Surry County supervisors amend administrator contract, name interim administrator ahead of July retirement

Surry County’s Board of Supervisors on Jan. 2 unanimously approved an amendment to County Administrator Melissa D. Rollins’s employment agreement and appointed David Harrison as interim county administrator effective July 1, 2026.

The action came after the board convened a closed session to discuss a personnel matter. Ms. Perkins read the board’s resolution, which said Rollins, who was appointed county administrator on July 2, 2020 and whose agreement was previously amended in November 2022, has announced “her intention to voluntarily retire effective 07/01/2026.” The resolution authorized Chair Robert Elliott Jr. to execute Amendment No. 2 to Rollins’s employment agreement and appointed David Harrison to start as interim county administrator on that date.

Mister Hardy moved to approve the resolution “as read by Ms. Perkins.” After a second, board members responded in the affirmative and the chair declared the motion carried. Earlier in the meeting the board also adopted the standard certification required by the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, recording that only matters identified in the motion to convene the closed session were discussed.

The resolution’s text presented at the meeting includes the employment timeline (appointment on 07/02/2020; amendment in November 2022) and the retirement and transition dates. The board scheduled its next regular meeting for Jan. 15 at 6:00 p.m.

The meeting transcript does not record detailed terms of the contract amendment or the exact text of Amendment No. 2 beyond authorizing the chair to execute it after legal review. The resolution states the amendment’s terms were negotiated between the parties and approved "as to form and legal sufficiency by the county attorney," but the amendment itself was not read into the record at the special meeting.

No public comment was recorded during the special meeting. The board’s votes on the certification resolution were recorded by roll call (Mister Drew: aye; Mister Pierce: yes; Mister Calhoun: yes; Mister Hardy: aye; chair: yes). The final approval of the amendment and interim appointment was by voice vote and declared carried without recorded opposition.

The board’s action sets a clear transition date for county administration leadership; implementation details — including the specific terms of Amendment No. 2 and any compensation or transition duties for the interim administrator — were not specified in the meeting record.