A candidate for the Amherst County Board of Supervisors is advocating that the board create an advisory committee to assist the selection of a county administrator.
Claudia Tucker, who is running for the District 2 seat to be vacated this year by Vernon Wood, wrote a letter last week to the board suggesting that it form a committee of members with expertise in human resource, business and employee recruitment and retention. Tucker also suggested in the letter that certain agency heads within the county participate in the process.
The board has been dealing with the aftermath of the controversial resignation of Rodney Taylor, the former administrator, who had personnel-related conflicts behind closed doors with several board members. Taylor served the post three years and resigned April 24 at the board’s request following a series of closed meetings earlier that week with supervisors.
His departure led to a group of residents in late May demanding answers from supervisors, who until this month had not talked openly about the
decision to remove Taylor.
Tucker said in the letter that forming the committee could be “a new way of doing business” for the board in light of recent issues and “public perception of the board’s lack of openness and transparency.”
“This is not an attempt to diminish the board’s responsibility or mitigate the input of each individual board member,” Tucker wrote in the letter. “It should be seen as a way to empower the board to seek resources to help make that selection the best that you can make for the citizens of Amherst.”
Tucker, who also serves on the county’s planning commission, was scheduled to appear before the board at its 7 p.m. meeting today. She said she would be out of town and could not attend the meeting but asked Wood, her supervisor, to speak on her behalf regarding the request.
Tucker is running against Bonnie Limbrick, a former planning commissioner, who has also filed paperwork to contend for the District 2 seat.
The board is set to hold a closed meeting tonight on the application process but could opt to talk openly about the subject. Supervisors, in an effort to discuss more subjects in open session following the Taylor incident, recently discussed the hiring process outside of a closed session at a recent meeting but only with a caveat that applicants’ names not be mentioned.
The county has 30 applications it is reviewing for the vacant position, according to officials.
Also tonight, the board is holding several public hearings on zoning matters and the county attorney is scheduled to present a first reading of a new proposed noise ordinance.
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