Lynch submits resignation from board

Brookland District Supervisor Courtney Lynch has resigned from her seat on the Board of Supervisors, effective June 30, she said in a statement Wednesday.

Lynch, a Democrat and political newcomer whose election in November surprised some observers, tangled with County Manager John Vithoulkas, fellow board members and even School Board members during the county's budget process this spring.

While championing additional allocations to fund higher pay for teachers – something School Board members had not requested – she challenged Vithoulkas' authority to author a proposed budget, one of the chief roles Henrico's county managers historically have held.

She abstained from voting when the board ultimately adopted its 2018-19 fiscal year budget, then later said she would work to ensure defeat for every member of the Board of Supervisors and School Board in 2019, when all 10 seats are up for election.

Lynch grew frustrated with what she believed was a slow pace and lack of progressive thinking among county officials and fellow supervisors. But her criticisms drew stern responses from her fellow Democrats on the board, Frank Thornton (Fairfield Disrict) and Tyrone Nelson (Varina District), who indicated surprise at the actions of someone they had campaigned heartily for just months earlier.

Lynch had announced earlier this spring that she would not seek re-election next year but at the time seemed to indicate that she would serve the remaining 18 months of the term.

Longtime Brookland Supervisor Dick Glover served the first 13 months of the term after winning re-election in 2015 but died in early 2017. Supervisors then appointed former deputy county manager Harvey Hinson to fill the seat for nearly nine months – opting not to hold a special election until November.

Supervisors have 45 days from Lynch's final day in office to appoint an interim board member but just 15 days to petition the county's Circuit Court to issue a writ of election to fill the seat, Board of Supervisors Clerk Barry Lawrence told the Citizen. If supervisors fail to appoint an interim member within that timeframe, the Circuit Court retains the right to do so if it chooses.

Their actions following Glover's death may indicate that supervisors again intend to wait until the general election Nov. 6 to fill the final year of Lynch's term.

Lawrence couldn't recall another instance of a sitting supervisor resigning the seat during his or her term, he said. The last two supervisors who failed to finish their elected terms were Glover and another Brookland Supervisor, Charlie Johnson, who also died while in office in 1981.

Should the board find itself deadlocked in a 2-2 tie after Lynch's resignation and before an interim supervisor has been appointed, the issue or motion being considered would fail, Lawrence said.

For years, the supervisors appointed an official "tiebreaker" – a person who would be called to break a tie vote on the rare occasion when such a vote was needed. But after 2010, the board discontinued that practice, Lawrence said, because of changes in state law. The tiebreaker hadn't actually been called upon since the 1970s or 1980s, he said.