Isle of Wight County’s four remaining supervisors named Thomas Distefano on Feb. 25 as their sole nominee to temporarily fill the late William McCarty’s seat on the board.

The board made the announcement after discussing the matter for roughly 30 minutes in closed session, and previously for nearly an hour at its Feb. 6 work session, also in closed session.

McCarty, 48, who’d represented the Carrollton area on the board since 2016, died unexpectedly of double pneumonia on Jan. 25, just over a year into his third four-year term in office. State law allows a 45-day window, in this case through March 11, for the board to appoint an interim representative to fill the vacancy until a special election is held. The law requires the board to announce its candidate, or candidates, in a public meeting at least seven days prior to voting on the appointment. According to County Attorney Bobby Jones, the board expects to vote on Distefano’s nomination at its March 6 work session, which would allow Distefano to be sworn in by the Circuit Court and take his seat by the board’s March 20 meeting.

Distefano is a sitting member of the county’s Planning Commission. McCarty had first appointed him to the advisory body in 2019.

“I don’t know that everyone would understand how difficult and challenging this decision is that we’re headed into; you cannot replace Will, but we are going to look for another candidate that can be in that position and represent it well,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman Don Rosie. “Our prayers go out to Will’s family and we’re praying for a good decision and choice that we’re going to be making.”

Rosie told The Smithfield Times that citizens had sent the board several resumes for prospective candidates, not all of whom lived in District 2, and not all of whom said they were interested. Distefano remained “the leading candidate” when “we got down to who has the experience, who is familiar with the local government,” Rosie said.

“The Board considered several qualified candidates via an open process wherein citizens submitted resumes/information via email and/or through the county’s website information portal,” said Assistant County Administrator Don Robertson. “Individual Board members did reach out to potential candidates they felt might have also been considered by Supervisor McCarty. Most of the individuals considered do not currently serve as Board appointees to local boards or commissions. Unsolicited nominations were also received and considered.”

District 1 Supervisor Renee Rountree and District 4 Supervisor Joel Acree each said they also felt it was important to find someone “in lockstep” with what McCarty would have wanted.

Acree said Distefano is “the closest thing we probably have to the person that the people of District 2 elected to represent them.”

“He is a well-qualified candidate for this vacancy, and he has demonstrated his leadership when you look at what he has done in the Planning Commission and some of the other committees he worked on,” said District 3 Supervisor Rudolph Jefferson.

The supervisors say a quick turnaround in filling McCarty’s seat is needed to have a full board in place as soon as possible to review the School Board’s and county’s proposed 2025-26 budgets, which typically reach the supervisors in late March or early April. The board typically votes on its budget, tax rates and annual appropriation to the school system by mid-May.

McCarty’s interim replacement will also be involved in hiring County Administrator Randy Keaton’s successor. Keaton last year announced his intent to retire on or before Aug. 31.

Distefano’s experience on the Planning Commission will allow him to “hit the ground running,” Rountree said.

Distefano, should he be confirmed on March 6, could also find himself appointing his own and Cynthia Taylor’s successors on the Planning Commission. Taylor, who held the second District 2 seat, resigned at the end of January after nearly 11 years in the role.

Jones said the court has approved has approved the county’s request to schedule the District 2 special election to coincide with this year’s general election on Nov. 4. Distefano, who did not immediately respond to the Times’ request for comments, will have the option but isn’t required to run in the special election. Any other registered voter in District 2 is also eligible. Jones said Aug. 15 is the deadline for candidates to file to get their names on the ballot.

Whoever wins that election will be able to take his or her seat immediately upon being sworn in and will serve the two-year remainder of McCarty’s term, which extends through Dec. 31, 2027, Jones said.

 

Distefano’s voting record

Distefano, in 2022, pushed for the development of a zoning ordinance amendment capping solar farms at 2% of the county’s prime farmland, which the supervisors then adopted in 2023 with McCarty’s support. Distefano also served as McCarty’s appointee to a five-member energy task force that met monthly over a year and in 2024 issued a report urging the county to preemptively draft an ordinance regulating battery storage at solar farms.

Distefano and McCarty have also differed at times. Last year, McCarty joined in a 3-2 vote to approve Isle of Wight’s share of the Sycamore Cross solar farm proposed to span more than 2,000 acres at the Isle of Wight-Surry county line. That vote overturned a 6-2 Planning Commission recommendation for denial, which Distefano supported.

Distefano also voted with the majority in a 6-2 Planning Commission recommendation last year to deny Ryan Homes parent NVR’s rezoning application for the 615-home Sweetgrass development. The supervisors ultimately approved the project 3-2 with McCarty, Rountree and Jefferson among its supporters.

Most recently, Distefano joined the majority in a 4-3 vote in early February to recommend approval of a revised concept for the Tidewater Logistics Center multi-warehouse complex proposed for the outskirts of Windsor. The revised plan has four warehouses instead of five and a public park in place of what would have been the fifth.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 2:09 p.m. on Feb. 27 to note the closed session that preceded the announcement was 30 minutes, not less than a minute, and to note that the Board of Supervisors had previously discussed the matter in a nearly hour-long closed session on Feb. 6. A recording of the Feb. 25 meeting was stopped at the start of the closed portion and resumed upon the return to open session, which is why the closed portion appeared shorter than it was.