North-South battle brewing in Pittsylvania County?

The new chairman of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors has said he wants to unify the board and move past its north-south split. But supervisors say Chatham-Blairs Supervisor and Board Chairman Hank Davis has stacked committee chairmanships with northern supervisors.

“He says he wants to bring this board together,” said Tunstall Supervisor Tim Barber. “Look at his committee assignments.”

Barber, the board’s vice chairman, will chair no standing committees this year. Barber said he will support Davis in trying to bring jobs to the area and move the county forward.

Of the board’s 10 standing committees, only two — those for finance/insurance and computer/radio/telecommunications — will be chaired in 2010 by supervisors who voted against Davis as chairman during the board’s reorganization meeting Jan. 4. The rest will be chaired by supervisors, mostly form the northern districts, who supported Davis’ chairmanship.

Davis, who announced the assignments immediately after elected chairman, makes no apologies for the appointments.

“All in all, I thought I was pretty fair,” Davis said Tuesday. “That’s the way it always goes in politics.”

Whether in Chatham, Richmond or Washington D.C., the process is the same, Davis said. People take care of those who back them, he said.

“You give the best things to the people who support you,” Davis said.

But Banister Supervisor William Pritchett, whose pivotal board vote tilted the 4-3 decision in Davis’ favor, said he would like to see more diversification among the committee chairmanships. He was “a little taken aback” by Davis’ choices, especially Staunton River Supervisor Marshall Ecker’s assignment to head three committees — those for property/building, solid waste and legislative. Ecker’s district includes Hurt, which is in northern Pittsylvania County.

Ecker said he had no input on Davis’ choices and did not ask for any chairmanships. However, when Harville was chairman, most of the committee heads were southern supervisors, Ecker said.

“How do you justify one and not the other?” Ecker said.

Ecker chaired one standing committee, the Legislative Committee, in 2009.

Harville assigned four southern supervisors to head standing committees last year. Davis, not included among the four, led two standing committees in 2009. But Barber questions whether Davis’ district is a northern district and said the area, which also includes part of Dry Fork, is more southern. Pritchett, whose district includes parts of northern and southern Pittsylvania County, also chaired two standing committees in 2009.

Callands-Gretna Supervisor Fred Ingram also received three chairmanships — personnel, fire and rescue policies and procedures and economic development. Pritchett is chairing the School Liaison Committee and the Joint Sites & Facilities Committee. Ingram said he disagreed with supervisors’ complaints about Davis’ decision.

“I don’t see it that way,” Ingram said.

Ingram said he is the most experienced supervisor on the board.

“I think Mr. Davis is taking advantage of my experience,” Ingram said.

Westover Supervisor Coy Harville, whom Davis replaced and who served seven times as chairman since 1999, declined to comment on Davis’ picks. Harville will chair one standing committee in 2010 — the Finance/Insurance Committee.

Dan River Supervisor James Snead said Harville was more fair when it came to filling the committees. Snead, who will lead the Computer/Radio/Telecommunications Committee, said he will back Davis as chairman for the best interests of the county. However, Snead said he is unhappy with the make-up of the committee chairmanships.

“I’m not pleased with it,” he said. “This is not the right thing to do.”

However, “all we can do is take what we have and do the best we can,” Snead added.