Amherst Supervisors Decide to Close the Doors

The News & Advance
Published: May 31, 2008

Correction at the end appended June 2, 2008

There has to be something in the water in Central Virginia. That’s the only possible explanation we can come up with for the outbreak of that dreaded disease, “closed-governmentitis,” that’s spreading throughout the region.

Lynchburg City Council painted a red bullseye on its collective back earlier this year when members refused to interview candidates for School Board in open session. Instead, they decided to film the behind-closed-doors interviews and make the video available to the public after nominees have been selected.

Now, the Amherst County Board of Supervisors has embarked down the same road of barring the public from sitting in on interviews of applicants for the Amherst School Board.

The supervisors will be filling two spots on the board: Chairwoman Margaret Leggett decided not to seek reappointment and at-large representative Gloria Walker is applying for a third, four-year term. Five county residents, in addition to Walker, have put in applications for the two seats. According to County Administrator Rodney Taylor, the supervisors will interview the applicants June 3 and will likely make their selections that day as well.

What is it about the public that so scares both the Lynchburg City Council and Amherst Board of Supervisors? What questions would the supervisors in Amherst ask the applicants in private that they couldn’t ask in public?

Amherst supervisors, fortunately, have not brought upon themselves the scorn Lynchburg council members did a year ago for the manner in which they ousted the city School Board’s vice chairman and then allowed the rancor to fester in the community for weeks and months afterward.

But still, they owe residents of the county an open process.

Both boards could learn a thing or two from the members of the Board of Supervisors for Campbell County who, it seems, don’t have a thing to be afraid from the public.

Last July, the late Boolie Martin, a fixture in the county public school system for nearly her entire life, resigned from her seat as her battle against cancer intensified.

Even though Campbell County voters elect their School Board members, the task of replacing Martin, a 12-year veteran of the board, fell to the county supervisors.

And guess what?

In open session that August, the supervisors interviewed all the applicants for Martin’s seat, finally settling on Frederick Watson, an attorney with a large local law firm.

There wasn’t a three-ring circus when the Campbell supervisors interviewed the applicants for the seat. There wasn’t any political posturing by the members of the board on differing sides of the ideological divide. There weren’t hoops and hollers from the audience in favor or against one interviewee or another.

All those objections, in one form or another, have been raised by opponents of open School Board interviews in Lynchburg, most notably the city’s vice mayor.

Instead, there was just a professional atmosphere as a group of dedicated public servants did their duty. Period.

Why anyone thinks things would be different in City Council chambers in Lynchburg or in the board room in Amherst is just beyond us.

Rather, there just seem to be some “leaders” in Central Virginia who are afraid of the public they’re supposed to represent and in whose name they’re supposed to be doing business.

How truly disappointing.

Correction
In the June 1 editorial, we incorrectly stated that the Campbell County Board of Supervisors interviewed applicants for the School Board vacancy created by the resignation last year of member Boolie Martin.
We were wrong.
The remaining School Board members interviewed the hopefuls and selected Martin’s replacement.
Still, it was done in open session with the public in attendance. For that, residents of the county should be extremely grateful.