Tuesday, Nov. 3, voters will elect the next members of the Williamsburg City Council. Incumbent Stacy Kern-Scheerer, Eino Korpela ’25 and Carolyn Murphy are running for the two open seats.
The Flat Hat interviewed each candidate to learn more about their respective policy platforms.
Stacy Kern-Scheerer
Williamsburg City Council incumbent Stacy Kern-Scheerer has spent much of her life in public service.
After obtaining a master’s degree in public health and a law degree from Boston University, Kern-Scheerer said she sought meaningful opportunities to give back to her community.
Kern-Scheerer joined the Williamsburg community with her husband and son in 2009 and first ran for council in 2022.
“I noticed there are a lot of retirees and a large student population in Williamsburg, but there are also people in the middle of life who are raising their families and just here to work,” she said. “I am a part of that.”
Kern-Scheerer said this drive for public service and perspective as a midlife parent ultimately influenced her decision to run for Williamsburg City Council.
“I thought about it for a few cycles before I ran,” she said. “I see it as a real convergence of utilizing the qualities that make me who I am for a public service goal and the feeling that I had something to bring to the table.”
Kern-Scheerer also believes her identity as a parent within the Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools system sets her apart.
As an incumbent, Kern-Scheerer said she is prepared to tackle complex city council operations and broader community issues.
“I have really grown and gotten more experience on what it means to show up, be responsive and to truly listen,” she said.
She cited the budget-setting process as an example of a system that takes time and experience to approach confidently.
“If reelected for a second term, I feel as though we can keep moving forward and there won’t be that learning curve,” she said. “There is always much to learn, but with these big processes, you get better and better over time.”
Kern-Scheerer said public infrastructure and accessibility are particularly meaningful to her platform. During her first term, Kern-Scheerer contributed to the construction of a new crosswalk in Colonial Williamsburg after community members expressed the need for one.
Kern-Scheerer said housing is one of the most difficult issues for city council members to manage.
“When it comes to the ‘housing crisis,’ the question has to be which part of the problem we are trying to solve,” she said. “When we talk about policies, we have to address what the critical problems are. There is no single policy that is going to fix housing.”
She said she supports projects to transform former commercial sites into apartment complexes.
“Those are policy strategies that can then increase the supply of rental units and help with that piece of the crisis,” she said. “Even if it is tedious, you have to take a targeted approach, because otherwise, it’s like throwing towards a dartboard and hoping that someone benefits.”
She used the William and Mary Real Estate Foundation’s proposed plan to redevelop the Richmond Hall area into residential townhomes as an example of this logic.
“That does increase housing stock, but it doesn’t address an affordability issue,” she added.
Kern-Scheerer also touched on the use of Flock cameras by local police.
“I do not like the Flock cameras,” she said. “I’m certainly open to talking about how we can make guardrails and regulations stronger, but I approach that with a critical eye on the matter. I trust the Williamsburg Police Department, but even with that, I think we need to be critical of how our information could be used in ways that we may not intend.”
Kern-Scheerer said she values her relationship with the College’s student body.
“I’m so rooted in listening and problem-solving through consensus and accessibility,” she said. “I want to be a good public servant leader and make sure that people understand I’m available to hear them, listen to them and work with them.”
Eino Korpela
After his freshman year at the College of William and Mary, Korpela said he felt he needed a change.
Korpela, an American and Finnish dual citizen, took a gap year to complete a year of conscription in Finland’s military.
“I had recognized in myself that I had a lot of growing and maturing to do,” he said. “[Serving in Finland’s military] showed me that each of us are in control of our own future.”
Korpela returned to the United States and graduated in spring 2025 with a degree in accounting and data science. He stayed in the Williamsburg area.
Korpela said his time at the College inspired him to run for Williamsburg City Council.
“I realized that there was an opportunity to actually make a proper impact,” he said.
If elected, Korpela said he hopes to find ways to save money for local taxpayers. One of his ideas is for the City to hire a full-time grant underwriter for federal and state funding applications.
“[Hiring a full-time grant underwriter] would be a very meaningful way to sort of ease the burden on taxpayers’ pockets while also allowing the City to grow,” he said. “The City would benefit tremendously.”
Korpela said he believes Williamsburg is financially stable but could benefit from increased transparency about spending. He said he supports creating a financial transparency website for the City, where residents can easily locate information about Williamsburg’s economic situation.
“[Transparency] builds public trust,” he said. “It makes people feel like the money that they’re getting taxed on and contributing is working for them.”
