For the second time, Durham County commissioners put off voting on an appointment to the Workforce Development Board.
"This has probably been one of the worst appointments I’ve ever dealt with since I’ve been a commissioner," Chairman Michael Page said, "because of the unclarity.”
The appointment was on the agenda for today's work session. The vote to postponey came after Donald Hughes took issue with statements made at the commissioners' March 22 meeting about his application for the seat.
Comments by James Dickens, the board's Youth Program Coordinator, were "a deliberate attempt to misrepresent," Hughes said.
At the earlier meeting, Dickens said Hughes's application was turned in after that of Lea Henry, who was recommended for the position by the board's executive committee.
He also said that Hughes had been offered a seat on one of the board’s committees, which would not require him to hold a seat on the workforce board itself, and that he believed Hughes had accepted it.
This morning, Hughes said his application was in fact turned in a month before Henry’s; that he had never heard an offer of a committee seat and would not have accepted it if he had.
Asked to respond, Dickens said he had been mistaken at the March 22 meeting.
"This has been a messy, messy situation," Page said, "and I have lost confidence in any of our departments" to make recommendations on board and commission appointments.
Thr commissioners did not set a date for voting on the appointment.
"I don't want it back until we get some clarity," Page said.
"The purpose of the board is to facilitate, plan and coordinate workforce development resources,” according to its Web site, www.durhamnc.gov/departments/eed/dwdb_index.cfm.
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