Chairman slot isn't in cards for Boyd

Albemarle County’s incumbent Republican supervisor has removed his name from consideration for chairman of next year’s board.

Supervisor Kenneth C. Boyd announced his withdrawal Wednesday afternoon.

“What really changed my mind … was the fact that it had become a distraction,” he said in a telephone interview.

Boyd is currently campaigning for the 5th District Republican nomination to challenge U.S. Rep Tom Perriello, D-Ivy, in November for his seat in Congress.

He said the controversy surrounding his possible selection as chairman was distracting him both from the congressional race and his efforts to improve Albemarle County. He said the congressional race is demanding lots of time, because the Republican Party has decided to hold a primary, rather than a convention.

The prospect of Boyd as chairman of the Board of Supervisors emerged shortly after November’s election, which saw Republicans pick up two new seats on the board, bringing their total to three of six members in 2010. He did so at the behest of voters and some other supervisors, he said.

Traditionally, the board has elected chairmen on a rotating basis. Prospective chairmen spent two one-year terms as vice chairmen, then were elected for two one-year terms as chairmen.

“You might call it an apprenticeship period, if you will,” Boyd said.

But this year, Chairman David L. Slutzky was unseated from the board after only a year as chairman.

Boyd’s critics had maintained that vice chairwoman Ann H. Mallek should have moved up to the top slot, because she was next in the rotation.

But Boyd held that, because Mallek had only been vice chairwoman for one year, she could serve another term in the number two slot before moving up.

Supervisor Dennis S. Rooker, who had criticized Boyd’s bid, was glad to hear the news Wednesday, and said he thought it would mean that Mallek would almost certainly become chairwoman.

“I think it will make our first meeting a much smoother meeting,” he said. “And I think it will make the atmosphere of the board more congenial, and I think that that’s especially important going into a very, very difficult budget year.”

He said Boyd’s effort likely would have failed, but would have created ill will in the process.

Mallek said she was also glad to hear the news, and that she looked forward to serving as chairwoman and working to make sure everyone gets heard.

“I don’t expect any one person on the board to try to foist their opinion on someone else,” she said.

Boyd was less certain Mallek would be the next chairwoman, but said she seemed the likely choice.

“So I guess we’ll probably just move forward with, and again I hate to say, ‘tradition,’” he said.

But mostly, he didn’t want to talk about it too much in an effort to get the issue off the front page, he said.

“Really, what I don’t want to do is continue this discussion in the press at this point,” he said.

Usually, he said, supervisors discuss the matter among themselves so that by the time the question comes up in open session at a meeting, the outcome has already been decided.

In his statement, Boyd wrote that he doesn’t think his decision not to seek the chairmanship will impair his efforts to institute “a new agenda of fiscal conservatism; tax relief for our residents; economic vitality; replacing jobs that have been lost and encouraging businesses in Albemarle to create new ones; and smaller government.”