path forward to achieve our goals and objectives as stated to the public when we ran for election.”

Nett said that the Council just had a robust discussion in closed session, on the advice of the town attorney “so we would not attach civil liability to this body, this town—enough of that has taken place over the course of the last several years.

“We’ve had numerous informal discussions just like you have had numerous informal discussions on a variety of topics with your running mates, your fellow council members with whom you have just enjoyed a 5-2 majority over the course of the last couple years, correct?”

“So elections have consequences,” said Nett. “We ran on our agenda. We were very open and honest with folks—I was as I held events, as I went door to door. I intend to fulfill my campaign promises.

“Now, naturally many people will not like that, but a majority as evidenced by the most recent election will,” said Nett.

Khalil said, “As far as the current town manager, in my campaign, I scoured through a lot of financial information and could not figure out why certain things have happened or weren’t happening, and there really could be no explanation for the existence of the things that I was seeing for them to be endorsed by the town manager.”

Khalil said during her campaign she had several conversations with Kwasi Fraser and she supports his vision for the town. “He is extremely knowledgeable about how to turn things around, and so when it came to my opinion as to whether or not he could be a good interim—yes, I was all for it.”

Concluded Khalil, “I support Mr. Fraser because I support his vision for the town.”

Luke said the town has been through this process several times and she agreed with the change of town manager. She said a lot of the things that have happened have not been comfortable to the majority of town residents. 

“I think it is appropriate that we do this and move forward for Mr. Bremseth’s sake and for the town’s sake,” said Luke.