By Staff
Langley returns as vice chairmanof commissioners
By GREG KATSKI
Staff Writer
Although four Beaufort County commissioners began new four-year terms Monday, the board’s leadership won’t be new.
During the Beaufort County Board of Commissioner’s meeting Monday, Chairman Jay McRoy and Vice Chairman Jerry Langley were re-elected to their posts.
While their re-election was a brief process, much discussion was conducted regarding the “rules of procedure” to be used by commissioners when it comes to filling positions on their board and some county agencies’ appointed boards.
The board, which has seven members, previously approved using a “plurality that is not a majority” when filling such positions, reads a memorandum regarding the rules of procedure from County Attorney Billy Mayo to the commissioners.
When previously voting for three nominees to the hospital authority and Social Services board, the board confronted the problem of a 3-2-2 vote. In both instances, the appointments stood, with the winner accumulating three of seven votes, read the memorandum.
To resolve the issue, the commissioners approved a change that requires the chairman and vice chairman of the board to receive a majority vote, while a plurality vote will be applied to all other appointments.
Under the new rule, future elections of the board’s chairman and vice chairman could feature a run-off. If three board members are nominated and the resulting vote tally is 3-2-2, the chairman or clerk to the board will announce a run-off between the two nominees with two votes each. The board’s members will vote for either of the two run-off candidates, with that winner going head to head with the original nominee, reads the new rule.
Such a run-off was not needed Monday as McRoy and Langley received five votes each, theirs and votes from Al Klemm, Ed Booth and Cayton.
Commissioner Stan Deatherage argued that the top vote-getter among the re-elected commissioners in each election should serve as the board’s chairman. To back up his argument, he nominated Commissioner Hood Richardson to serve as chairman. Richardson was the top vote-getter in among the winning commissioner candidates this election cycle.
Richardson tallied two votes to serve as chairman, his and Deatherage’s.