The current chairman of the Fayette County Board of Commissioners has said that he would like to continue in that role next year if his fellow board members would allow it.
Maybe that will happen, maybe it won’t. None of the four people whose votes Steve Brown would need to stay on as chairman are hinting about what direction they will go when the decision is made at the first meeting in January.
When asked last week, Randy Ognio was succinct in his response: “There is just over a month until everyone will know.”
David Barlow wasted no words regarding his decision, saying only, “I’ll wait until January.”
Charles Oddo, the current vice chairman, also indicated that right now is not the time to speculate publicly about who will lead the board in 2015.
“That’s something you have to consider and it takes a little bit of time,” Oddo said, adding that throwing any other information out at the present would not be productive.
“My dad used to give us baloney for bait when we went fishing, and baloney never worked,” said Oddo with a laugh. “I’m just going to leave it alone until we have to do it [vote].”
Pota Coston, soon to be the newcomer on the board after her recent win against incumbent Allen McCarty, said recently that she has given no thought to who she might prefer to see in the chairman’s seat. Right now she is concentrating solely on getting acclimated in her new role.
Brown served as chairman in 2013 and was unanimously reappointed this year less than a week after reports surfaced that someone else might be nominated. Barlow, who had expressed that he would vote for a different chairman because of issues he had with some of Brown’s actions the previous year, made the motion to reappoint Brown after the two publicly resolved what Oddo had termed a “spat.” Oddo has been vice chairman of the board the past two years.
“I would like to be the chairman in 2015,” Brown stated. “I have the time to do the position. I put a lot of hours into the effort. I also have the experience and the contacts (local, regional and state). People who were not previously supporters of mine have come forward and said that things have dramatically improved with the county government.”
The five-member board chooses its chairman and vice chairman at the first meeting of each calendar year.
While not speculating on how anyone will vote, Brown said fellow board members “have been very supportive and we have accomplished a great deal at the state, regional and local levels.”
