Passed Over?
Floyd, Next In Line To Chair Board, Says He Won’t Be Tapped
Posted: January 7, 2013
HARRISONBURG — Rockingham County’s supervisors are straying from the normal procedure used to elect a chairman, leaving the man who’d be next in line wondering what gives.
The Board of Supervisors elects a chairman and vice chairman each year at its first meeting of the year in January.
In the past, the board has elected the previous year’s vice chairman as head to run semimonthly meetings and represent the county in various roles as part of a rotating schedule among the five county districts.
Under that process, District 3 representative Dee Floyd would be expected to take over as chairman on Wednesday when the board holds its organizational meeting.
But three supervisors polled about the matter Sunday wouldn’t say who they would nominate or support for the job, and Floyd said he was told he wouldn’t serve as chairman this year.
“I just don’t quite understand it,” said Floyd, 84, who believes his age may have played a role in his fellow supervisors’ apparent decision to pass him up as chairman. “I don’t think I’m mentally incapacitated.”
Supervisors Bill Kyger, last’s year chairman, and Pablo Cuevas and Fred Eberly say they don’t know who’s going to be nominated.
“We won’t know until … the board in all its wisdom makes its decision,” Eberly said.
Kyger and Cuevas also said the practice of electing the previous vice chairman as chairman is not a set policy or county ordinance. Supervisor Mike Breeden could not be reached for comment on Sunday.
“That just happens when it happens, but that’s not a law and ordinance or anything,” Cuevas said.
Kyger denied there was an effort to prevent Floyd from becoming chairman.
Earlier this month, Kyger named a committee including him and Breeden to recommend officers to the full board, but Kyger said the committee was never activated.
“A nominating committee has not been activated because we haven’t seen a need to nominate through the nominating committee,” he said.
With Floyd taken out of the rotation, the next person in line for the job would be Eberly, with Cuevas serving as vice chairman.
Eberly would not discuss that possibility.
“I just really wouldn’t want to comment on that,” he said. “I won’t really know until it happens. I don’t pine for the job.”
Floyd had not discussed the situation publicly until being asked about it on Sunday, but he did say he was bothered the other board members were “changing course in the middle of the stream.”
“You’ll have to check with them, I guess, and see what their problem is,” he said.
Contact Jeremy Hunt at 574-6273 or jhunt@dnronline.com
The Board of Supervisors elects a chairman and vice chairman each year at its first meeting of the year in January.
In the past, the board has elected the previous year’s vice chairman as head to run semimonthly meetings and represent the county in various roles as part of a rotating schedule among the five county districts.
Under that process, District 3 representative Dee Floyd would be expected to take over as chairman on Wednesday when the board holds its organizational meeting.
But three supervisors polled about the matter Sunday wouldn’t say who they would nominate or support for the job, and Floyd said he was told he wouldn’t serve as chairman this year.
“I just don’t quite understand it,” said Floyd, 84, who believes his age may have played a role in his fellow supervisors’ apparent decision to pass him up as chairman. “I don’t think I’m mentally incapacitated.”
Supervisors Bill Kyger, last’s year chairman, and Pablo Cuevas and Fred Eberly say they don’t know who’s going to be nominated.
“We won’t know until … the board in all its wisdom makes its decision,” Eberly said.
Kyger and Cuevas also said the practice of electing the previous vice chairman as chairman is not a set policy or county ordinance. Supervisor Mike Breeden could not be reached for comment on Sunday.
“That just happens when it happens, but that’s not a law and ordinance or anything,” Cuevas said.
Kyger denied there was an effort to prevent Floyd from becoming chairman.
Earlier this month, Kyger named a committee including him and Breeden to recommend officers to the full board, but Kyger said the committee was never activated.
“A nominating committee has not been activated because we haven’t seen a need to nominate through the nominating committee,” he said.
With Floyd taken out of the rotation, the next person in line for the job would be Eberly, with Cuevas serving as vice chairman.
Eberly would not discuss that possibility.
“I just really wouldn’t want to comment on that,” he said. “I won’t really know until it happens. I don’t pine for the job.”
Floyd had not discussed the situation publicly until being asked about it on Sunday, but he did say he was bothered the other board members were “changing course in the middle of the stream.”
“You’ll have to check with them, I guess, and see what their problem is,” he said.
Contact Jeremy Hunt at 574-6273 or jhunt@dnronline.com