Vote against county adminstrator divides board

By Justin Faulconer

Published: June 18, 2008

Amherst County supervisors are divided over the performance of County Administrator Rodney Taylor, according to a vote taken earlier this month.

Supervisors Don Kidd and Chris Adams, the two newest members of the five-member board, supported a vote of no confidence in Taylor, according to minutes from a June 2 session.

Supervisors Leon Parrish, Ray Vandall and Vernon Wood voted against it.

Kidd and Adams said because much of the discussion about this matter was done in a closed session, neither would comment and deferred questions to Wood, the board’s chairman.

Wood said the Board of Supervisors was not considering actions to remove Taylor. He would not comment further.

Taylor, an Amherst native and former county supervisor, was hired in April 2006.

He said the vote surprised him but he remains passionate and dedicated to his position.

“It’s not unusual for there to be issues between board members and staff,” Taylor said. “My focus is working with the entire board to achieve visions and goals they have set for the county and am confident that by working together we will do so.”

Taylor was a business owner in Lynchburg prior to taking the Amherst post. He then resigned from the county’s Democratic committee.

“I am specifically not involved in any political activities,” he said.

A county administrator can be removed at the pleasure of the board, the Code of Virginia states.

James Campbell, executive director of the Virginia Association of Counties, said a vote of no confidence is not a decision to remove an administrator, but rather an expression of dissatisfaction in job performance.

Vandall said the motion by Kidd caught him by surprise.

He said Taylor has not engaged in anything illegal or unethical as a county official as far as he knew.

“I don’t think the vote would have been as it was if there was any wrongdoing,” Vandall said.

Kidd and Adams are each in the first year of their terms.

It’s not uncommon whenever new supervisors are elected for a board to reexamine structure and personnel matters, Campbell said, though it’s most of the time done in private.

Vandall said he remains confident in Taylor’s performance.

“If I had no confidence,” he said, “I wouldn’t have voted the way I did.”