A new era began for the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors on Monday as they welcomed two new board members and approved the hiring of a new county administrator.

District 1 Supervisor Kevin Frye and District 3 Supervisor David Rikard took their seats in the first meeting of the new year and were welcomed by fellow board members Jeff Busby, Mike Roberts and Chad McLarty.

And it was a full agenda for the first meeting of 2016.

The board unanimously approved the hiring of Lisa Carwyle as the new county administrator to replace Joseph Johnson who resigned in November. Carwyle, who has worked as the city clerk for the last 13 years, was approved as the inventory control clerk and purchase clerk. Carwyle, who is scheduled to begin her job Jan. 11, will make an estimated $135,000 to perform all three duties.

There was little discussion from the board regarding Carwyle’s hiring. Frye inquired if the county administrator has always held all three positions. According to Busby and O’Donnell, the position of purchasing clerk used to be the responsibility of the chancery clerk before the county administrator position became full time, which was approximately 12 years ago.

“I’m not saying that when Miss Carwyle gets here that she won’t want to separate that out,” Busby said. “She may not want some of those duties or it may be too much to handle, I’m not sure.”

O’Donnell added that the combination of duties was “always a matter of efficiency than functions.”

“Well, maybe we could just talk about it as we go forward,” Frye said.

County planner

The board also discussed in detail the county planner position after the board appointed Larry Britt to the position.

Frye said he thinks that position will change a lot this year due to the current comprehensive plan process that is taking place and thinks there may be a considerable more amount of work going forward.

Britt said he was OK with the position for now, but if the board decides in the future to have a planning department, then he would recommend county planner be a full-time position.

“Because we are going to be doing so much in regards to planning the county’s future, in my opinion, this could be something in flux a little bit as we go forward just in the discussion about what’s the best way to handle all of these issues and it’s going to be a lot of work,” Frye said.

Britt agreed and said if a planning department is created in the future, he would work with them as county engineer in an advisory role.

“A full-time planner would have to be something to think about,” Britt said.

Re-appointments

The board also voted Busby to serve as board president and McLarty as vice president.

O’Donnell was re-appointed as county attorney and chancery clerk Sherry Wall was re-appointed. Jerry Haynie and Larry Britt were both re-appointed as road manager and county engineer, respectively.

Other appointments included:

David Shaw, county emergency management coordinator

Margaret Bankston, comptroller

Wes Anderson, county fire coordinator

Jerry Johnson, assistant county fire coordinator

Jill Carwyle, justice court clerk

T.R. Trout and Roy Percy, public defenders

Chester Starks, veterans affairs officer

TJ Ray, Dick Marchbanks, James Thompson, Ray Garrett and John Sow, planning commission members

The board also voted to change its meeting on the first Monday of each month from 9 a.m. to 8 a.m. due mainly because Frye has a conflict as an attorney with justice court.

The board recessed its meeting until Friday at 1 p.m. for a work session.