Franklin County supervisors went behind closed doors Thursday night to discuss the process for filling what they consider a vacant Boone District seat.
The people they left behind held a meeting of their own.
As supervisors prepared to leave the room for closed session, jeers rose from an audience of nearly 50 people.
“What are you afraid of?”
“Make it public.”
“They should all resign.”
Those calls mixed with moans and groans from the audience as board members left the meeting room for a closed session that would last nearly 45 minutes.
Then, with the supervisors gone, the room changed.
Residents began talking among themselves, then taking turns speaking to the room. They discussed organizing. One person began collecting addresses of Boone District residents interested in getting involved. Others talked about mounting a write-in campaign for Mike Meredith should the dispute over his seat ultimately lead to an election.
Resident George Jamison was among those who provided his name and address.
“I feel that the citizens need to be heard and everything,” Jamison said. “It’s a crying shame that we have a Board of Supervisors that are trying to protect their own interests and not the citizens who elected them.”
For those 45 minutes, the Board of Supervisors meeting room became an impromptu public forum.
It was, in some respects, a closed session of the citizens’ own—except theirs was open to everyone in the room.
The contrast came during an extremely brief public portion of a meeting called as the county moves ahead with a process to replace Meredith, even as Meredith maintains there is no vacancy to fill.
“Every opportunity given for them to do the right thing by constituents leads them to hiding behind lawyers and closed session rules they choose. They aren’t mandatory,” Laura Carter said.
Meredith did not attend.
He had previously considered appearing at Thursday’s meeting and attempting to resume his seat on the board. Meredith later said he decided against attending because he was not going to attend a meeting concerning a vacancy he maintains does not exist.
The board gaveled into session and, approximately six minutes later, entered the closed meeting, which had been listed on the agenda. About 45 minutes later, supervisors returned, certified the closed session, and adjourned without publicly addressing Meredith’s claim to the seat.
The open portions of the entire meeting lasted only about 10 to 12 minutes.
County says seat is vacant
The county did make its position clear before supervisors entered closed session.
Chris Dadak, filling in for County Attorney Jim Guynn, told the board that it is Guynn’s legal opinion that the Boone District seat is vacant.
That position conflicts directly with Meredith’s contention that no lawful vacancy was ever created.
Dadak also outlined the next steps in the appointment process.
Five people have applied for the interim appointment: Thad Montgomery, Dawn McCray, Peter Milham, Lauren Walke and Bonnie Law.
Supervisors are scheduled to meet in closed sessions Sept. 9 and 10 to interview the candidates. A third special meeting is scheduled for Sept. 11, when the board is expected to vote on an interim Boone District representative.
That means the county is moving toward an appointment on a specific timetable even as Meredith maintains there is no vacancy to fill.
Quinn asks for answers
That disagreement surfaced publicly before the board entered closed session.
Supervisor Dan Quinn, participating remotely, asked Dadak to address Meredith’s Aug. 31 letter to the board and the Virginia Code provisions Meredith cited in arguing that he remains the elected Boone District supervisor.
Meredith wrote that he never submitted a written resignation and does not consider his Aug. 18 statement to have created a lawful vacancy.
“I am writing to formally clarify that I intend to remain in office and complete my elected term as Boone District Supervisor,” Meredith wrote.
Meredith specifically cited Virginia Code §§ 24.2-226 and 24.2-228 and said he was unaware of any motion, resolution or recorded vote by the board in open session accepting his oral statement.
“I therefore maintain that my oral statement never became legally complete and that no vacancy arose in the Boone District office,” Meredith wrote.
He asked the board to stop the vacancy and appointment process and recognize his intention to continue serving the remainder of his elected term.
Dadak did not publicly address the substance of those arguments.
Instead, he said discussion of Meredith’s letter would be better handled in closed session.
That response drew immediate vocal opposition from the audience and preceded the board’s departure from the room.
Quinn said afterward that he had hoped the answers would be given publicly.
“I was disappointed, but not surprised that they didn’t want to say more,” Quinn said. “I keep pushing for more transparency and more openness and more sharing, and other members want to curtail that. And so, it’s an ongoing tension.”
Quinn said Meredith’s questions were discussed during the closed session, but nothing about that discussion was offered publicly after supervisors returned.
“There was no acknowledgment that Mike even sent a letter.”Supervisor Dan Quinn
He said the public heard no discussion of what legal research had been conducted or the rationale supporting the county’s position that the seat is vacant.
