Where's Steve?
Steve Arnold is the elder statesman of the Guilford County commissioners, having served on the board since 1990. But he's been missing some county functions lately, and that's raising some eyebrows.
"He is, for sure, A.W.O.L.," Commissioners Chairman Paul Gibson said in an interview last week. “There’s no doubt about it.”
Arnold hasn't been completely out of touch. He's been attending regular board meetings, which are usually held on Thursday evenings.
But so far this year, he's missed special meetings on interviewing the two finalists for county manager (the board hired David McNeill) and considering incentives for HondaJet. And while Gibson has been pushing for more afternoon work sessions so commissioners can learn more about various issues, Arnold says he purposely avoids them because that business should be conducted in the evenings when the public can participate.
"If we don't have enough regular meetings, then we need to have more," Arnold said in an interview Tuesday. He added that he thinks the push for more work sessions is coming from McNeill.
"And I think the chairman is not willing or either able to challenge the manager's desire to have these so-called work sessions," Arnold said.
Gibson also said he'd tried to call Arnold "numerous times" only to get a message that Arnold's voicemail box was full. Arnold, who said he's been working out of town a lot lately, countered that Gibson hasn't made "extra efforts" to communicate with all the board members.
Arnold also answered several questions related to his participation.
On his availability:
"I really don’t think I'm that tough to get in touch with."
On missing the special meeting on the Honda incentives:
"Why go to a special meeting to hand out taxpayer dollars to multimillion-dollar corporations?"
On his voicemail box:
"A lot of times I purposely keep it full, just to cut down on messages."
On not sitting on as many county committees as most other board members:
"I just don't have the time to devote to be a part of a lot of committees."
On missing the meeting when commissioners interviewed and hired McNeill (Bruce Davis also missed that meeting), Arnold said there were a majority of commissioners who wanted to hire him beforehand, so his vote wasn't needed.
Arnold, a Republican, has had attendance problems before. He missed 10 meetings between December 2002 and May 2004, more than any other commissioner during that period.
He represents District 2, which includes northern and western High Point. He was re-elected without opposition in November.