If you followed my post from last week, (scroll down, it is the one from 12/5/13) you will see that Mayor Jeff Meyers was recommending his uncle by marriage, Alan Willoughby to the Planning Commission.
You may remember that it was Willoughby's appointment to the city council to fill an open seat that prompted a KOMA investigation by the JoCo DA. The investigation resulted in a letter that was definitely a reprimand.
So, what happened last night? When the mayor put Willoughby's name out there it started an interesting discussion. It seems that with the recent appointment of Stephanie Meyer to the City Council (which created the opening on the planning commission), that the make up of the commission became even more lopsided. Of the remaining 10 members, only 2 live west of I-435 and only one of those resides in Ward III. Willoughby's application was dated last Wednesday 12/4 just in time to make it on the agenda. Ironically, a Ward III resident put their application in within days of the aforementioned council appointment.
Yours truly got up and suggested that the council table the item and look to find an individual out of Ward III to fill the position. This would be a step towards balancing the commission and also involve folks who live in the area of the city with the most future growth potential.
You would think that the Ward III councilmembers would be in favor of that. Well, they were split. The newest member of the council, and from Ward III, Stephanie Meyer did voice objections to Willoughby's appointment. And she was right. On the other hand, Jeff "His Royal Arrogance" Vaught raised all kinds of bovine scatological arguments to support Willoughby. Guess he really doesn't care about the folks in his own ward.
What was the final result? Four councilmembers voted against the Willoughby appointment. Those four were Dan Pflumm, Ward I, Mike Kemmling Ward II, Stephanie Meyer Ward III and Michelle Distler Ward IV. These four did the right thing.
Who were the four that supported the mayor's nepotistic action? Jim Neighbor Ward I, Neal Sawyer Ward II, Jeff Vaught Ward III and Mickey Sandifer Ward IV.
So, now we had a tie. The mayor chose to use his tie breaking powers to appoint his uncle by marriage to the planning commission.
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