Quinn said he intends to make his own request for information public and allow residents to draw their own conclusions.
“I asked for more information to be shared and when we came out, no more information was shared,” Quinn said.
Two positions, one seat
The county’s appointment process and Meredith’s effort to remain in office are now proceeding on parallel tracks.
The county’s position, as Dadak stated Thursday, is that the Boone District seat is vacant.
Meredith says it isn’t.
His Aug. 31 letter followed his Aug. 18 announcement during a Board of Supervisors meeting that he was resigning. Meredith now says that statement was made “under duress”, that he never submitted a formal written resignation and that the board never formally accepted one.
“I do not consider my statement at the August 18th, 2026, meeting to constitute a voluntary resignation or to create a lawful vacancy,” Meredith wrote.
The distinction is no longer theoretical.
The county plans to interview five candidates during closed session Sept. 9 and 10 and vote on an interim appointment Sept. 11.
Meredith maintains he already holds the seat.
Meredith retains counsel, seeks records
By Friday morning, the dispute had moved another step toward a possible court challenge.
Meredith said he has retained legal counsel to review whether he has grounds to challenge the county’s determination that his seat is vacant. He also went to the Franklin County courthouse Friday morning seeking information about what supported the writ of election.
“I wanted to see what evidence was produced to get that writ of election,” Meredith said.
Meredith said courthouse personnel told him no supporting evidence had been submitted and that a separate evidentiary filing was not necessarily required. That account has not been independently confirmed.
“I just assumed you would have some kind of evidence to base your claim upon or something like that,” Meredith said.
Meredith said he has contacted county officials seeking records showing what, if anything, made his Aug. 18 resignation official.
“I have reached out now twice to the county side asking for documentation, minutes, motions, anything that made that resignation official,” Meredith said. “I have not received anything back or heard anything back.”
Meredith said his correspondence went to Guynn and also included members of the Board of Supervisors, the board clerk, and county administrator.
He said his attorney is now reviewing the facts and determining whether there is a legal case to pursue. No lawsuit has been filed.
“I have reached out for legal counsel, and they are going to look into it and see if we have a case,” Meredith said. “Just gather all the facts and look at it. So that’s where we’re at at this moment.”
Meredith said he sees the dispute as two competing legal positions.
“They’re addressing it their way that it is vacant,” Meredith said. “I’m addressing that it is not vacant.”
He also distinguished the writ of election from what he considers proof that a vacancy legally occurred.
“The only evidence I’ve got of them saying it’s vacant is a court order, writ for election,” Meredith said.
Virginia Code § 24.2-226 requires a governing body to petition the circuit court for a writ of election within 15 days after a vacancy occurs. The statute also provides that, upon receiving written notification from an officeholder of a resignation as of a stated date, the governing body may immediately petition for the writ. Meredith maintains he never submitted a written resignation.
Meredith said the support he has received since Aug. 18 helped change his mind about leaving office.
“I’ve probably talked to a couple of thousand now, and it’s just been overwhelming,” Meredith said.
He said some people have told him he should remain out of office and that he respects those opinions. But he said the volume of unsolicited support surprised him.
Meredith said he and his attorney are weighing what comes next, including the potential cost of a prolonged dispute.
“The sad part is, if it’s going to taxpayers, you know, and it’s going to be a long, drawn-out probably process,” Meredith said. “So, it’s just a matter of evaluating the situation as it is now.”
What was presented to the court?
Court records obtained Friday provide a clearer picture of what Franklin County presented to Circuit Court before a writ of election was issued for the Boone District seat.
In an Aug. 27 petition signed by County Attorney Jim Guynn on behalf of the Board of Supervisors, the county told the court that Meredith had resigned.
“Effective August 18, 2026 Michael Meredith resigned from his seat on the Franklin County Board of Supervisors.”Franklin County’s Aug. 27 petition to the Circuit Court
The petition provides no additional explanation for that assertion. It does not describe Meredith’s Aug. 18 statement as oral, identify a written resignation, or describe any action by the board formally accepting one.
Instead, the petition proceeds from the assertion that Meredith resigned to the county’s request that the court issue a writ of election under Virginia Code § 24.2-226.
The county asked that the special election be held Nov. 2, 2027, to fill the remainder of Meredith’s term, which expires Dec. 31, 2029.
In a cover letter dated Aug. 27, Guynn sent the filing to Circuit Court Judge Timothy W. Allen for the court’s consideration. The following day, the petition was filed and Allen entered the writ.
