At Thursday’s meeting, Dennis Floyd was appointed by the Dent County Commission to serve on the Dent County Health Center (DCHC) Board of Directors. The appointment was necessary to fill a vacancy that should have been filled during the April election; however, DCHC failed to notify the election authority that a position would be available at the appointed time.
Subsequently, Angie Curley (Dent County Clerk), who serves as the local election authority, did not include the position in relevant election advertisements. Additionally, because the position was not listed, nobody was able to file as a candidate, so the position did not appear on ballots.
Zach Moser, DCHC director, attended the March 24 regular meeting of the County Commission to inform the commission of the misstep and that the health center was seeking legal advice about how to proceed.
When asked what happened by The Salem News, Moser replied that it was a clerical error. “We had the term limit for one of our board members written down wrong,” said Moser.
Moser told The Salem News that, according to their lawyer, this sort of thing happens quite a bit. In situations like this, the commission holds the authority to appoint someone to fill the vacancy until the next election.
Presiding commissioner Darrell Skiles said that the commission was investigating the correct way to go about the process according to the law.
The commission would appoint an individual to fill the vacancy and solicit letters of interest to be read at the May 12 meeting of the county commission. The only letter received was from Dennis Floyd who currently served on the board for three years.
