Musical Chairs Cacophony On County Board
When the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners wasn’t preoccupied at its meeting this week launching investigations into the possibly nefarious doings of one or more of their own, commissioners stayed busy tackling some of the top priorities of local governance.
The meeting’s opening prayer and pledge were no sooner over and done when Commissioner Vilma Leake sprang into action, focusing like a laser on the critical issues of the day.
“Mr. Chairman, I want a point of information and inquiry, please,” Leake said, the gravity of her tone reflective of the serious business facing commissioners as the county struggles with persistently high unemployment and homeowners sweat ever higher tax bills.
“As you notice, and I’m hoping the general public is watching also, the seating arrangement has changed,” Leake said.
Wait. What?
“I was concerned as to why,” Leake inquired of the commissioners’ new spots around the dais. “I did not receive a telephone call or information stating that my seat would be moved and to why the move was taking place.
“So I want the public to understand my rationale,” Leake explained, “for asking this to the chairperson of the county commission who made this decision.”
Upon which Leake motioned around the dais, noting other commissioners seated in their previous spots until – gasp!
“Mr. Cooksey was moved from this site to the previous seat that I held,” Leake fretted. “And I just want to know why the decision was made and with whom did you communicate, because you certainly did not communicate with me.
“I believe you had that right to do it, but I want to know why,” Leake told Commissioners Chairman Harold Cogdell. “And I think I’m owed that respect to be told why.”
“Certainly, Commissioner Leake,” Cogdell said, “we’ll discuss that after the meeting.”
“But I want it publicly,” Leake demanded.
“I understand, but it’s not on the agenda and I don’t believe it to be in order at this time,” Cogdell explained. “So we’re going to move on to the first agenda item. It is induction into the Order of the Hornet for Sister Mary Jerome Spradley in recognition of her service to Mecklenburg County.”
Just to be clear about Leake’s priorities, and by direct extension the levels of her vanity and peculiar insanity: she’d rather waste time debating where she sits behind the dais, than spend time honoring a nun who has devoted the last 50 years of her life serving the community.
Seating arrangements, though, weren’t the only concerns vexing Leake, who also was bothered by the new composition of commissioner committees. And she wasn’t alone in her consternation over the appointments made by Cogdell, who as board chairman assigns which commissioners will serve as chairman and members of the board’s various committees.
When Cogdell made his assignments at Tuesday night’s meeting the backlash was immediate, reflective of the lingering anger and spite sparked in his fellow Democrats over Cogdell snatching the board’s chairmanship by partnering with Republican commissioners to oust former chairman Jennifer Roberts, a Democrat.
The result this week: a veritable party mutiny. Commissioner George Dunlap, a Democrat, made good on his previous pronouncement that he would refuse to chair any committee if appointed by Cogdell, who had tapped Dunlap as chairman of the board’s Economic Development Committee.
“I tell you again tonight,” Dunlap said, “I do not intend to chair a committee.”
Roberts had also previously said she would serve as a member on any of the board’s committees, but not chair one. In turn, Cogdell assigned Roberts to chair the board’s Natural Resources and Health and Community Support committees.
In that light, Roberts on Tuesday night said it was time for the board to reconsider whether its standing committees, which meet on a regular basis, were even necessary. Roberts said she had attended too many meetings where other commissioners habitually showed up late or failed to attend.
“We’re wasting multiple people’s time,” she opined. “And it’s taxpayer money, because you’re paying for county staff, department directors, general managers, to sit for an hour and they can’t start the meeting and start giving information until they have a quorum of commissioners.”
“I think our committees are broken,” Roberts concluded.
Which is odd, considering she never much seemed to mind how commissioners committees were performing during her tenure as chairman of the board. Of course, that was when Roberts had doled out committee assignments on a nearly wholesale partisan basis.
Last year Democrats assigned by Roberts chaired all but one of the board’s major committees. Republican Vice Chairman Jim Pendergraph, the county’s former sheriff, chaired the board’s Criminal Justice Committee. Other than that one blip, Democrats were wholly in charge of the remaining committees.
Cogdell, in what he has said was a move to bridge divisive partisan lines, vowed that as chairman he would spread leadership roles between both parties. And he did. In addition to the chairmanships assigned to Roberts and Dunlap, Cogdell assigned Republican Neil Cooksey to chair the Effective and Efficient Government Committee (previously chaired by Dunlap); Pendergraph to again chair the Criminal Justice Committee; Republican Karen Bentley to chair the Education Liaison Committee (formerly chaired by Roberts); and Democrat Dumont Clarke to chair the Compensation Committee.
Democrat commissioners apparently couldn’t stomach the new bipartisan flavor of shared leadership roles, with discussion Tuesday night turning heated over how to move forward. What would happen, Roberts asked, if commissioners who had been assigned chairmanships against their “expressed interests” refused the assignment?
“If you assign a person to (chair) a committee and that person says I’m not serving and doesn’t call any committee meetings, then I guess you don’t have any committee meetings,” ventured County Attorney Marvin Bethune. “If they meet on a regular basis, everybody shows up and the person who’s the chair says I’m not chairing the meeting, I guess everybody just sits there and looks at each other.”
After a rambling debate on whether the board should change its standing committees, which meet on a regular basis, to ad hoc committees, which would only meet at scheduled intervals and for specific purposes, commissioners ultimately decided to delay any decision on committee structure for their planning retreat in February.
Until then, the board’s committees will meet as usual; unless, apparently, a committee’s newly assigned chairman doesn’t show up to start the meeting.
And, yes, these are the folks in charge of our county.
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