ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, December 9, 1995             TAG: 9512110058
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
DATELINE: PEARISBURG
SOURCE: CLAYTON BRADDOCK SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES 

INCOMING GILES BOARD BLAMES FORMER ADMINISTRATOR

The future members of the Giles County Board of Supervisors said Friday that they put heavy blame on the former county administrator for administrative failures.

The board members, elected in November to take over board seats in January, challenged Janet Tuckwiller's ability to lead and said they questioned her ethics.

Their comments came a day after Tuckwiller, who resigned Tuesday night, fired back at the board's current and future members, accusing them of various improprieties and harassment.

On Thursday, Tuckwiller drew support from two of the current board members.

But reactions from two incoming board members - and the only incumbent supervisor to survive the November elections - painted a different picture on Friday.

R.W. "Bob" Williams said that as he campaigned for his at-large seat this year, he found voters "lacked confidence in [Tuckwiller's] leadership skills and fiscal responsibility.

"Although I harbor no animosity toward her personally, I feel she must accept partial responsibility for our current financial pitfall," Williams said.

Giles County is under a debt load after the board agreed to pay out $2 million for a new social services building and county and court office improvements. That, coupled with new utility projects, has put the county in a debt situation that has some residents nervous.

Upon hearing that Tuckwiller had issued a statement accusing the supervisors of improprieties, board member Larry Jay Williams, who won re-election to the board and had suggested to the former administrator that she resign, challenged her to come forward with specifics.

"I have found that those who impugn the ethics of others are often in need of close scrutiny," agreed W.P. "Bill" Freeman, another at-large supervisor-elect. "Me thinks though does protest too much," he quoted.

Barbara Hobbs, a former Giles County administrator who will take her seat as a supervisor in January, stepped around the issue.

"I have not been privileged to the working relationships of the outgoing board and Ms. Tuckwiller," she said. "I do not intend to rehash the past."

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