WINNSBORO – Following adjournment of the Feb. 10 Fairfield County Council meeting, Clerk to Council Kimberly Roberts handed out to all council members a list of the 2025-26 appointees to council’s five standing committees.
County Council Chairman Clarence Gilbert made the appointments – a chair and two members for each committee – as required by the council’s bylaws.
The lion’s share of Gilbert’s appointments, 14 out of 15 available seats, went to only four of the seven council members – Gilbert, Douglas Pauley, Carl Bell and Oren Gadson. The 15th seat, which is on the Presentation Committee, is not appointed, but rotates among all council members, depending on the district a presentation concerns.
Gilbert appointed himself to three of the five committees and as chair of two of them.
Gilbert did not appoint council members Dan Ruff, Peggy Swearingen or Don Goldbach to any of the standing committees. The three will only be eligible to serve on a session of the Presentation Committee if a citizen or organization from their district requests to make a presentation to council.
Excluding certain council members from council’s standing committees comes at a time when both Bell and Gilbert have repeatedly made public calls for unity, cooperation, and collaboration among council members.
Shortly before the list of appointees was distributed after the Feb. 10 council meeting, Bell stated during county council time: “We have to work with each other. It’s important we stay in tune with each other. We have to support one another in responding to the needs of our individual districts. It is the reason we were elected.”
However, for over a week, Bell has failed to speak out against Gilbert’s arbitrary exclusion of certain council representatives from being appointed to any of the standing committees.
In answer to an email The Voice sent to Ruff, Swearingen and Goldbach on Monday, Feb. 17, asking why they were not appointed to any of the committees, Goldbach said he had specifically asked to be put on at least one committee and was hoping to be appointed to several, but was skipped over for all of them. He said there was no response to his request to be on a committee, and that he had not been contacted concerning the appointments before he was handed the list of appointments last week.
Swearingen responded that she, too, had expected to be appointed to one or more committees and was not contacted by Gilbert prior to his release of the list of appointments.
“It surprised me that I wasn’t listed on any of the committees, not even the ones I was already on.” Swearingen said. “I can’t recall a time when every council member was not appointed to at least one standing committee.”
Ruff had served as chair of the Public Services and Development committee until Gilbert appointed Pauley as chair of that committee last week, leaving Ruff out. Ruff has not yet responded to The Voice’s email asking whether he declined to continue serving or was passed over by Gilbert for re-appointment.
According to the council’s bylaws, “The chair of county council shall appoint the members and the chairs of the following standing committees: Administration and Finance Committee; Public Affairs and Policy Committee; Public Services and Development Committee; and the Economic Development Committee.” The Presentation Committee is not mentioned in the bylaws.
“Once appointed for the year, no member of a committee may be removed by the chair of council without the approval of council,” the bylaws state.
Gilbert has not yet responded to an email sent from The Voice on Tuesday asking why Ruff, Swearingen, and Goldbach did not receive appointments to any of the standing committees.
Gilbert’s 2025-26 Standing Committee Picks
Administration & Finance
- Clarence Gilbert – Chairman
- Doug Pauley
- Carl Bell
Economic Development
- Doug Pauley – Chairman
- Clarence Gilbert
- Oren Gadson
Public Services & Development
- Doug Pauley – Chairman
- Oren Gadson
- Carl Bell
Public Affairs & Policy
- Carl Bell – Chairman
- Doug Pauley
- Oren Gadson
Presentation Committee
- Clarence Gilbert – Chairman
- Carl Bell
- Rep. of District from which the request originates
