The Mathews County Board of Supervisors held a special meeting in the historic courthouse on Friday, Jan. 31, immediately going into a closed session that lasted 4½ hours.

Upon returning to open meeting, supervisor Tom Bowen moved that the board accept the retirement of the Information Technology director and eliminate the IT department altogether.

Bowen explained that if Mathews were a larger county, it could train additional personnel to take over when the leading IT employee leaves.

“But we can’t afford that now,” he said.

When IT personnel have left in the past, he said, the transition has been difficult. Judi Green, the county’s senior executive and deputy clerk to the board, does a lot of the technical work, Bowen said, and if it’s too much for her, it could be addressed by a third-party vendor. He said he would like for staff to put together the information to find a third-party IT vendor.

County Administrator Ramona Wilson said that she has no time to prepare such a report right now, since staff is in the middle of budget season, and that the earliest she could address the issue would be Feb. 28.

Supervisor Janice Phillips pointed out that the county can continue with the services it currently has until the end of March, and County Attorney Andrea Erard suggested that the board discuss the matter during the regular meeting, to be held on Feb. 20. Her suggestion was unanimously supported.

Topics for discussion included on the agenda were 1) the resignation/retirement of a specific employee and the performance of three other specific employees and 2) consideration of the acquisition of real property for a public purpose–property for off-site septic.

Before entering into closed session, supervisor Dave Jones asked for an addition to the agenda to discuss acquisition of property for a public purpose, and the board unanimously concurred. Erard clarified later that the public purpose referred to was a fire station.

No action was taken on either of the property items.