The James City County Board of Supervisors met Wednesday to appoint a new chair and vice chair for 2013 but decided to defer appointment until the Powhatan seat is filled.
The chair of the board is responsible for putting together meeting agendas and presiding over the meetings to maintain order but does not have any powers outside those of other board members. Roberts Supervisor John McGlennon will continue as chairman with Berkeley Supervisor Mary Jones as vice chairman until a fifth member of the board is appointed in an attempt to draw a non-contentious vote.
The board also deferred appointing members to county committees until a fifth member is named.
After the board failed to agree on appointing any of the six candidates for the Powhatan seat by the Dec. 28 deadline, four judges from the 9th Judicial Circuit of Virginia are responsible for reviewing the applications and making the appointment. The judges do not have a time limit to make their decision.
Though the board no longer has the power to make an appointment for the vacant seat, Stonehouse Supervisor Jim Kennedy asked the members to vote on the candidates to show the judges where the board stands on each – a gesture McGlennon called “futile” before agreeing to the motion.
Kennedy nominated each of the six candidates for appointment: Andy Bradshaw, Richard Krapf, Glenn Carlson, Melinda Lincoln-Richardson, Michael Hipple and Steven Ward. Jamestown Supervisor Jim Icenhour and McGlennon were in support of Bradshaw; Kennedy and Jones were in support of Krapf, Carlson, Hipple and Ward.
Click here to read more about the candidates’ backgrounds and here to read about their interviews before the supervisors.
This vote is the first cast before the public on all six applications. On Dec. 18, the board voted on three: Krapf, Hipple and Ward. McGlennon and Icenhour voted against all three. Kennedy and Jones voted for each candidate, leaving the board deadlocked.
