Peachtree – Mark Stiles, a small business owner with a master’s degree in business administration from Western Carolina University, was picked to represent District 2 on the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners on Saturday.
Stiles was picked by the Cherokee County Republican Party Executive Committee during a meeting at the Educate for Success building off Family Church Road.
The committee was responsible for recommending a replacement for the District 2 seat that was left in limbo when Justin Hyde, who ran unopposed in the November general election, rejected the seat. Hyde, a county employee, faced compensation restrictions or loss of his job to avoid a conflict of interest had he taken office.
The executive committee had until Jan. 1 to select a replacement. Eight people applied, were interviewed privately by the committee Friday night, then appeared at the party meeting Saturday to make public introductions and answer questions before the committee went into closed session to vote.
The board of commissioners is expected to approve the party’s recommendation and seat Stiles at the Jan. 6 meeting.
Stiles, a Murphy High School graduate and former executive director of Four Square Community Action Inc., said he is semi-retired and has run a string of small businesses, including a dry clear, coin-operated laundry, furniture stores and commercial rentals. He said in his 28 years in business, he has always turned a profit.
The applicants were Kandace Barnett, a nurse; Lance Bristol, an elementary school principal; Judy Edwards, who has worked in government and politics; Max Norton, a radio station manager; Alex Parker, a political activist; Chuck Parris, a business executive; Randy Phillips, a retired school resources officer and outgoing one-term county commissioner; and Stiles.
Stiles was picked with six of eight votes of the committee; he will be up for a vote in two years. Bristol and Parris each received one vote.
The meeting lasted about two hours. The closed session deliberation of committee members to vote took about seven minutes.
The executive committee had planned to hold a series of private work sessions to go over the applications and interview the candidates before a public meeting Saturday when the candidates could make brief statements and the committee would convene privately to make its decision.
The board of commissioners, led by Chair Dan Eichenbaum with consent from other board members, announced two emergency meetings at the same time and place as the GOP executive committee meetings to fulfill a statutory obligation to consult with the committee about the vacancy.
With commissioners and county staff seated inside Penland Senior Center on Thursday evening, executive committee members made phone calls and huddled together outside the building before entering the building.
Executive Committee Chair Dallas McMillan convened the committee about 10 minutes early, said the meeting was a workshop and the media was not invited, and asked the media to leave. The Scout refused to leave because the local newspaper was there to cover a board of commissioners meeting, which is open to the public.
“All right, you have a commissioners meeting, we’re done,” McMillan said with a wave, with the other five members rising from the table to leave. “And tomorrow night,” he added as he left the room.
Later, on his Facebook page, McMillian posted, “Last night the Cherokee Co. GOP board had a scheduled work session, not a called meeting, to do work in preparing to fill the vacant Commissioners seat. A Private work session. It was interfered with and uninvited media showed up and refused to leave. I canceled the work session. That’s a whole different legality than a ‘called meeting.’ ”
Following the executive committee’s departure, county commissioners said their intent was to consult with the committee as required by statute and also make the process of selecting the next commissioner public and transparent.