At the last Council Meeting--Walt Bolton's [CEO of BES (Engineering) Inc.] nomination by the Mayor to the Tree Committee was considered.
Council President Quinn said that current Tree Committee Members had expressed concerns about the nominee; and asked that consideration be held off for 2 weeks--to give time for a review of the Committee's by-laws-- and possibly appointing 2 garden club members (who have already expressed interest) simultaneously.
Mayor Kant: " . . . reason I put an engineer in there . . . with all the issues with trees . . . developers have to deal with . . . get somebody on there . . . help them understand . . . when we build these new projects . . . give more experience to the Board."
Ford: "I make a motion we put this man on it . . . you can get your people later."
The motion was seconded by Councilman Kingrea and passed 4-1 : Quinn voting no.
Quinn: "The Tree Committee's not real excited about this . . . " She said she would get with City Administrator Greg Mims to review by-laws (# of members?); and hopefully bring the garden club members (Fairhope G.C.; Wisteria G.C.) who are seeking appointments up for a vote at the next Council Meeting. "The Committee's worried that may not ever happen (appoint garden clubbers too)."
[Publisher's note: By law, the Mayor can nominate personnel for City Boards/Committees; but the Council must vote on, and approve, each nomination.]
At the last Council Meeting--Walt Bolton's [CEO of BES (Engineering) Inc.] nomination by the Mayor to the Tree Committee was considered.
Council President Quinn said that current Tree Committee Members had expressed concerns about the nominee; and asked that consideration be held off for 2 weeks--to give time for a review of the Committee's by-laws-- and possibly appointing 2 garden club members (who have already expressed interest) simultaneously.
Mayor Kant: " . . . reason I put an engineer in there . . . with all the issues with trees . . . developers have to deal with . . . get somebody on there . . . help them understand . . . when we build these new projects . . . give more experience to the Board."
Ford: "I make a motion we put this man on it . . . you can get your people later."
The motion was seconded by Councilman Kingrea and passed 4-1 : Quinn voting no.
Quinn: "The Tree Committee's not real excited about this . . . " She said she would get with City Administrator Greg Mims to review by-laws (# of members?); and hopefully bring the garden club members (Fairhope G.C.; Wisteria G.C.) who are seeking appointments up for a vote at the next Council Meeting. "The Committee's worried that may not ever happen (appoint garden clubbers too)."
[Publisher's note: By law, the Mayor can nominate personnel for City Boards/Committees; but the Council must vote on, and approve, each nomination.]
Comments
I'd also question anyone with BES...remember when Bob Gentle merged his firm with BES AND BES was on retainer with the City to review projects? BES also gave lots of money to Kant, not Gentle, during the election...sounds fishy to me.