Today, the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors held a reorganization meeting following the election of 2021. At this meeting they voted in Vic Ingram as Chairman by a 4-3 vote and Jesse Barksdale by a vote of 7-0. At the meeting they also voted to terminate the employment of County Administrator David Smitherman. He was escorted off of government property after this decision, but as he left the board meeting he took off his face mask and got angry at Jesse Barksdale for some reason.
I’d note that on the first vote Bob Warren nominated him to be the Chairman. It looks like some final desperate deal was being attempted by the Warren machine to get Barksdale to agree to be Chairman and in turn they expected him to agree to keep Smitherman and he obviously wanted no part in it. That would explain Smitherman’s emotional outburst. Barksdale only does what he thinks is best and multiple county employees clapped after this final turn of events.
At the meeting various board appointments were also made, a resolution rescinding last year’s pre-election censure resolution against Ingram was passed, and so was a change to the way the Fire and Rescue Commission members are appointed. More on all of this later, this is breaking news that just happened a few hours ago.
Clarence Monday also was said to be coming to be the interim County Administrator, he had served in the position of County Administrator in the past. That announcement triggered a reaction from Bob Warren, so it seems that his group didn’t know what was coming at this meeting. Ron Scearce may also be learning a trick or too from Joe Davis’s performance at the last board meeting.
The meeting was streamed live by the county on Facebook, the video is sideways, but audio is good. Maybe they will fix it. I’d expect more comments in the print edition of the Star-Tribune.
-Mike
