Mathews supervisors came out of a nearly two-hour closed session last Thursday night and voted 4-0, with supervisor Tim Doss recusing himself, to quash a requirement that former county building official Jamie Wilks appear before the board and testify regarding the Hole in the Wall Waterfront Grill.

The action came about after Cortland Putbrese of the law firm Dunlap, Bennett and Ludwig, which was hired by the board last year to represent the county in the civil case against Hole in the Wall, was granted a court-ordered subpoena requiring that Wilks make an appearance before the board at the Feb. 15 board meeting.

Under that subpoena, Wilks would also have been required to produce documents involving the construction, inspections and permitting that occurred during the restaurant’s renovations and elevation.

Supervisor Tom Bowen, who made the motion to quash the matter, explained on Thursday that the reason he did so was that requiring Wilks to appear before the board was an i...