Tensions Flare During King George Board of Supervisors Meeting
Chair William Davis and T.C. Collins had several heated exchanges.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Tensions between members of the King George Board of Supervisors flared four hours into Tuesday’s meeting.
James Monroe district representative T.C. Collins told Chair and Dahlgren representative William Davis to “Go to hell” twice, after Davis asked Collins to stop talking over other board members and to be “polite and courteous” towards staff members.
“This isn’t a Senate hearing where you get to interrogate people to death without giving anyone else a chance to do anything,” Davis said to Collins. “This isn’t your time.”
The exchange took place about an hour into Collins questioning Fire Chief David Moody, who had presented supervisors with an overview of the Department of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services’s policies and standard operating procedures.
Moody said he provided each of the supervisors with a thumb drive containing “over 1,000 pages of policies, plans, and procedures.”
He also noted some important dates in the department’s history—such as 1946, when the first volunteer fire department was chartered; 1970, when the county first started paying fire fighters; and 2008, when all the rescue and fire squads merged into one department.
The Department of Fire, Rescue, and Emergency Services currently employs 67 full-time and 10 part-time staff, and there are 30 volunteers, Moody said. All staff work together under one set of operating procedures, and one mission and vision, summed up in the slogan, “Our family protecting yours.”
“It’s a slogan we’ve adopted and we mean what we say,” Moody said.
Following Moody’s presentation, Collins began questioning him about a number of specific policies and procedures. He wanted to know why pay for compensatory time worked is equivalent to 1.5 hours, rather than one hour; why employees can take paid leave for jury duty and also receive the jury duty stipend from the court; and whether changes to the department’s operating procedures should require Board approval—among other questions.
Repeatedly, Collins told Moody that portions of the operating procedures “needed” to be changed or reviewed. None of the other supervisors initiated any questions.
Davis eventually took issue with Collins’s demeanor as he questioned Moody, which he compared to an interrogation.
“Your attitude changed once you started reading these towards the Chief,” he said to Collins. “This is putting the fire under you. Maybe you should be a little bit more polite and courteous to people.”
Davis said he’s observed Collins treat the county administrator similarly when questioning him about warrants of payment.
“I’m tired of looking at people trying to appease you,” he said.
Kenneth Stroud, the James Madison district representative, suggested that in the interest of time, Collins could send questions or concerns about the fire department’s operating procedures to County Administrator Matthew Smolnik.
Smolnik and Moody could work together to make small changes and any that are more substantial could be discussed by the full board at a later meeting, Stroud suggested.
“That would be efficient, Mr. Stroud,” Davis agreed. He also suggested that Collins could make the full board aware of questions he plans to ask in advance, so that everyone would be prepared, and he reminded Collins of the need to be recognized before he speaks and to address him as “Chair.”
But Collins said he shouldn’t be expected to prepare questions in advance. He told Davis to “go to hell” and asked him if he planned to “breeze over everything.”
In the end, the board moved on from the agenda item, with Davis directing Moody to work with Smolnik to “find out where your policies and procedures aren’t aligning with ours.”
“Where there is a gray area, then come back and we can talk about it,” Davis said.
Moody said the fire and rescue department “wants to be a team player.”
“We don’t want any conflicts,” he said. “I’ll be happy to work with Mr. Smolnik.”
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