Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 12, 1993 TAG: 9305120181
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Thomas Baird, who also is commonwealth's attorney, said authority board members told him that some supervisors had threatened to withhold funding unless the employee was fired, or he resigned and agreed not to discuss his situation with the news media.
Baird said the demand followed allegations against the employee which authority members refuted.
"Gentlemen, such action is tantamount to extortion or blackmail," Baird said.
The authority's only male employee is its executive director, Earl Joy, who has held the job since 1990. The joint authority was formed by the county, Wytheville and Rural Retreat. Rural Retreat has since dropped out.
Joy was not at the supervisors' meeting Tuesday. He said he had no comment on what was said.
"I don't think you have any proof" of a threat, board Chairman R.T. DuPuis told Baird.
Baird said he did not know which county supervisors had made the threat, but he had been told about it by authority Chairman Jack Baumgardner and John H. Crowgey, an authority board member.
"No documented evidence other than their word, and I'll take their word," Baird said. He said they also told him the supervisors indicated they would not only fund the authority if it met their demands, but might even give any new employee a larger salary.
The supervisors had asked Baumgardner to come before them Tuesday to explain why County Administrator Billy Branson and Wytheville Town Manager Wayne Sutherland, ex-officio members of the authority, were made to leave a closed session March 25.
Baird, who appeared on Baumgardner's behalf, said there were two reasons. He said he felt the presence of the county administrator would have been intimidating, given the threat to cut off funding; and that there is a state statute forbidding public officials from serving on such authorities.
Supervisor Olin Armentrout asked if that meant the ordinance, creating the authority in 1989 and adding those ex-officio members, was improper. "Parts of it are," Baird said.
"I don't want to serve on the authority if it's illegal," Branson said. "But, if I'm going to serve on it, I don't want to be kicked out of meetings."
Supervisor Jack Crosswell told Baird that only a committee of the supervisors had met with the authority.
"The board has not discussed this before today," agreed Supervisor Andy Kegley. "It's been committee actions. . . . The board hasn't ratified their actions."
Kegley did say he was aware of a budget session proposal to set aside, and perhaps later restore, funding for the authority.
"I assume that the committee would go back and recommend exactly what the threat was," Baird said. "The proper course of action, if anybody feels maligned, is to have the court make a determination . . . and if I'm wrong, it will certainly not be the first time."
County Attorney Willard Lester said there was no need to go to court.
The supervisors created the IDA, appoint its members and fund it, he said. If its members are not doing what the supervisors want them to do, he said, the supervisors can appoint others.
"You created it, you can dissolve it, although I don't know that you need to go that far. You can cut off the money if you're not happy," Lester said.
by CNB