Bustos appointed to Powhatan Board

Marsell C. Bustos has been appointed the District 2 representative on the Powhatan County Board of Supervisors.

Bustos, 50, replaces Charlie Green, who died Oct. 2 of complications from pneumonia. He will serve at least until a special election can be held in November 2010.

The unanimous appointment was made last night by the board after a handful of the nearly 150 residents in attendance let supervisors know they didn't agree with the way the matter was handled.

Supervisors came to a consensus on Bustos in a closed session last week after discussing several candidates.

County Attorney John F. Rick noted that everything was handled legally, saying that state law allows localities to handle replacing elected officials as they see fit within 45 days of the vacancy.

"When the General Assembly wants to tell a locality how to do something, they don't forget," he said.

"'It's legal' is the last defense of a scoundrel," said Powhatan resident Todd Rojcewicz, who asked supervisors to delay a decision and use the remaining 33 days allowed by state law to conduct a more extensive and open search for a replacement.

"We must not be subjected to backroom deals. All we ask for is a fair, transparent process," he said. "After all, this is Powhatan; this isn't Chicago."

Bustos was the runner-up for the District 2 seat in the 2007 election, losing to Green but edging out incumbent T.J. Bise by 16 votes.

District 5 Supervisor Carson Tucker said the decision to appoint Bustos from a field of four finalists had not been easy and bristled at suggestions of a backdoor deal.

"We did it in closed session because we were not going to vet those candidates' strengths and weaknesses and our personal opinions about them . . . in public," he said. "That was the process we chose, whether you like it or not."

Bustos, the current chairman of the Powhatan Democratic Party, has agreed to relinquish that position.

Acknowledging the concerns, Bustos, a retired Navy commander who moved to the county in 2004, said he hopes to quickly focus on the county's issues.

"We're going to move forward and we're going to heal," he said, noting that he had become a close friend of Green's since the election.

Asked if he planned to run for election next year, he said it was too early to tell.

"If another Charlie Green comes out of the woodwork, I'm probably going to have to give it a hard look," he said.

Contact Wesley P. Hester at (804) 649-6976 or .