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BLACKSBURG - You'd think Chuck Rogol, the guy who helped file a lawsuit to stop the Toms Creek gravity sewer, would be happy about Tuesday night's Town Council vote to require a supermajority when issuing bonds.

Well, he is, but he wishes they'd gone a little further. "The issue should be that any project that requires going out for debt, the project should be approved by five members" long before council votes to issue any bonds, he said Wednesday.

Rogol and another town resident used this argument as the centerpiece of a lawsuit filed last spring to stop council from awarding construction contracts for the sewer. They objected to council proceeding when only four of seven members supported the project. The town's charter requires five votes to incur debt, but council invoked a section of state code that requires just a majority to issue bonds, and went ahead with four votes. The issue was at the heart of the May council election that overturned council's support for the sewer.

Halfway through Tuesday's meeting, Councilman Paul Lancaster, one of the victors in the May election, moved that council reconsider a motion proposed July 27 by Councilman Tom Sherman that asked that council only use its charter as an authority for incurring debt.

The motion passed 5-2, with Mayor Roger Hedgepeth and Councilwoman Joyce Lewis voting against it.

Rogol's lawsuit was dropped in May after council scuttled sewer plans in the wake of the election.

Lewis, who supported the sewer, argued Tuesday night that council would be overstepping its authority to require a supermajority. She cited legal opinions sought by council from two Richmond-based law firms, Williams Mullen and McGuireWoods, to buttress her argument.

But other council members disagreed with her interpretation of the legal issues. "All the legal opinions I've read say we can choose" to use either the charter or the Public Finance Act to issue bonds, Lancaster said in an interview following the vote.

The discussion turned emotional when Councilman Don Langrehr, who also was elected in May, said "I really feel we would be voting with the majority of the public" by upholding the charter.

Lewis countered that with less than a quarter of registered voters casting ballots, the majority of the public had not spoken. The election turnout was the highest in decades for a Blacksburg election.

"I think it's unfortunate that by doing this we're saying that only five members of council are representing the voters," Lewis said.

Sherman reassured her that the motion was "not an attempt to question the motives or the competence of those casting a vote."

A supermajority "requires the governing body to come to a stronger agreement," especially when dealing with taxpayer money and debt, he said.

For Rogol the real issue is that it's too easy for the council to ignore the town charter, should it choose to do so.

"What happens years from now if another council repeals that motion?" he said.