Korpela said he wants any new development projects in the area to preserve green space and Williamsburg’s historic charm.
Korpela said he supports the recently approved plan to redevelop the Williamsburg Community Library. He declined to comment on the William and Mary Real Estate Foundation’s proposal to redevelop the Richmond Hall area into residential townhomes, adding that he needed to research the plan more.
Regarding Flock cameras, Korpela pointed to a student-led referendum conducted at the College last semester. In the referendum, students overwhelmingly called on the College to end its relationship with Flock
The College and Williamsburg still both operate Flock cameras and have declined to stop using them.
Korpela said he would follow the opinions of students if elected and move to end the use of Flock by the Williamsburg Police Department.
“My job as an elected individual [would be] to represent the constituents as accurately as I possibly can,” he said.
Korpela agrees that Flock can help police solve crimes in some circumstances. Regardless, he said he believes using the technology sacrifices privacy in exchange for what may ultimately be minor gains in safety.
“I think that fundamentally, police work was able to be done before Flock cameras very effectively,” he added. “Williamsburg has always been a safe place.”
Korpela said he felt there were ways to support Williamsburg police besides funding Flock cameras. He added he would support funding a K-9 unit for police work.
Korpela also said he is against Williamsburg’s three-person housing rule, which limits the occupancy of detached single-family homes to a maximum of three unrelated persons.
“It’s unfortunate to hear over and over again that students have a difficult time finding housing opportunities because of the restricted three-person housing rule,” he said.
He said the City could directly address issues that may come with ending the rule, such as parking or noise.
“Students are a huge part of the City,” he said. “They’re at the heart of the City on a lot of levels.”
Carolyn Murphy
Carolyn Murphy has spent 46 years involved in local government in the Williamsburg-James City County area, including 30 years in the Williamsburg Planning Department. From 2016 to 2021, she served as the City of Williamsburg planning and codes compliance director.
Murphy said her extensive experience in local government contributed to her decision to run for city council.
“One of the things that’s inspired me running is [that] I have a broad spectrum of people who support me,” she said. “They tell me that they respected me mainly because I worked with them.”
Murphy said she believes it is too difficult for residents to understand budget development and that there is limited room for public feedback in the process.
Murphy said she wants the City to be more transparent about its operations.
“My campaign is a sincere effort to bring about a cultural change within City leadership that emphasizes responsiveness to the public and puts citizen interests at the forefront of policymaking and budgeting,” she said.
Murphy pushed back on the idea that students and other Williamsburg residents have opposing interests.
“Students at William and Mary provide great things to this community,” she said. “People want to say, ‘It’s us versus them.’ I don’t take that position.”
Murphy said her experience speaking with students about the City’s noise ordinance has demonstrated her ability to resolve conflict.
“It was a way for me, representing the City, meeting them together and reaching a solution,” she said.
Murphy said she would support petitioning the state to allocate more funding for on-campus housing.
“Waitlists exist not only for students but others because the university does not have enough housing on campus,” she wrote in an email. She said the City should continue developing its Comprehensive Plan policy guide and fielding feedback from all community members.
Murphy advocated for improving Williamsburg Area Transit Authority infrastructure, including expanding routes and bus hours and building more bus stop shelters. Murphy also said the City needs to limit its spending.
“Borrowing money from reserves should not be an option unless absolutely necessary,” she wrote in an email. “The budget has increased substantially over the last 8 years and we cannot sustain this in the future without increasing more taxes.”
Murphy sees overspending in staffing as a problem.
“It’s not that I don’t like employees for the [City],” she said. “If you get to a point where the economy turns and you don’t have the money, then you have to lay employees off.”
Murphy recognized local concerns about Flock cameras in Williamsburg.
“Based on the misuse of Flock cameras across the country and now in James City County, I believe the [Williamsburg] Police Department should justify their use [of the cameras] and provide specific information and examples where Flock cameras have benefited the [City] in such a way that other methods used for investigations could not reach the same conclusion,” she wrote in an email.
She said she supports the City limiting Flock camera use.
“Even if we keep them, the [data storage] time frame should be lowered to probably seven days or less,” she added. “I think not everybody in the [Williamsburg] police department should be able to access the information.”
She said the expense from Flock cameras is sizable and should be reduced if the cameras are deemed unnecessary.
“[The City should] be very conscious of the money that is spent,” she said. “It’s not their money, it’s your money, it’s my money, it’s the taxpayers’ money.”
