The Roanoke County Board of Supervisors held their organizational meeting on Tuesday at the Roanoke County Administration Building on Electric Road.
A roll call was then made with all five Supervisors present – Charlotte Moore (D) of the Cave Spring district, Joe “Butch” Church (I) of Catawba, current chairman Michael Altizer (R) of Vinton, Richard Flora (R) of Hollins and newly elected Ed Elswick (R) of the Windsor Hills district.
Things heated up quickly as elections were immediately held for the positions of Chairman and Vice Chairman. Altizer nominated Flora and Moore nominated Church for Chairman.
The surprise came when the votes were cast. As expected, Church received “yes” votes from himself and Moore while Flora received “yes” votes from himself and Altizer. Ed Elswick voted “yes” for Church and “no” for Flora, casting the deciding vote for Butch Church to become the new Chairman of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors.
The only nomination for Vice Chairman was Elswick, who was nominated by Church. Elswick received five “yes” votes.
When Elswick was asked why he voted for someone other than a Republican for Chairman instead of staying within his own party he replied, “People wanted change. Just wait and look at this board in one year.”
Richard Flora seemed surprised by the vote, since he stated that he thought “this was a done deal way before the election that I would become Chairman. Ed is not a Republican anymore, he is an Independent,” to which Elswick replied, “I am a Republican, I don’t spend recklessly and I don’t raise taxes.” Michael Altizer simply said, “No comment.”
Mike Bailey, Chairman of the Roanoke County Republican Committee, was taken aback by the outcome of the vote as well. He stated that, “we expect the electorate of the Republican Party to vote in support of the values claimed by the Party and not vote just for the Party itself. I am happy to see the two Republican members, Mike Altizer and Richard Flora voted in support of Ed Elswick to help keep our party ideology and values in the forefront of county decisions. They did this even though Ed rejected one of our own for the chairmanship. To me, they expressed character. If he were not a member of a political party, I could understand his attitude. Based on what he said to our membership during the elections and subsequently, it seemed logical to have an expectation of his support. Now, I think we should wait and see.”
Roanoke County Board of Supervisors meetings are held on the second Tuesday and the fourth Tuesday of the month at 3:00 p.m. Public hearings where comments are welcome are held at 7:00 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of each month. They are also broadcast live on RVTV, channel 3 and then rebroadcast on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday at 4:00 p.m.
By Carla Bream [email protected]