County Supervisors Won't Have Tuesday Evening Meetings in 2026

The Mills County Board Of Supervisors will no longer have evening meetings on the first Tuesday of the month.

The supervisors voted 2-1 to conduct all regular board meetings in 2026 on Tuesdays at 8:15 a.m. in their board room at the Mills County Courthouse. The vote took place during the supervisors’ annual reorganizational meeting Friday morning.

Last February, the board began having its first meeting of the month on Tuesday evenings at the Mills County Annex, but supervisors Lonnie Mayberry and Richard Crouch said public attendance at the evening meetings declined as the year went on.

“We just haven’t had a great turnout on those,” said Mayberry, who made the motion to conduct all meetings on Tuesday mornings. “Bringing our staff into another night meeting once a month, I just don’t see the gain on it.”

Crouch said the drop in attendance didn’t come as a surprise to him.

“If I had my two cents worth in it, I wouldn’t have meetings in January, February, March or April due to weather conditions that we could have here,” he said. “We have never seen a morning meeting postponed because of weather conditions. Evenings, this time of year, getting out, cold weather. If people have concerns, they can always call us or otherwise. I guess I’m adding something to the equation with my concerns about night meetings.”
The lone supervisor in favor of continuing the evening meetings is Jack Sayers.

“I still feel pretty steadfast that our community finds the once-a-month night meetings on the first Tuesday of every month to be a good asset to them, for them to come to our meetings and speak their opinions, to get on the agenda and come to the meetings,” Sayers said. “8:15, of course, is when most people have a job. They work if they’re working. We are a bedroom community, they’re working in the city so it’s hard to come to these meetings.”
Friday’s agenda also included the appointment of a chair and vice chair for the three-member board.

Mayberry, who served as board chair in 2025, made a motion for Crouch to serve as chair in 2026, which drew opposition from Sayers, who served as vice chair in 2025.

“The chair of the board of supervisors is mainly a ceremonious role,” Sayers said. “Along with that, I don’t believe there’s  been a time recently where it’s been not rotated between all members. I think that by not doing the usual rotation – Lonnie was chair this previous year, I was vice chair and Richard was a board member – and not doing the usual rotation of me being next as chair, Richard being vice chair and Lonnie being a board member, I think that breaks precedence, and I guess I would just like to know your guys’ reasoning about why we would break that precedence.”
Mayberry responded to Sayers statement.

“I wouldn’t say it’s us guys’ reasoning. I made the motion, so it’s on me,” he said. “I feel Mr. Crouch has been here a long time and he may or may not run again – I guess I haven’t asked him, yet, but if he doesn’t run, I’d like to see him be chair again. That’s really the only reason.”

Crouch said he hasn’t decided if he will run for re-election in 2026.

“I haven’t made up my mind. My family is kind of holding me in limbo with some health issues and things,” he said. “Here in the next couple of months, I’ll probably make up my mind of what I’m going to do. It’s not that I don’t think you (Sayers) have got the capabilities, but if this is going to be my last year, I’d like to go out as chair.”

Crouch was elected chair by a 2-1 vote, with Sayers casting the “nay.”

After that vote, Mayberry made a motion to appoint Sayers as vice chair for 2026. That motion passed, 3-0.