The Mathews County Board of Supervisors held a special called meeting Monday to consider agenda changes related to meeting dates and to hold a closed session on cybersecurity.
After brief discussion, the board voted to again hold meetings at the historic courthouse on Court Street, beginning with next Tuesday’s meeting, which will be held at 6 p.m.
Recent meetings had been held in the Mathews High School auditorium for security purposes related to occupancy issues in the historic courthouse, where the number of people allowed in the building had been reduced to 50 under government pandemic guidelines. However, Mathews County Building Official Kevin Zoll has authorized a return to the previous occupancy limit of 80 people.
Under an amendment to the original motion made by supervisor Mike Walls, if a public meeting is planned at which the occupancy is expected to exceed 80, arrangements will be made to meet at the high school.
The board also voted to hold the November and December meetings a week early, on Nov. 15 and Dec. 20, because of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
The board voted to go into closed session to discuss “plans to protect public safety as it relates to potential cybersecurity threats, vulnerabilities and any actions taken to respond to such matters. Discussion of information subject to exclusion in [Virginia Code] subdivision 2 or 14 of §2.2-3705.2, where discussion in an open meeting would jeopardize the security of any facility, building, structure, information technology system, or software program.”
Following the closed session, the board returned to open session and voted to hire an information technology firm to retrieve all old emails still on county servers from years past “for investigation and transparency reasons.” In addition, it directed County Administrator Ramona Wilson to draft a policy for county email accounts and electronic devices.
During public comment, only one person spoke. Mathews resident Sonny Fauver urged the board to schedule a public hearing as soon as possible on transferring ownership of the Confederate monument on the Court Green and the land under it to an organization that will maintain it permanently.
Budget public hearing
The board will hold two public hearings during its regular August meeting, to be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the historic courthouse on Court Street.
One hearing will be on budget increases in the county’s current adopted budget totaling $317,695. Because this amount exceeds 1 percent of the county’s $31,301,526 in total expenditures, a public hearing has to be held to approve the change, said Wilson.
The largest change to the budget was a $294,017 increase in debt service for radios for the Mathews County Sheriff’s Office. There were also increases in medical coverage for various departments, the largest of which was $13,464 for Buildings and Grounds because a new employee was added to the medical plan, said Wilson.
Changes to the budget include a decrease in property maintenance for the New Point overlook because the Mathews Rotary Club is completing some of the work; the removal of $9,750 for Social Services Utilities under the department’s Cost Allocation Plan, which the county does not receive as a direct payment; and a $10,518 decrease in medical coverage for the Clerk of Courts office because an employee left.
Noise ordinance
The other public hearing will be on a proposed noise ordinance. Last month, the board declined to have a public hearing on a draft ordinance presented by County Attorney Andrea Erard, saying that they only wanted an ordinance that addressed loud music, and not the variety of other noises she had included in the draft document. As of press time Wednesday morning, a new draft ordinance was not available for review.