Petitions call for forensic audit, removal of Charles City supervisor after tense meeting

With Charles City’s Board of Supervisors apparently not providing answers to local citizens after requests have been made for an audit and also more information about a $5.2 million Revenue Anticipation Note (RAN) lending, some residents are now taking measures into their own hands.

A petition for a forensic audit and the removal of Charles City Board of Supervisor District 3 member Byron Adkins Sr. began circulating as matters heated up between parties during the Jan. 28 regular meeting.

Several citizens have questioned actions made by county leaders stemming from the aforementioned RAN, as well as negotiations to bring a data center into the county. Citizens have lodged accusations at supervisors, saying that the hiring of former county leader Bill Coada as interim county administrator was done to hide information from the public.

Tensions continued to escalate at the regular board meeting, as during the public comment period, former Charles City County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Tyler lodged more accusations of the county’s operations.

“The fact of the matter is that our finances were a disaster because you had to take out the $5 million dollar loan to pay the bills,” said Tyler during his allotted time at the lectern. “You never mentioned that before, but the fact that we found out in the last five months and still have not got any answers about what has happened and how we got there despite a request for a forensic audit have been ignored, even though at one point you said you would do it.

“You haven’t provided any information to complete your own audit,” Tyler continued, saying that the time has expired to provide that information publicly. “We have asked for a competent county administrator, but we have Mr. Coada whose obvious job is to lie to us, hide things from us. It’s very clear that’s what he is there for and that’s what you brought him in for.”

Tyler directed his attention to Adkins, alleging internal dealings were made by him over county operations.

“Mr. Adkins, if you cared about the county as much as you care about staying in power, you would resign,” Tyler commented. “You wouldn’t have to go through this, and your family wouldn’t have to go through this.

Tyler continued to express his displeasure with the operations. Petitions for a forensic audit and the removal of Adkins began to circulate at the meeting. The status of the petitions are unknown at the time of this publication.

While Adkins deferred to make a comment on accusations made by Tyler, Coada informed leaders that he will be resigning from the position of interim county administrator the following day (Jan. 29). On Monday, Feb. 3, Jessica Poe, the current Human Resources Director of the county, was tabbed as interim county administrator.