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GREENSBORO — In his first full year on the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, Bill Bencini has criticized its leadership, questioned the way it does business and called for less speed and more contemplation.

It’s a performance that has some observers of Guilford County politics saying Bencini may be taking on the role once played by fellow Republican Steve Arnold.

Bencini took Arnold’s seat in 2010 when Arnold stepped down from the board after 20 years.

“I’ve just been asking some questions and pointing out when I think we need to slow down and try to make some better decisions,” Bencini said. “I think the leadership plays a part in whether we do that.”

In his 20 years on the board, Arnold was a frequent adversary of current commissioners Chairman Melvin “Skip” Alston, a Democrat. But Alston and Arnold eventually formed an unusual political alliance with Arnold serving as Alston’s vice chairman in Arnold’s last two years on the board.

Both took some heat for the relationship, with some Democrats accusing Alston of embracing too many conservative principles and some Republicans saying Arnold voted with Alston too often against conservative interests.

The two rarely butted heads publicly toward the end of Arnold’s tenure on the board.

For the past year Bencini has frequently questioned Alston’s leadership. But he’s done it in a manner more reserved than fellow Commissioners Billy Yow and Paul Gibson, who are also frequent foils for Alston. That sort of reserve — and a well-timed cutting remark — were often Arnold trademarks.

Alston bristles at the comparison, however.

“Bill Bencini is not the politician Steve Arnold was,” Alston said. “Steve was much more active — he made motions, he spoke up, he would have discussions. Bencini is much more reactive. He’s made complaints, but he’s not stepping up to offer much. I really expected more from him.”

Bencini spent 10 years on the High Point City Council — where Arnold also got his start. He said that experience made him accustomed to slower, more deliberative decision-making.

The fact that his first year as a commissioner has been a bit of a blur is part of the problem with county politics, he said.

“The speed with which this board makes policy decisions that are fairly important, even when there’s no deadline, doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Bencini said. “In our desire to go ahead and make a decision quickly, I think we develop policies that don’t make a lot of sense.”

Bencini points to a number of 2011’s political controversies:

• A county fuel contract that went to an out-of-state company with whom the county has had problems.

• A county budget some commissioners never saw until the day they were asked to vote on it.

• The county’s withdrawal from the Piedmont Triad Council of Governments, a move that didn’t save the county money but did deal a blow to regional cooperation among governments.

• An ongoing controversy over whether citizens can give multimedia presentations at county meetings.

“They’re all examples of things where if we had slowed down, if we had been more deliberative, maybe we wouldn’t have ended up coming back to those issues several times in different meetings, going over them for hours,” Bencini said.

Alston chalks up that view to growing pains.

“Bill Bencini needs to realize he’s not on the High Point City Council anymore,” Alston said. “He needs to come up to the next level. If he wasn’t ready for the promotion, he should have stayed where he was.”

But Bencini said Alston’s “need for speed” doesn’t always make sense.

“I don’t think the goal of the meeting is to clear all the agenda items,” Bencini said. “But that appears to be one of the primary tenets of how the chairman runs the show.

“I think the goal should be to make the best decision possible,” Bencini said. “I don’t think the people are really getting their money’s worth if you’re rushing through things to be done with it.”

Faster meetings have been a hallmark of Alston’s chairmanship, now beginning its fourth consecutive year. He has prided himself on largely putting an end to what was a tradition of contentious meetings that stretched late into the night and has even managed to close a few meetings in less than an hour.

Bencini said that’s not an indication of a quality meeting but of a very partisan board.

“It’s easier to get every­one on the same page pretty quickly when you have such a partisan board,” Bencini said. “You see things come down on the side of whoever has the most votes, but there will always be some people asking questions.”

“I’m just going to keep asking those questions,” Bencini said. “I don’t think I’m the only one on the board who has them.”

Contact Joe Killian at 373-7023 or joe.killian@news-record.com