The resulting court order similarly states that Meredith “resigned his position as Supervisor on August 18, 2026,” and orders the Nov. 2, 2027 special election.
The timing is significant to the sequence of events. Meredith’s formal letter disputing the existence of a vacancy was dated Aug. 31, three days after the writ was entered. In that letter, Meredith said he had submitted no written resignation and did not believe his Aug. 18 statement constituted a voluntary resignation or created a lawful vacancy.
Virginia Code § 24.2-226 requires a governing body to petition the circuit court within 15 days after a vacancy occurs. The statute also provides that, upon receiving written notification from an officeholder of a resignation as of a stated date, the governing body may immediately petition for the writ. The statute does not, on its face, resolve the dispute between Meredith and the county over whether his Aug. 18 oral statement was sufficient to create the vacancy in the first place.
The newly obtained petition also answers, at least in part, a question Union Hall District Supervisor Dan Quinn raised after Thursday’s meeting.
“I think that line of reasoning becomes very interesting when you back up and you look into, okay, what was presented to the judge?” Quinn said.
Quinn said Thursday that he had not been provided the underlying court materials.
“We haven’t been given any of that,” he said. “So it’s not like I was given it, and I can’t share with you. I haven’t seen it. All I saw was the order.”
Quinn said there is no dispute that a court order exists or that the county must comply with it.
“There is a court order—that’s a fact,” Quinn said. “Everybody’s seen this court order. And we are going to follow the court order.”
Quinn described the order itself as straightforward.
“Once you read the judge’s order, it’s very clear,” he said. “It’s not a nebulous or gray or subjective order. It’s very clear what you should do. And we’re following it exactly.”
The petition shows that the county itself presented Meredith’s resignation as an established fact in asking the court for the writ. The petition does not itself explain the factual or legal basis for that assertion beyond stating that Meredith resigned effective Aug. 18.
That is distinct from Meredith’s separate account Friday that courthouse personnel told him no supporting evidence had been submitted. That account has not been independently confirmed.
Quinn had said Thursday that any attempt to challenge the county’s position through civil litigation would likely have to come from Meredith. Meredith said Friday that he has now retained counsel to evaluate that possibility.
“I don’t know if it’ll go to litigation at all,” Quinn said. “It would be a civil litigation that would have to be brought on by Mike Meredith. He’s the only one that’s gonna initiate that.”
Guynn is out of the office until Monday and was unavailable for comment before publication.
The room fills the silence
While those legal questions remained behind closed doors, the public’s makeshift meeting continued.
Residents talked about what they could do next. Boone District addresses were gathered. A potential Meredith write-in campaign was discussed.
Then the supervisors returned.
The board certified the closed session.
No public explanation of Meredith’s legal arguments followed. No explanation was offered for the county’s conclusion that his seat is vacant beyond Dadak’s earlier statement that it is the county attorney’s legal opinion.
Then the board adjourned.
The audience responded immediately.
More jeers came from the room, including public calls for the entire Board of Supervisors to resign.
Several board members smiled as they left the room.
For residents who had spent much of the closed session discussing how to organize, however, the conversation did not end with the gavel.
What began as scattered discussions became an informal organizing session in the very room where the official meeting had largely occurred behind closed doors.
Mitchell declines to answer
The confrontation continued outside afterward.
Vice Chairman Nick Mitchell encountered residents outside the building, where one woman told him that Boone District residents wanted Meredith back.
Mitchell responded that he understood what they wanted.
That prompted a direct question from this reporter: Did Mitchell want Meredith to return?
Mitchell declined to answer.
“I’m not gonna answer any of your questions, Dave.”Vice Chairman Nick Mitchell
Asked why, Mitchell responded:
“Cause you’ve taken enough stories and twisted them.”
Meredith commented on Mitchell’s accusation.
“That tells you about all you need to know,” Meredith said.
The exchange was recorded on video.
Mitchell’s refusal leaves his position on Meredith’s effort to return to the board publicly unknown.
Meanwhile, the board continues toward selecting an interim Boone District supervisor. Meredith continues to maintain that he already holds the office. And residents who came to Thursday’s meeting looking for answers left without hearing the board publicly address the legal arguments Meredith has raised.
For one night, at least, the people sitting in the audience filled that vacuum themselves.
The supervisors had their closed session.
The public had theirs.
Only one of them could be heard.