Board members spar about appointments

By Nancy Lindsey
The current and former chairmen of the Patrick County Board of Supervisors got into a verbal fracas over committee appointments at the Feb. 8 meeting.
When Dan River District Supervisor Roger Hayden was elected board chairman in January, Blue Ridge Supervisor Karl Weiss cast the only dissenting vote against Hayden.
Weiss said at the time that he was voting no because the last time Hayden was chairman, in 2011, he took Weiss off all the committees he was on except one.
“I want to air a grievance and get you to clarify your statement to me,” Hayden said at the recent meeting. He said he appointed Weiss to eight committees and presented copies of the committee appointments from the minutes of the 2011 meeting.
The copies showed that Weiss was appointed to eight committees. They did not show, however, which committees Weiss had been serving on before the new appointments.
The documentation showed that in 2011 Weiss was named to the personnel committee, town-county liaison committee, Patrick County Economic Development Authority (EDA), West Piedmont Planning District Commission (WPPDC), skateboard park committee, solid waste committee, and school board liaison committee.
In response to Hayden’s comments, Weiss said, “Roger, I’d still vote no. It’s time to move on…We don’t have that much time if you’re waiting for an apology.”
Hayden’s new list of appointments—which was apparently prepared in January but not released to the press until February—showed several changes from 2015, when Weiss was chairman.
Weiss was removed from the following committees: the Patrick County Economic Development Authority (EDA); the personnel committee; the Patrick County Public Service Authority (PSA); and the Patrick County Tourism Advisory Council (TAC).
Weiss was appointed or reappointed to the recreation committee, the skateboard park committee, the solid waste committee, and the town-county liaison committee.
Hayden appointed himself to the following: the personnel committee, the Patrick County Planning Commission, the school board liaison committee, TAC, representative to the Virginia Association of Counties (VACo), and member of the West Piedmont Planning District Commission (WPPDC).
Smith River District Supervisor Crystal Harris was removed from the Enhanced 911 Committee, the personnel committee, and the school board liaison committee.
Harris was reappointed to the Local Elected Officers (LEO) board, but that changed when she told Hayden that the position should be held by the board chairman. She was also reappointed to the Support to Eliminate Poverty (STEP) board and the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) board.
Peters Creek District Supervisor Rickie Fulcher was appointed to the EDA, the personnel committee, the school board liaison committee, and the WPPDC.
Mayo River District Supervisor Lock Boyce was appointed to the E-911 Committee, the PSA, and the social services board.
All board members serve on the budget committee and the building committee. Two committees, the broadband taskforce committee and the jail committee, are no longer active.