The upcoming Jan. 2 organizational meeting of the James City County Board of Supervisors will begin with a vote for chair and vice chair for 2013, but following the board’s deadlocked vote for a Powhatan seat appointee, it is unclear how that vote will turn out.
Because a fifth member of the board has not yet been appointed, the board is divided between two Republicans and two Democrats. The chair’s role ends on Jan. 1 so the board must elect a replacement at the next meeting (Jan. 2), but with a divided board, it may not be able to decide on only one chair.
“I think we should recognize that we have a current division and reflect that in the way we organize,” said Roberts District Supervisor John McGlennon.
Because the board was divided in 2012, Icenhour suggested the role of chair be split for the year with Jones serving half and McGlennon serving half. The board couldn’t come to a decision when the suggestion was first made and Wilford Kale revisited the idea of splitting the role after he was appointed in March. The board decided then to split the role starting Sept. 1, with Berkeley Supervisor Mary Jones handing the chairmanship to Roberts Supervisor John McGlennon.
Electing a member to fill the role of chair doesn’t mean that the board is electing one person to have more power than the others. Virginia code says the chairman of a board of supervisors has the same duties as other board members and has the ability to do a few things without a vote from the board, such as:
- representing the board at official functions and ceremonial events
- calling special meetings of the board, but two members of the board may also call a meeting without the chair’s approval
- setting the agenda for board meetings, but the agenda may be modified by a vote from the board
- appointing county representatives to regional boards, authorities and commissions, but the appointments can be revoked by a vote from the board
- creating and appointing committees of the board and naming board members to lead the committees, but the board can revoke the appointments.
“The Chair also has the official responsibility of running meetings. It is in this role that the Chair can exert more influence over the Board,” County Administrator Robert Middaugh wrote in an email. “The individual personality of the person serving as Chair is as much a defining factor in how much influence is exerted as the actual power to run the meeting. Some make more or less of that responsibility.”
Jamestown District Supervisor Jim Icenhour said the board should have a “gentleman’s agreement,” to agree to disagree and have two chairs for 2013, with each serving half the year as chair and half as vice chair. Icenhour said he hopes after the board has a fifth member, it can go back to rotating chairs as it had done in the past.
“Over the last 5 years, it has been completely different from what it was before,” Icenhour said. “When I was first elected what was really important was not who was elected but the inclusiveness of the process.”
Icenhour said prior to 2006, the board decided to rotate the role, which would give each board member a chance to serve as chair: one year a member would serve as vice chair and the following year the previous vice chair would serve as chair. In 2007, Icenhour served as vice chair and should have served as chair in 2008 by rotation.
Supervisors Jim Kennedy, Stonehouse District, and Jones were elected to the board in 2007, which gave the board a Republican majority for 2008.
“I was told that as long as Republicans had the majority, I would never be the chair. That’s a direct quote from someone whom I do not wish to identify,” Icenhour said.
Kennedy has served as chairman three times during his service on the board. He said the most important things a chairman should be able to do are to communicate with other board members and talk about various things facing the board like budgets or staffing issues and other long-term items.
“The big thing is communication,” Kennedy said. “You need to communicate with all board members frequently.”
McGlennon said the chairman should represent the county well in local and regional settings and “should be able to respectfully and effectively run a meeting and to help the board move ahead with its policy agenda.”
Icenhour said the people of the county elect the board members so they are choosing the traits of each member. He said the board doesn’t choose traits necessary to a good chairman because they don’t choose the board members themselves.
“You have to exert leadership and help people communicate and compromise and that has not been very successful on our board and is just a mirror of what’s happening in Washington right now,” Icenhour said.
Kennedy also said, “We are a mini Washington D.C. right here in James City County,” and is concerned about the board having contentious meetings since 2008. He thinks the next board meeting might not necessarily be contentious but probably won’t be agreeable.
“The disadvantage of supporting someone just to get a consensus is exactly that [and] it would be better to come to consensus about work session items,” Kennedy said.
At this point, Kennedy, Icenhour and McGlennon do not have a single board member in mind to support for the role of chair this year. McGlennon said the board needs to discuss how to handle the chair’s service for the year before selecting one person to appoint.
“The role of the chair is such that we can have an orderly transition during the course of the year if that’s what it takes,” McGlennon said. “Historically we have rotated the chair one year after another and in the past that has sometimes meant that partisanship has not been the deciding factor…I think it would be healthy for the board to agree that all members serve as the chair in rotation.”
Jones was contacted for comment Thursday and Friday but was unavailable by phone and e-mail.
