THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 8, 1995 TAG: 9508080241
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ACCOMAC LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
Each of the nine members of the Accomack County Board of Supervisors was indicted by a grand jury Monday as the result of a state police investigation into discretionary-fund spending.
County Attorney Tommy Dix said each supervisor was charged with one count of malfeasance in office, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine.
Dix said he did not know what incidents the charges relate to. ``It's really sketchy today,'' he said. The grand jury decision came after 5 p.m.
Dix said he will not be defending the supervisors because he represents the board as a whole, and the indictments were returned against the supervisors as individuals.
No court date has been set.
The state police investigation was prompted by the findings of a citizens watchdog group last September.
The Accomack County Taxpayers Association reported that the nine supervisors spent tax money from a $252,505 discretionary fund, without board approval, on everything from private road repairs to church donations.
The association characterized the discretionary kitty as ``a slush fund arbitrarily dispensed'' by each supervisor.
No questions were asked when the money was spent, supervisors said in interviews, and there were no rules about how the money should be used.
``I didn't know what anyone else was doing until it was printed in the paper. And I don't think they knew what I was doing either,'' Supervisor Paul Merritt said at the time. ``Nobody paid much attention to it, because there were no rules on it.''
Merritt was criticized by the taxpayers association for buying a personal computer with money from the fund and for using more than $17,000 to pave private roads in Chincoteague.
Monday night, Merritt said of the indictments, ``I don't even know what it's all about yet.''
The taxpayers group said the fund was tapped for dozens of contributions to churches - a forbidden use of tax dollars under state law.
After the controversy surfaced, the supervisors voted to abolish the fund. They also voted to freeze any further discretionary spending, which they limited to $1,800 per year per supervisor, until after the state police investigation was completed.
At the time, then-Chairwoman Laura Belle Gordy apologized for any mistakes that she and the other board members might have made.
``I'm willing to start doing things right,'' Gordy said. ``I felt we were without guidelines, and I feel that every one of us did what we did in good faith.''
Gordy wrote a $25 check from the fund to U.S. Rep. Herb Bateman's campaign but later changed her mind and voided the check before it was cashed.
In April 1993, the county board voted to route money usually budgeted for drainage projects into the discretionary fund. Suddenly, the supervisors had 10 times as much money as before to spend without board approval, the taxpayers group reported.
Williamsburg Commonwealth's Attorney George C. Fairbanks IV, appointed special prosecutor in the case last fall, could not be reached for comment Monday night.
County Administrator Art Fisher said the court clerk's office called at 5:08 p.m. Monday to inform him of the charges but said he had not yet seen the indictments.
KEYWORDS: ACCOMACK COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS INDICTMENT by CNB