The board voted unanimously to make the change to the Rules of Procedure, ending an issue that town board candidates and meeting attendees believed built up tension between the former mayor and commissioners on the previous board.

In 2010, the board of commissioners voted to strip the responsibilities of the mayor and assign those duties to the Mayor Pro Tempore.

The rules put into place two years ago, limited the influence of then Mayor Harold Broadwell. His responsibilities were passed on to Commissioner Carol Hinnant who was Mayor Pro Tem.

The change in power structure didn’t limit the tempestuous exchanges between Broadwell and Hinnant that occurred during meetings right up until their terms of office ended in December.

Hinnant chose not to run for a third term as commissioner. Broadwell was defeated in the November election.

But it did affect the newly elected officials. Mayor Tim Hinnant and new commissioners Sam Laughery and James Parham as well as other candidates for the town board ran campaigns partially based on returning civility to the board meetings.

Following the swearing-in of the elected officials at the Dec. 12, 2011 town meeting, Commissioner Christie Adams asked the new board if they wanted to make a change in the assignment of the duties, returning the mayor’s responsibilities.

Laughery proposed reinstating the old duties for Hinnant. Commissioners Ginna Gray and Ira Fuller proposed delaying the decision until the new year, in order for the new commissioners to review the Wendell procedural rules, which would have to be changed.

Typically the Mayor Pro Tem takes on the mayor’s powers and duties only in the mayor’s absence.

Wendell’s previous board of commissioners transferred the mayor’s duties to the Mayor pro tem permanently.

On Monday night, Fuller, the new Mayor Pro Tem, proposed eliminating language in the board’s own rules that transferred additional duties to that position.

The language removed says tt shall be the responsibility of the Mayor Pro Tempore to manage all of the work of the Board, to establish Board committees and task forces, to appoint the leadership of these groups, to make assignments to these groups and to hold these groups accountable.

Fuller said Monday the change in authority was made while the board was under a different structure in which committees were formed to oversee town departments. That is no longer how the town government operates.

“It’s not applicable now. We should delete the last sentence but ensure what is remaining meets the statutory duty for the Mayor Pro Tem,” Fuller said.

Adams asked Town Attorney Jim Cauley to confirm that eliminating the wording that directed responsibility to the Mayor Pro Tem would reinstate the powers to the mayor.

“Is there a default?” Adams asked.

“Typically they are the duties of the mayor. In some instances an ordinance might dictate a board of commissioners’ action, but unless that is specifically stated, (the responsibilities) are the mayor’s,” Cauley said.

Without further discussion, the commissioners restored the mayor’s role.