The Vance County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to have Chair Carolyn Faines continue in the role for 2026. The board also elected newcomer Charisse Fain to the role of vice chair.
In making his motion to nominate Faines, Commissioner Tommy Hester told Faines she’d done an “outstanding job. I’d like to spend my last year with you as chair.”
Commissioner Leo Kelly seconded the motion.
Kelly nominated Fain to be vice chair. That motion was seconded by Hester and also was passed without objection.
After adopting the 2026 holiday, work session and meeting agendas, the commissioners heard from Vance County Sheriff Curtis Brame, who appeared before the board to express his concerns about the county vehicle acceptable use policy, which was approved in September.
Before Brame’s comments, Vance County Manager C. Renee Perry told the board that liability and risk are prime concerns for her.
She cited costs the county has incurred -$212,000 in jail repairs, $690,000 in emergency pay and an $80,000 increase in liability insurance due to concerns at the jail and with the Department of Social Services handling of child welfare cases.
The county implemented one cost-saving measure during spring budget deliberations – switching to leased vehicles, including vehicles destined for the sheriff’s office.
Those vehicles remain parked and unused, however, because the manager and the sheriff cannot agree on whether deputies should be allowed to transport their children to and from school.
Perry said she and Assistant County Manager Jeremy Jones had met with Brame, who expressed concerns about the new policy. “The only issue he had with the new policy was transport of family and children,” Perry said, adding that the sheriff said he would lose staff members if that one particular benefit was taken away.
“I guess I see the issue totally different than the sheriff. I don’t want any added liability for the county,” Perry said.
Brame said he was all for the county saving money, and agreed to the idea that sheriff’s office replacement vehicles be included in the lease agreement.
But his office hasn’t been able to replace the old vehicles with the new ones because of the impasse.
Brame said that six of his office’s current vehicles have more than 131,000 miles on them. “If we continue to operate those cars, they’re not going to be any good for resale,” Brame said, adding that they will be hazardous and dangerous.
“Holding on to new cars simply because the sheriff disagrees with the county manager, I think that’s wrong. I really do,” Brame said.
After close to half an hour of discussion and back and forth comments, Commissioner Dan Brummitt made a motion to allow deputies to continue to transport their children to and from school in their work vehicles. The motion failed for lack of a second.
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