Supervisors Creasey, Pryor and Butler at a special meeting held Jan. 13.

1 Comments Email Article Tweet This Share

Goochland County Administrator Gregory K. Wolfrey still has a job, but it was a close call after the county board of supervisors turned down a motion last night to dismiss him by a 3-2 vote.

Almost 100 people showed up at a special meeting of the Goochland Board of Supervisors Tuesday night, where the board planned to go into closed session to discuss the ongoing problems discovered by an audit of the Department of Public Utilities.

The audit was performed in November and revealed at least $157,000 in undeposited checks over the past two years.

But many of those who showed up at the closed meeting came to express their anger with amendments to the Board of Supervisors Standards of Conduct.

The amendments, which some in the crowd interpreted as barring county workers from talking to the supervisors, were adopted, at a vote of 3-2, at the Jan. 6 board meeting.

Many citizens at the Jan.13 meeting were also upset by Wolfrey’s recently released County Administrator’s Operations Policy.

Although the meeting was not a public hearing, several citizens came to the podium and spoke, including Chief Deputy Commissioner of the Revenue Kim Cross. Cross told the supervisors she wanted to be able to talk to her supervisor “as a citizen.”

Finally District 4 supervisor Malvern R. “Rudy” Butler moved that the newly revised code be returned to its previous state.

James W. Eads, District 5 supervisor, expressed concern with the tone of a meeting that was meant to be closed. “I’m at a loss. I thought we were meeting with the commonwealth’s attorney about utilities,” he said.

Failing to achieve a unanimous vote on Butler’s motion to repeal the amendments, the supervisors retired to the first of two closed sessions, while the room buzzed with discussion in their absence.

“The people are angry,” said Anne Rockecharlie.

Retired assistant fire chief Tucker Hill said he was against the new code. “When you stop the people from talking to the people who are really the bosses [the board of supervisors] it isn’t good,” Hill said.

When the supervisors returned from their second closed session, Pryor announced the revised Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct had been repealed and Wolfrey’s letter to the supervisors rescinded.

Pryor told the audience that progress was being made in a search for a new county administrator to replace Wolfrey, who is scheduled to retire in August, but Creasy moved to fire him immediately. Butler seconded the motion.

Eads called this motion a “regrettable” way to handle the matter. Former board chair William E. Quarles, District 2, said he thought the motion to remove Wolfrey was inappropriate.

Creasy and Butler voted to discharge Wolfrey, while Eads, Pryor and Quarles voted to retain him.