Tensions surrounding recent actions by the Mathews County Board of Supervisors erupted in heated discussion during Monday night’s candidate forum at the Piankatank Ruritan Club at Hudgins.

First-time board candidate Carol Bova, running in the special election for the remaining two years of a seat vacated by Pepper Love, alledged that the county administrator, an employee who was not present at the forum, violated the law while serving the county by making unauthorized changes to the board’s bylaws.

Supervisor Mike Rowe, seeking to continue to serve in the seat he was appointed to last year after the resignation of Love, said that he preferred listening to experts rather than “someone with a Google University degree.”

And candidate Dee Russell, who is seeking a first term on the board of supervisors, told incumbent candidate G.C. Morrow that he might have gotten a floodplain ordinance passed if he hadn’t secretly worked outside of the board with Bova a...