After discussing it during multiple county board meetings, Stafford supervisors on Tuesday voted to approve their Code of Performance with barely any talk at all.
The code, similar to a code of ethics, is the Board of Supervisors’ commitment to conducting county business in a professional manner, and it’s approved annually.
But Rock Hill District Supervisor Crystal Vanuch said Jan. 7 that she wanted to make an addition to the code that would require employees who also serve as supervisors to take leave for board meetings, activities, work, or constituent outreach and submit that leave request to the county administrator for public review.
That amendment would apply to only Board of Supervisors Chairman Deuntay Diggs and Hartwood District Supervisor Darrell English, both of whom work for the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office.
And though Vanuch said she was making the suggestion only for transparency, Diggs and English weren’t happy when discussion of the code continued last week.
English said he would submit his timesheets for review if that was sought by either his peers or his constituents but added that no one had ever questioned his integrity in this way.
Diggs, who’s served as a sheriff’s deputy since 2008, said that the notion of probing his honesty “really pisses me off,” and that he wouldn’t be agreeing to Vanuch’s idea.
In fact, he said that if the issue continued to be brought up and something adversely impacted his career, he would take legal action. That effectively ended the discussion Jan. 28 without Vanuch’s amendment being agreed to.
When the code came up for a vote Tuesday, however, it was quietly approved 6-1.
The sole dissenting vote came from Aquia District Supervisor Monica Gary, who was censured by her peers in December after a fiery, months-long back-and-forth over an appointment to the Central Rappahannock Regional Library Board.
Gary also was removed from all the boards and commissions on which she served as a supervisor.
Tuesday, she said she wouldn’t vote for the Code of Performance because her colleagues weren’t following it.
“I won’t be voting to support this,” said Gary, “my reason just being that I don’t think that this board is abiding by what’s in this document and cannot uphold it with the actions that I’ve seen these last few months, and that’s where I stand, thank you.”
