Charles City County Board re-elects Atkins as chair, adopts revised bylaws and moves public comment

Charles City County’s Board of Supervisors reorganized its leadership and approved a revised set of operating bylaws on the board’s annual organizational meeting.

Mister Atkins was elected chair after a roll-call vote, and Mister Patterson was chosen unanimously as vice chair, the board announced. The board then took up a detailed review of proposed bylaw reforms covering the clerk of the board, special meetings, agenda notice, public participation, minutes, appointments and a proposed code of ethics.

Why it matters: The adopted changes clarify who may serve as clerk of the board and how a deputy clerk is designated, shorten the formal agenda-notice period to three business days, add an explicit process for handling discovered errors in the minutes, and adjust how special meetings are requested to accommodate a three-member board. The changes also relocate the public-comment period to after the regular agenda, a procedural change the board said it will try and revisit if necessary.

Members debated several specific provisions in detail. Counsel explained that section 1.4 now reads that the “Clerk of the Board may be the county administrator or such other individual selected by the Board,” and the clerk may appoint a deputy, aligning the bylaws with the board’s statutory authority to designate a clerk. On agenda timing counsel said the agenda-preparation window was changed to "3 business days prior to the meeting" to better match notice provisions for special meetings.

On public participation, the board removed a prior restriction that public comment be limited to items listed on the agenda. The revised bylaws state that citizens who wish to address the board must submit a written request to the clerk; individual speakers are granted up to three minutes. The board voted to place the public-comment period after the regular agenda and before the county administrator’s report.

Minutes and corrections: The board agreed to restore the prior language about post-recordation errors in the minutes — to be added as a new Section 8.4 — so that if an error is discovered the clerk must bring it to the board for consideration of amendment rather than allowing administrative modification after approval.

Appointments and closed sessions: The bylaws now call for appointment resolutions prepared by the clerk and add a closed-session review of nominees before any public vote on appointments, with counsel noting that state closed-session rules still apply.

Code of ethics: Board members reviewed a proposed code of ethics drafted from sample models used elsewhere. Mister Patterson objected that one provision could be read as restricting members’ speech to the media, calling that language "teetering on restricting my speech." The board voted to remove Sections 2 and 12 of the draft code of ethics.

Votes at a glance: The board recorded the following formal outcomes — Patterson’s self-nomination for chair was defeated on roll call; Mister Atkins was elected chair; Mister Patterson was elected vice chair (unanimous); the board voted to retain the current language in Section 4.2 regarding agenda submissions; the board approved moving public comment after the regular agenda; the board restored the minutes-correction language as new Section 8.4; the board removed Sections 2 and 12 from the proposed code of ethics; and finally the board approved the bylaws as amended and the 2026 meeting schedule.

The board set its next regular meeting for January 27 and adjourned.