The Greensboro Transit Advisory Commission (GTAC), formerly the Greensboro Transit Authority (GTA), elected J.D. Galyon chair on Tuesday, Aug. 27. It is the first time this commission has elected a chair.

As the GTA, the City Council appointed the chair, and in April, when the City Council took virtually all the power away from the GTA and turned it into an advisory commission, the City Council left the officers in place, which means that the chair of the GTA, Richard Bryson, became the chair of the GTAC. But Bryson had served six years on the GTA and GTAC and rotated off the board last month, so he had to be replaced.

Commissioner Cheryl McQueary got in a discussion with Assistant City Attorney James Dickens about what position the GTAC would be electing. McQueary said that the Vice Chair Kim Isaac automatically became chair when Bryson left the board, but Dickens said that the City Council had decided that the officers of the GTA could continue to serve, but in the future officers would be elected by the GTAC.

Then there was a great deal of confusion about how to hold an election for a chair. It’s the type of routine procedure that you might have expected the GTAC to have discussed before the meeting, but that clearly had not taken place.

Dickens walked Isaac through each step of the procedure.

When the call for nominations came, the only nomination was by Wesley McGuire, who nominated Isaac. Then McQueary asked if committee members could volunteer to be chairman and Galyon said that he would like to be chair.

Dickens said that since neither the nomination of Isaac nor the self nomination by Galyon was seconded that the committee should pass a motion that those were the two nominees and the nominations were closed.

The vote to elect Galyon as chair was 5-2 with Galyon, McQueary, Adam Carroll, David Hampsten and Anita Cunningham voting for Galyon and Isaac and McGuire voting for Isaac.

Commissioner Jeffrey Surgeon was absent.

Retiring Director of the Greensboro Department of Transportation Adam Fischer thanked the commission and the staff for their hard work and their “passion” for providing good transportation service for the people of Greensboro.

Fischer officially retires Aug. 31.