<p>Dial</p>

Dial

<p>Campbell</p>

Campbell

<p>Stephens</p>

Stephens

<p>Cummings</p>

Cummings

<p>Wixie Stephens, left, is sworn in to the Robeson County Board of Commissioners during the board’s Monday meeting. Stephens represents District 1. She is joined by her son.</p>

Wixie Stephens, left, is sworn in to the Robeson County Board of Commissioners during the board’s Monday meeting. Stephens represents District 1. She is joined by her son.

<p>John Cummings, left, is sworn in to the Robeson County Board of Commissioners during the Board’s Monday meeting. Cummings represents District 3. He is joined by his family.</p>

John Cummings, left, is sworn in to the Robeson County Board of Commissioners during the Board’s Monday meeting. Cummings represents District 3. He is joined by his family.

LUMBERTON — The Robeson County Board of Commissioners selected a new chair Monday after two newly elected commissioners were sworn in.

Faline Dial was elected chair and Pauline Campbell was chosen vice chair during the board’s regular meeting. New commissioners Wixie Stephens, representing District 1, and John Cummings, District 3, were sworn in. Tom Taylor, District 7, and Judy Sampson, District 5, were sworn in for new terms.

Dial, who has represented District 4 since 2018, was elected unanimously to be chair on the motion of Stephens and the second of Sampson, becoming the second woman to chair the board in its history.

“Thank you to each and every board member that’s in here tonight,” Dial said, naming each commissioner by name. “I appreciate your confidence in me and your vote, and I want you to know I do not take this position lightly or without all seriousness. I look forward to being the chair of the Robeson County Board of Commissioners, and the challenges it may bring.”

Dial replaces Lance Herndon, of District 8, as chairman after he had been in the position since Dec. 2019.

Stephens joined the board after winning the seat once held by her ex-husband, Jerry Stephens. She was unopposed in the general election, after defeating two other candidates in the Democratic primary.

“Robeson County is at a place that’s so challenging right now,” Stephens said. “I want to be able to work with all the commissioners to make sure we can help us get back on track and help us get back to working with each other and building a better future for this county.”

Cummings defeated Democratic board incumbent Roger Oxendine in a very close general election race.

“I’m blessed, and glad that the election is over, and now I really want to start trying to make some things better for the county,” Cummings said.

Sampson joined the board in October to complete the term of former commissioner Raymond Cummings, who died in August. She already was running unopposed in the general election to replace Cummings after winning the Democratic primary in March.

Taylor begins his sixth term on the board.

With Stephens and Cummings sworn in, five of the eight sitting commissioners joined the board since 2018. The board is now made up of four women and four men, with women as chair and vice chair, something pointed out by both Dial and Campbell.

“I came on this board two years ago and it looked very different than it does tonight,” Dial said. “With that difference comes new perspectives, it comes with new attitudes, it comes with new ideas, and it comes, for me, with new expectations and excitement about what the future holds.

“I’m elated the dynamics of the board have changed, and that Robeson County can change with the times,” said Campbell, who represents District 2. “Women are looking forward in this board, and I’m just glad we’re embracing that. I’m happy — it’s a challenge.”

John Cummings was selected Monday to fill the vacant seat representing the board on the Lumber River Council of Governments. He replaces the late Raymond Cummings.

“I’m glad that they gave me that vote of confidence, and I’m not going to let them down,” Cummings said. “Anything that’s done, I’m not going to let them down, I’ll give my best ability.”

Dial was selected as the board’s voting delegate at the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners’ Legislative Goals Conference in January.

In other news, the commissioners unanimously adopted a resolution on the COVID-19 pandemic, recommending residents continue to wear face masks, wash hands and use 6 feet or more of social distancing. The resolution also encouraged citizens to avoid crowded places, close-contact settings and confined or enclosed spaces.

“It’s basically a public service announcement type of resolution a lot of counties and municipalities are doing at this time, in the holiday travel season, when people are going to be getting together, going shopping,” said Robert Davis, county attorney. “It’s basically just to remind the citizens to do the things that everyone has said we need to be doing.”

The resolution is expected to become a joint resolution with the City of Lumberton, which is expected to approve it at the City Council meeting in January, Davis said.

The board tabled a motion to adopt suggested rules of procedure for its meetings. Davis and fellow County Attorney Gary Locklear presented a booklet containing standard rules of procedure, and the commissioners plan to vote on them in the future.

There are currently no set rules of procedure for how the board conducts its meetings.

“A lot of times you ask (Davis) a question and he can’t give you, nor could I, a definite answer, because there is no answer if you don’t have adopted rules,” Locklear said. “The only answer that is the right answer is the majority rules, so it’s whatever the majority says at a particular meeting at a particular time. We don’t think as your attorneys that’s the best way to do business. Most elected bodies have rules of procedure that they go by.”

The booklet could be “tweaked” to fit the board’s needs and circumstances, Locklear said.

Taylor initially made a motion to go ahead and adopt the rules of procedure, but later rescinded the motion after some discussion, opting for the commissioners to read the proposed rules before voting on them.

“I would like to table it and come back in another meeting because I’d like to read and see what’s in it, to see what procedures we’re talking about it,” Stephens said.

In other business, the commissioners:

— Approved a grant application request made by Sharon Robinson, director of the Southeast Area Transit System (SEATS). An administrative grant application is in the amount of $449,119 and a capital grant for $158,898, the latter of which is for the replacement of two transit buses and office furniture. The administrative grant has a 20% local share amount, and the capital grant 10%.

— Approved a conditional use permit allowing Ronald Bruton to store work vehicles and place a mechanic shop on a 58-acre property on N.C. 211 West near Red Springs. The planned business will wash out the interiors of trucks during the process of changing what the trucks are hauling, County Director of Planning and Inspections Dixon Ivey said.

— Approved funds for the Lumber River Council of Government Aging Program’s Families First Coronavirus Response Act. The funds were designated as pass-through funding, and the approval was more or less a formality, County Manager Kellie Blue said.

— Approved the consent agenda, which included conforming budget amendments for the Governing Body, Public Buildings, Sheriff’s, EMS, Parks and Recreation and Health departments; non-conforming budget amendments for the Public Buildings, Public Utilities and E-911 Communications departments; a resolution in memory of Francina Murphy; a resolution by the Robeson County Housing Authority to submit its Moving to Work plan to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; approval to donate K-9 Zeus to the Maxton Police Department; approving the hire of Clyde Epps as the Robeson County Jail Health Services’ psychologist; and the renewal of bonds for the Finance, Register of Deeds, Sheriff’s, Social Services and Tax departments.

Chris Stiles can be reached at 910-816-1977 or by email at [email protected].