Upshur County Commissioners, at their meeting Friday, established maintenance policies for county property following a sometimes heated discussion which saw one commissioner walk out of a lengthy executive session.

Following the executive session, which was listed as “personnel matters,” Pct. 1 Comm. James Crittenden moved that the court rescind its action of July 15, 2008 which had appointed Pct. 2 Comm. Buddy Ferguson over county maintenance, with maintenance supervisor Charlie Daniels reporting to Ferguson.

“We don’t need one department head feeling he needs to answer to one commissioner,” Crittenden said. He said that he wasn’t trying to get rid of Ferguson, but he wanted the entire court to know about maintenance work.

“I don’t know why you want to get rid of me so bad,” Ferguson said.

“The law states that no one member is accountable for an action,” Crittenden said.

“You had a plumbing problem in the jail recently,” Crittenden told him. “I wasn’t notified.”

“I notified everybody except you. You’re never here,” Ferguson said.

Crittenden told him he could have called on his cell phone.

He also said that he missed a few days of work because his mother had a heart attack Dec. 3, 2008 and he had taken her for treatment and therapy.

“I think it’s totally unfair to be held responsible for something over which you have no control,” Crittenden said.

Crittenden had walked out of the executive session, arriving back in the courtroom five minutes earlier than other commissioners.

“When they start talking about my family, I get mad,” he said. “They didn’t need me in there.”

Daniels had been called into the executive session.

Crittenden’s motion was seconded by Pct. 4 Comm. Glenn Campbell.

It passed 2-0, with Ferguson and Pct. 3 Comm. Lloyd Crabtree abstaining and Judge Dean Fowler not voting.

Crittenden asked Daniels if he could “perform your job without someone looking over your shoulder?” Daniels said he could.

Fowler told Daniels, “if you have an emergency, call me and we can have a meeting within three hours.”

“Wait a minute,” Crabtree said, pointing out that Daniels could not call commissioners to get individual approval, because that would constitute a violation of the Open Meetings Act.

Crittenden asked that Daniels provide written notice to commissioners on all maintenance work. “Provide a written agenda of issues that may be coming up.”

Sheriff Anthony Betterton told commissioners that “starting today, I will send a copy of any maintenance work to all commissioners.” He said that were it not for Ferguson, county buildings would not be maintained as well as they are.

Fowler said he would send a memo to all department heads advising them of the new policy.

Crabtree said that moving a box was a maintenance issue.

County Clerk Peggy LaGrone asked if changing a light bulb was a maintenance issue. Crabtree told her it was.

Campbell then presented three bids for courthouse lawn maintenance.

One, from Cook Lawn Service, was for $800 a month, or $9,600 a year.

Sam the Yard Man bid $680 a month, plus $480 for fertilizer during February, June and October. That comes to $10,800 a year.

Baker Lawn Service bid $400 a month, or $4,800 a year.

Ferguson said he felt that they should continue to use free inmate labor “instead of taking the taxpayers’ money to hire a lawn man.”

Crittenden said that, with benefits, it would cost $39,000 a year to hire another maintenance man.

“Or we can use jail inmates to do the work,” Judge Fowler said.

“I asked for $9,990 for a copier,” said Ms. LaGrone. “You all need to be very conservative.” Her request to replace an aging copier in her office for that price had been rejected earlier in the meeting. She said that the copier was a revenue generator, because they sell land men copies at $1 a page. She said the copier would soon have run 600,000 copies since they got it.

No decision was made about lawn work.

Fowler said that they needed to have the county agent get a soil sample from the courthouse lawn. Daniels was also told he could consult with Bill Starnes, who has a degree in horticulture, about restoring the grass on the lawn.

During the earlier discussion about the copier, Ms. LaGrone said that the copier she wanted to replace was nearly worn out.

When the court turned down her request, Fowler asked her “will you let us know when it fails?”

“I certainly will, judge, when I walk down to the commissioners office to make copies,” she replied.