HUNTINGTON -- Cabell County School Board President Ted Barr said his decision not to nominate his pick for the open board seat at last Tuesday's meeting was deliberate, but not for the reasons people have accused him of.

Barr said last Thursday evening that he didn't nominate his candidate because he didn't know what would happen if Rick Duncan became the eighth and final candidate to get voted down.

"I wasn't sure what the next step was," Barr said Thursday evening. "I didn't know then, and I don't know now."

Barr said his concern was that if all eight candidates had been voted down, they would no longer be eligible for nomination by a board member.

Board members will get another crack at it during a special meeting called for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday night at the board office, 2850 5th Ave., Huntington.

Barr said he was scouring through code and laws to find out what could happen if Duncan does get nominated but fails to get the three necessary votes. But he and Superintendent William Smith both said yesterday that state code gives little direction other than to say the candidates must be qualified and the process must be conducted in public.

"They can pretty much decide as a board to do whatever they want," Smith said.

Members Suzanne Oxley and Bennie Thomas said they want to start over with all eight candidates because they considered last week's nomination process was poorly planned.

"We need to sit down and come up with a process of elimination," Bennie Thomas said. "Our whole problem was not having a process."

He added that he wants all eight candidates to get a clean slate, regardless of what was said and done at the meeting and the fallout in the media in the days that followed.

"I can only speak for myself, but I think all eight should get a chance," Bennie Thomas said. "Because we didn't have a process, they shouldn't be penalized."

Barr said he plans to pick up where the board left off last week, calling it "the most logical thing." But he won't make any predictions about what will happen.

"I would say anything can happen," Barr said, adding that he and fellow member Bessie Holley still support Duncan. "Nothing precludes us from doing what we did (last week). (But) I don't want to be the person who impedes progress. I want to be the person who advances progress."

Repeated attempts to reach Holley were unsuccessful. But Barr said she told him she was backing Duncan.

"She told me a long time ago that Rick Duncan was who she liked," Barr said. "She said she voted for him in 2002 and 2004 and was not going to change her mind."

Barr said he met Duncan around 2002 at a board meeting, with Duncan telling him he had an interest to run in the election. At the time, he had two children in Cabell County schools and a wife that taught in Lincoln County. One child has since graduated, and his wife still teaches in Lincoln County.

"He was a businessman, and he showed a great interest in supporting what the board had done during the past two years," Barr said.

Duncan is still a businessman, operating the Dairy Queen on 5th Avenue and the restaurant at the Tri-State Airport. And Barr said Duncan was the only candidate who really wants to continue what this current board is doing.

"He wasn't one coming in with a bulldozer wanting to tear everything down," he said. "It seemed by the questionnaire that (the others) wanted to come in and tear things down.

"Let's be real. One person does not make a change," Barr continued. "I found that out very quickly, within the first hour I took a seat on the board (in 2000)."

Oxley and Bennie Thomas said they wanted more discussion not only about the process prior to Tuesday night, but also during the nominations. However, Barr said he felt calling for nominations was better than board members bringing lists of their top candidates or through a process of elimination.

"It seemed to me the fairest of all was the way we did it," Barr said.

The eight candidates, including Duncan, are Anita Adkins, Mary Neely, Nancy Newfeld, Carla Parker, Bill Rawlinson, Maria Stowers and R. Steven Thomas. All hope to fill the seat that will be up for election in May 2010.