BreakDown: Halifax County’s Board of Jackass Supervisors

In Pittsylvania County, we had a well-deserved shift of power. In Martinsville, we had a surprise change of power. In Halifax County, we had a stubborn Board of Supervisors who set a new record for dysfunctional stupidity. Let’s look at it in this BreakDown…

There is no chairman of the Halifax County Board of Supervisors. I’ll point out the idiocy of having eight election districts, but we ended up with a 4-4 tie between longtime member Bryant Claiborne and first-term Larry Giordano. Fine, you bunch of dummies.

Let’s elect a vice-chairman and come back to this. Wrong. No second on that motion. How about we just leave things the way that they were last year until we can work this deal out? You guessed it, another tie. Seriously. Nobody’s budging.

All righty then. How about we make the county administrator a temporary chairman so that we can get business done? Wrong. Another 4-4 vote.

Screw it, we’re going home. Nothing gets accomplished, you bunch of stubborn jackasses.

A lot of people (even in Halifax County) don’t know who’s on the Board of Supervisors. Let’s start by introducing them and give a quick description of their contributions to this problem. We’ll do it by election district.

1. J.T. Davis – Supported Giordano
2. Tom West – Supported Giordano
3. Hubert Pannell – Supported Claiborne
4. Doug Bowman – Supported Giordano
5. Barry Bank – Supported Claiborne
6. Larry Giordano – Supported himself
7. Lottie Nunn – Supported Claiborne
8. Bryant Claiborne – Supported himself

Let’s look at who’s on Team Claiborne. Barry Bank, who’s um… well… um… quite bizarre at times. Yeah, hat’s a way to put it. Lottie Nunn, who’s known for looking out for Lottie Nunn. Maybe she’s looking for vice-chair? Hubert Pannell. He just got elected to replace Earl “Gas Man” Womack. I have no reason why he would stick to his support of Bryant Claiborne. None at all. I swear.

Team Giordano is comprised of J.T. Davis and Tom West, who are old and apparently not Bryant Claiborne fans. Doug Bowman is someone I thought would make a run for chairman himself, but apparently he’s willing to try to control things from the outside chairs.

Normally this temper tantrum wouldn’t cause any lasting damage, but not so in this case. The Board of Supervisors has to sign off on merging the county employees and the school system employees into one combined insurance pool. This will save about $400,000 and get school system employees the same benefits that county employees have. This has to be done before February 1st or else the deal is off. This dysfunctional group of idiots had better call a special meeting and make the county administrator a interim chairman so that they can get that insurance plan passed. Anything else is a dereliction of their duties.

Bryant Claiborne would make a good chairman, but I didn’t like him being the spokesman for the disgraced Earl Womack’s “press releases”, nor did I like his blind support for Albert Randolph when he got smacked down for getting a case of the ass against Merle Herndon. Larry Giordano hasn’t learned how things work enough for me to support him. Barry Bank is too batcrap crazy for me to ever consider him for chairman. Doug Bowman would scare a lot of people if he got the gavel. Lottie Nunn, J.T. Davis and Tom West would be OK for a year. Hubert Pannell just got elected, so no on him.

Whoever decides to switch sides and fix this episode of dysfunctionality can probably make a deal that would get them at least vice-chair if not chairman… but somebody’s got to move quickly. $400,000 in savings and a healthcare plan for all county employees is at risk here. That comes before eight people’s egos. Halifax County residents deserve this. They should demand that a new election district should be added so that they’ll get rid of this 4-4 tie vote potential in the future.