SPSA board nominees announced
Published 9:35 pm Saturday, October 31, 2009
The Suffolk City Council chose three residents of the city Thursday as their nominees to a soon-to-be-overhauled Southeastern Public Service Authority board.
A new law requires that the troubled trash authority’s board of directors be made up of citizens with general business experience, rather than elected officials. The board has previously consisted mostly of councilmen and supervisors from the authority’s eight member communities — Suffolk, Franklin, Southampton County, Isle of Wight County, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Norfolk and Virginia Beach.
Under the new law, however, each of the localities must submit the names of three prospective board members to the governor, who will choose one representative from each locality and an alternate. A staff member of each locality will be designated as an “ex officio” member.
Suffolk residents James C. Adams II, James E. Butler III and George R. Pfeil were the nominees at a special council meeting last week. The nominations were approved unanimously, in the absence of Councilman Joseph Barlow, who had a prior engagement.
Adams, 68, is the chief executive officer of Amadas Industries, Inc., a manufacturer of agricultural equipment such as peanut combines and cotton pullers. Adams has been with the company since its inception in 1963, and holds a degree in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University.
Butler, 53, is the president of Butler Paper Recycling, Inc., located on Newport Street in Suffolk. He is a graduate of Nansemond-Suffolk Academy and of Elon College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
Pfeil, 65, is retired from Ford Motor Co. as an administrator of several different plants. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Old Dominion University.
The new board of directors will take office Jan. 1. Other parts of the new law already have taken effect, including requiring the board to approve spending on any items more than $30,000, and requiring the board to consider outsourcing functions that may lead to reduced costs.
