Letter to the Editor: Calls for the resignation of Charles City chairman

Over the four years that Chairman Byron Adkins has been on the Board of Supervisors, Charles City’s fund balanced has dropped from a healthy $10 million to the point that we had to borrow $5 million this summer to pay our bills. Outside auditors cannot complete the audit of the fiscal year that ended nine months ago because the administration under his leadership has not been able to provide information about transactions that occurred last year. From the financial statements that do exit, it is clear that Mr. Adkins’ administration has either ignored our declining financial position or didn’t recognize that we were obviously headed to insolvency.

Mr. Adkins’ administration’s response to the financial melt-down has been disturbing as the incompetence that brought it on. For over six months after the wheels came off, he and his staff refused to meaningfully address the situation, despite the residents’ demands for an explanation and a plan for recovery.

What has come to light during that time is an administration lacking competence in its core functions. The Market 5 project is an obvious example of this. Without conducting a market study or even creating a business plan, they wasted over $2 million trying to be developers; leaving us saddled with an ill-conceived eyesore and ongoing management headache with no hope of ever breaking even.

Charles City is in a precarious financial position and at a momentous point in its development. The people who fumbled us into this financial position cannot be trusted to extricate us from it, and they certainly are not equipped to handle complicated negotiations with sophisticated businesspeople in the data center industry.

It is time for Mr. Adkins to step down and let the residents choose someone capable of getting the county on firmer ground.

Rob Tyler
Charles City