To the Editor:

At 8:22 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 16, a board member called to tell me that the rest of the board had decided that Kenny Bunch was going to replace Phillip Bradshaw as Isle of Wight County Supervisor during the board meeting on Thursday.

I had no input in that decision. I insisted the process should be as transparent as possible, and the board should invite interested citizens in the Carrsville District to submit letters of interest. The process should involve a public hearing for citizen input, and at a later meeting, go from there, preferring to have all final discussions in open session if possible.

The caller felt good leadership required all people in Carrsville be ignored, except two. It’s ironic that the only two elected officials in Carrsville worked together to exclude everyone who elected them from having any say.

Neither the early resignation of Bradshaw, nor anything related to picking a replacement was discussed in open or closed session.

The citizens of Carrsville District were disenfranchised by the rest of the board, in my opinion. And, to the extent that I was excluded, the people of Smithfield District were as well.

I’m certain no one in the Carrsville District expected a fellow elected by the Smithfield District would be the only elected person in the county to stick up for giving them even a chance to have a say in the matter. I’ve long said that if you live in Isle of Wight, you are in my district; whether you can actually vote for me or not doesn’t matter.

Next November, the fine citizens of Isle of Wight will have the opportunity to replace four of the five board members, including me. They’ll decide if they want to continue with the current elected officials, who seem to feel 40 percent of the voters in the county can readily be ignored.

The decision on retaining Supervisor JoAnn Hall will have to wait until 2013.

Welcome to the Isle of Shutout Voters.

Al Casteen

Isle of Wight Supervisor

Smithfield District