Dan Damon and Bernice Paglia both weighed in today on their blogs on this subject. And Dan is right when he says that developers will be concerned if the Mayor and Council cannot fill vacant positions very soon.
The Planning Board will need a city employee (1 year appointment) and has two citizen vacancies (4 year appointments) They will still easily have a quorum for tonights re-organization meeting. The Council seat (1 year appointment) on the board is assigned by the Council President. I requested this seat and Bridget Rivers has agreed to my appointment.
The Zoning Board is another matter. They have a bare minimum of seats filled so one absence means the next meeting may not take place. I will be urging the Mayor and my Council colleagues to expedite these appointments.
The Council will want to interview candidates for these boards so Mayor Mapp will need to make his nominations without delay. Nominees could even be interviewed next Tuesday. Or they could be interviewed at the February 5 agenda fixing session and voted on that night in a special business meeting.
The only problems would be if Mayor Mapp hasn't recruited all the necessary nominees (some nominees in February are better than none) or if the Council continues its unprecedented way of blocking some nominees and suggesting alternative names. The Council's job as the legislative body is to vote yea or nay and not negotiate for their own candidates. The people elected Mapp as our Mayor. The Mayor, as the leader of the executive branch of government, has the responsibility for nominations. Imagine if members of Congress demanded that their own candidates be appointed to cabinet and judicial positions instead of voting on President Obama's nominees.
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