CUMBERLAND – The employment contract for the new county administrator and county attorney was approved during Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting in Cumberland County.

Vivian Giles will start working in the County, effective Thursday, March 15, as an “administrator designee” and then take control of the county administrator and county attorney responsibilities officially on April 1.

After the vote was taken on Tuesday evening, Supervisor Parker Wheeler, District Five, welcomed Giles to the positions.

“I'd like to welcome Ms. Giles to the positions,” he said. “She's certainly going to have her hands full. I look forward to working with her. First and foremost though, even though it wasn't an unanimous decision to appoint you as county attorney/county administrator, I want you to know that all five Board members will work with you in harmony.”

“I just want you to know what a major charge you have in front of you,” added Wheeler. “One mistake in either position could bring grave consequences to the County in the form of cost or lawsuit and by combining the two positions the County has lost a great deal of its eyes and its ears …We're going to be relying on you for 200 percent since you're obviously going to be in both positions. You're going to need to keep us informed and you have to be our eyes and our ears and we'd like to be informed well.”

Wheeler went on to request that all Board members receive the same information from the new county administrator.

“Anytime that you respond to a request for information that it also be submitted to all five Board members,” he said. “This is what I'd like to request of you. And, once again, I'd like to welcome you to the County.”

The motion for the approval of the contract passed on a three to two vote.

Chairman David Meinhard, District Four, and Supervisors Lloyd Banks, District Two, and Kevin Ingle, District Three, voted in favor of the contract.

Supervisors Bill Osl, District One, and Wheeler, voted against the motion.

Before the vote, Supervisor Osl addressed the Chairman and said that he had a few comments that he would first like to make.

“I have a few concerns for the process that the Board worked through,” he said. “We're approving a contract for a job that we did not advertise-it's not required to advertise-but none the less we did not advertise for the combined positions and that's bothersome to me. We've already allowed for, basically, one candidate to be considered, which is a concern to me and I've had citizens come up to me and say that it appears to be two sets of rules that seems to be operating in the community…Something has a little bit of an aroma in this process…”

Banks later addressed the search process and said, “There is an aroma to what we did. That aroma is saving the taxpayers half of what we are currently paying for those two positions. The position that was offered to Ms. Giles represents over 50 percent of what we're paying the current two employers who are taking care of those two positions. The aroma that I smelled was a cost-savings to the taxpayers and if I smell that aroma again I'll jump after it as quick as I possibly can.”

The approval of the employment contract for county administrator and county attorney was not listed on the Board's original published agenda or the amended version that was sent out on Monday morning. It was, however, approved by the Board as an addition once the Supervisors reconvened in open session after meeting in closed session on Tuesday evening.