Mallek to remain chair of Board of Supervisors

Ann H. Mallek will remain the chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors and Duane E. Snow will stay vice chairman after the board deadlocked 3-3 on a new chairman and vice-chairman.

After a contentious back-and-forth between supervisors, County Executive Tom Foley told the board that Mallek would remain chairwoman until a majority of the board agreed to elect a new chairman.

Supervisor Kenneth C. Boyd called the lockup a “travesty.”

“If that’s not a vote of no confidence, I don’t know what is,” Boyd said. Boyd lambasted Mallek, Dennis S. Rooker and newly-elected Democrat Christopher J. Dumler for what he called political maneuvering to try to kill the Western Bypass of U.S. 29 project.

“What you’re trying to do is get some control back on the [Charlottesville-Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization], so you can kill the Western Bypass, and I’m not going to let that happen,” Boyd said.

Snow said he didn’t care about being chairman, but worried that if he gave up his seat on the MPO, the county would continue to delay the bypass. Snow added that until recently, the MPO had included anti-bypass supervisors.

The MPO is a collaborative transportation planning board for city, county, state and federal officials. Until this year, the MPO’s transportation improvement program included language blocking the bypass from being built.

Over the summer, Duane Snow and Rodney Thomas, the board’s MPO representatives, facilitated a vote that removed the preventative language from the TIP, allowing construction of the road to move forward.

“As Ken has pointed out, the MPO was manipulated in such a way that there was no room for a bypass supporter on the MPO,” Snow said. “Being chair isn’t important to me, Ann could sit there for the rest of her life, and I’ll be happy as a June bug … I ran on getting some of the things done, rather than studying and talking, that’s why I’m reluctant to give up my seat on the MPO.”

The board voted to keep Snow as vice chairman by a 4-2 vote. Thomas and Boyd voted against having Snow remain vice chairman.

Traditionally, the longest-serving board member who has not yet been chairman is elected during at the January meeting. This year, supervisors bucked tradition, with Dennis S. Rooker and the Democratic Mallek and Dumler voting against Snow’s appointment.

Instead, Rooker moved that the board elect Snow as chairman, Dumler as vice chairman and Rodney Thomas and Mallek to the Metropolitan Planning Organization board. Rooker said he didn’t have a problem with Snow serving as chairman, but wanted to make sure the positions of power on the board were “balanced.”

Rooker and Mallek both cited the controversial approval of the Western Bypass of U.S. 29 as their reason for seeking appointment to the MPO. Rooker said the way the bypass was approved reflected badly on the county.

“What we see here is an effort to govern by ambush and … it’s bad process. It’s bad governance,” he said. “Despite all that, I’m willing to support Mr. Snow for chair, with some sort of balance on the MPO … I certainly don’t feel good about having the MPO continue as it is.”

Mallek said she wanted to see changes on the MPO for reasons similar to Rooker’s. In a prepared statement, Mallek accused last year’s MPO of shirking board policy.

“I support balance in representation on the leadership and on the MPO because last year we did not have representatives who followed the policy of the BOS,” she said. “They presumed that they could change the policy and acted accordingly in agreements with others and without public input which might have changed the outcome.”

In closed session, the board voted to keep Snow and Thomas as the county’s representatives to the MPO.