ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 23, 1996 TAG: 9602230070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Wythe County's administrator for the past 19 years said Thursday that his scheduled Sept. 1 retirement was forced by the Board of Supervisors.
Bill Branson said former board Chairman Mark Munsey told him Jan. 16 that the new board members had met the previous day at Munsey's office at work and unanimously agreed to ask for Branson's resignation.
Such a meeting, if it took place, would have been illegal under Virginia's Freedom of Information Act, which prohibits governmental business being conducted at unadvertised meetings.
Munsey said Thursday night that he had no comment on Branson's statement because he had not seen it. He said the meeting had been announced.
Branson said he submitted his retirement plans Feb. 1 and, at the Feb. 6 board meeting, the board went into a 11/2-hour closed session. Branson was called in for the last 20 minutes.
According to Branson, the supervisors then told him what conditions they would accept for his retirement and that they were not negotiable.
The conditions were that Branson get $18,000 in severance pay, have his health insurance covered for two more years until age 65, and that the county would buy a year of Virginia Supplemental Retirement System coverage so his retirement benefits would total 20 years.
Branson said he asked whether an organization of residents opposing a private prison in the county had sought his resignation, and was told that the anti-prison group had nothing to do with it. Some members of Citizens Against the Prison, formed when it appeared possible that a private prison might be located in Wythe County, had written letters calling for Branson's removal.
He said the supervisors told him that the public had been asking for his resignation for several months. When he asked why, he said, he was told the board did not know and "maybe it was because of my gray hair."
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