And the answer is “Three words used to describe James Snead, Coy Harville and Tim Barber”. Along with Jerry Hagerman, those three idiots fired Pittsylvania County Economic Development Director Ken Bowman for absolutely no legitimate reason at all.
Nixing economic development office called a ‘political trick’
Chatham/Blairs District Supervisor Brenda Bowman flipped the power balance to the northern half of the county when she cast her vote to elect Marshall Ecker as chairman for this year. Harville, Barber & Snead were quite shocked as the plan was for Bowman to vote with them and keep the chairman’s seat in the southern half of the county like it’s been for a while. With Bowman switching her alliance to the northern half, the all-too-frequent 4-3 votes put Harville, Barber & Snead on the losing end. You could tell the building frustration with those three, but I never expected them to pull such a nasty political power play like they did. I’m not sure how they pulled Jerry Hagerman into this nasty move, as I used to think that he seemed to act honorably. I’m not giving him a free pass on any of this because he’s just as dirty as those other three are for voting for this, but it’s Harville, Barber & Snead that are going to get the majority of my wrath for getting back at Brenda Bowman they way that they did.
Ken Bowman was doing an excellent job as eclanded development director. He had that business-friendly attitude needed to make deals and influence people. He had landed some pretty good deals in his history and always seemed to have a few things in the pipeline ready to come through. He was a total asset to the county and there was absolutely no reason to wipe his whole department off the board. With the economy trying to recover, Pittsylvania County needs a fully dedicated economic development director and Ken Bowman was the perfect man to do the job.
I don’t believe any of the statements like “we hadn’t discussed this before” and “this was a cost-cutting move” that are coming from. I firmly believe that this was a planned action to get revenge on Brenda Bowman for her switching of alliances. When cornered on their decision and asked to justify it, James Snead refused to comment with Harville & Barber not being available to respond. Pretty damned convenient, eh? At least Hagerman went on record with some horsecrap comment on why he went along with the nefarious plot.
Today, the city of Danville went on record to remind people that they remain committed to the economic development partnership with the county. It’s a damned shame that nobody in the city had the guts to call out the four members of the county’s board who just crippled the economic development process and future of the county by engaging in a personal vendetta. I really wish that Sherman Saunders (Danville’s mayor) would actually take a stand against stunts like this instead of appeasing the world with statements that tacitly approve some shenanigans, but then I know how the political game is played. Well, somebody’s gotta say it, so I guess I will.
Coy Harville, Tim Barber & James Snead are complete embarrassments to Pittsylvania County and the people that elected them. They have shown the county and the surrounding areas that they do not have the best interests of Pittsylvania County in mind when they pull stupid, childish tricks like this to get back at somebody that “wronged them”. They truly are petty, vindictive jerks who have no place in county government. I’m embarrassed to say that I know them and the only way that I will ever support them for a long while will be for them to rescind this decision at their earliest opportunity. I also call on them to tell the truth on this matter by telling what discussions were made on this in advance. I’m also highly disappointed in Jerry Hagerman for following along with this plan as he had acted honorably in office prior to this incident. I strongly encourage all citizens to contact these four people and express their disdain for their dereliction of duty in stewarding Pittsylvania County’s economic future. I previously supported Harville, Snead & Barber before this incident but now I see them for what they truly are… petty, vindictive jerks who have no place in county government.
They had no comment for whom?
Your comments seem a bit, check that, way over th top.
I’m assuming you had concrete and demonstrable proof for these allegations?
Reply: They had no comment to the newspaper.
What you’re reading here is my opinion. Unless one of those four break down and tell the truth, we’ll never know exactly what happened. That’s not going to stop me from confronting what was done wrong. I’m betting that this is “over the top” to a lot of people because they’ve never seen somebody stand up to these people. – BruceH
Okay, I’ll play: This was pay back for not joining in the resolution to Keep the Ban on Uranium Mininig. Many believe that such removal would hurt economic growth in the long run. Even the area legislature members were against removing the ban. Or, It was a set up. They knew that Merricks was giving up his seat and who better to fill it than a wronged member of the Board of Supervisors OR her fired husband! Free publicity and either would surely get the GOP nomination! OR, maybe,just maybe, they decided that cuts must be made and this is a sample of more to come. The BOS in the county are known to go to the bare minimum verses raising taxes aren’t they?
My point is that we can come up with any excuse we want to, but our thinking it does not make it true. Perceptions are important and often there are many perceptions. We tend to go with the one we like best-true or not…Food for Thought! 🙂
Bruce, you pretty much nailed it. Obama would be proud of these 4 idiots, they are practicing the essence of Chicago-style politics.
Your facts wrong all the way.
Hagerman AND Harville both voted to eliminate Ken Bowman’s position.
Hagerman voted FOR appointment of Ecker to be Board Chairman, along with Brenda Bowman; Harville voted AGAINST Ecker for Board chairman.
[And after observing the Chairman Ecker, whose feet of clay keep popping up, I must conclude that Snead, who has done an excellent job as Chair of the Finance Committee, would have been a better choice.]
Brenda Bowman AND Harville were both FOR uranium mining.
So, y’all, maybe come to meetings and get your facts right.
OUCH!
No reply to Barbara, Mr. Southside Central?