Time for Augusta County leaders to put on their big boy, big girl pants

Scott Seaton was re-elected to his Wayne District seat on the Augusta County Board of Supervisors last month with more than two-thirds of the vote.

He’s still in the doghouse with the other six members of the BOS – and by extension, so are Wayne District voters.

A motion made by Seaton to be reappointed to the Staunton-Augusta-Waynesboro Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Community Action Partnership of Staunton, Augusta and Waynesboro failed on Wednesday by another 6-1 vote.

Seaton was removed from his seats on those public bodies in July when his fellow board members, by, yes, a 6-1 vote, censured him, at the height of their running feud over body and dash cams for the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office, civil fees assessed to pet owners by the regional animal shelter, and behind-the-scenes machinations involving matters discussed in the board’s closed sessions that Seaton contends should have been done instead in public session.

The motion from Seaton could be a prelude to another fight over committee assignments next month when the Board of Supervisors has its biennial reorganization meeting.

The censure voted on in the summer is only in effect through the end of Seaton’s current term, which expires at the end of the calendar year.

Next year means a new term for Seaton and three other members of the Board of Supervisors who were re-elected last month – the board’s chair, Michael Shull, the vice chair, Jeffrey Slaven, and Carolyn Bragg, who was elected to a full term after having been appointed earlier this year to fill out the last few months of the unexpired term of Steve Morelli, who resigned under a cloud of controversy in March.

Seaton, returned his to seat on the Board of Supervisors by Wayne District voters, again, by a healthy margin, should start with a clean slate with the flip of the calendar.

For that matter, the Board of Supervisors as an entity, mired in controversy as it is – one supervisor stepping down, two supervisors facing possible criminal charges in a case in which it is alleged that they tried to get a whistleblower fired from her state job – could benefit from a fresh start in 2024.

And Wayne District voters would benefit from having the person they sent back to the board representing them on the SAW MPO and CAPSAW.

It’s time for some folks in Verona to put on their big boy and big girls pants.