Reorganization of commission expected Monday

The Craven County Board of Commissioners traditionally reorganizes at its first meeting in December and, typically, a new chairman takes the gavel after the first vote of the night.

That’s the plan for the board’s 7 p.m. meeting Monday, with Chairman Jason Jones stepping aside. Commissioner Perry Morris, of Vanceboro, is expected to be tapped for chairman, and Johnnie Sampson as vice chairman.

But even the agenda distributed late last week notes a possible kink for the seven-member board elected by party and now composed of four Democrats and three Republicans.

Jones sent a letter to his fellow commissioners, advising that he will be unable to make the meeting. As president of the Craven County Farm Bureau, he said, he is the voting delegate from Craven at the state convention and feels obligated to attend.

“I don’t want my constituents or fellow board members to think I do not take my responsibility to the county seriously,” Jones told the Sun Journal. “I weighed this for some time.”

In his letter to fellow board members, Jones said, “Thank you for the privilege you have given me to serve as chairman the past two years. It has been a humbling experience.”

 “Due to pressing issues that will be addressed at the N.C. Farm Bureau Convention and its meeting schedule, I will not be in attendance for our commissioners meeting,” he said.

Morris and Commissioner Theron McCabe confirmed the unofficial intent of Democrats on the board to nominate Morris as chairman and Sampson as vice chairman.

“I’m OK with that,” McCabe said. “That will put two good men running the county.”

Morris was the board’s chairman in 2004. He was followed by former commissioner George Brown in 2005 and 2006, Sampson in 2007, and then Jones for two terms with McCabe as vice chairman in 2008 and 2009.

McCabe said the two-year stretch with Jones as chairman and him serving as vice chairman was by mutual consent. “I didn’t want to chair; I wanted to back up Jason.”

Commissioner Steve Tyson, a Republican member of the board, said “We could force a tie if we wanted but they could regroup, so (Jones’ absence) won’t affect the outcome of anything. There is no open animosity that I’m aware of; we all get along pretty well. The Democrats are the majority so they get the chair.”

Morris said, “You don’t ever know” for sure how a vote will go. But he expects the verbal consensus of his name as chairman and Sampson’s as vice chairman to be confirmed with Monday night’s vote.

“We’ve all worked together well, many of us going on eight years,” Morris said.

He said the board will need that cohesion because “it doesn’t look like there is any lightening up, finance wise. We have to stay as tight as we can to operate.”

Morris also expects that most committee appointments will keep commissioners where they are, except those changes required by the chairmanship that will change some duties for Morris and Jones.

“The first time I was chairman I put commissioners on boards they’d never served on,” Morris said. “I thought they needed to know what takes place on those boards so they can answer the public’s questions.”

Most on the board have that varied experience now, he said. And some, such as Commissioner Lee K. Allen on the health board, have state and national positions that relate to their local service.

Morris said “the first big thing” on his watch would be filling the assistant county manager vacancy created by Ray Moser’s upcoming retirement in February.

“It will be a challenge for anyone to step into his shoes; his replacement is going to be hard to come by,” Morris said. “But there is a good replacement out there and (County Manager Harold) Blizzard is the man to find it. We’re very fortunate to have him.”

Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5666 or sbook@freedomenc.com.