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Century Council Takes Issue With Only Nominee For Vacant Council Seat, Postpones Decision
June 16, 2020
The Century Town Council decided Monday night to wait until their next meeting to appoint someone to a vacant seat on their board.
Ben Boutwell resigned from the council last week to run for mayor. That put his Seat 3 position on this year’s ballot, and allowed the council to appoint a new member for the rest of the year to fulfill the remainder of his term.
Monday night, Council President Ann Brooks said she thought it was important the council not appoint any current candidate to the council, and nominated Mary Bourgeois to the seat.
Bourgeois ran for a council seat in 2016 but was defeated by James Smith. She owns a local business and is president of the local chamber. But the problem with Bourgeois for council member Luis Gomez, Jr. was the fact the she is campaign treasurer for Shelisa McCall, a candidate for the seat. Gomez said the appointment might make it appear that the council is biased toward a particular candidate.
“That might be a little bit of an unfair advantage,” Gomez said.
Mayor Henry Hawkins noted that Bourgeois is also chairperson of the town’s Charter Review Committee, and that would be a conflict of interest.
There were no other nominations made Monday.
On the recommendation of Gomez and Hawkins, the council agreed to submit their nominations by the close of business on July 1 and make an appointment at their next regular meeting on July 6.
NorthEscambia.com file photo.
Comments
5 Responses to “Century Council Takes Issue With Only Nominee For Vacant Council Seat, Postpones Decision”
REGARDING:
“Mayor Henry Hawkins noted that Bourgeois is also chairperson of the town’s Charter Review Committee, and that would be a conflict of interest.”
I fail to see the conflict to be trying to improve the town by updating the charter and trying to improve the town by addressing other current problems.
One is tempted to question the motive to claim the existence of a conflict, but maybe it actually IS there and I just don’t see it yet.
For that matter “the appointment might make it appear that the council is biased toward a particular candidate” runs into two potential problems.
1. Having brought her name up, a rejection of it might also be perceived as a bias against a particular candidate or in support of someone who isn’t her.
2. Appearing to be favored by the current council might not be the big boost implied.
David for better people
(like Mary, for example)
WOW!If the shoe was on the other foot every thing would be okay?Why not now?Can you say CROOKED.
At some point, please ask Mr. Boutwell if he would explain why he resigned. To date, I have not seen a reason reported. It really makes no sense. State law did not require him to resign. He could have run for mayor and, win or lose that race, remained a member of the town council until January 4. He was not a candidate for another elected office. Further, the state’s “resign-to-run” law was not triggered because, and I think this is true, Mr. Boutwell’s term of office as the District 3 council member did not extend beyond a possible new term of office if elected mayor.
The Supervisor of Elections office does not give legal advice. At least in the city of Pensacola where I live, the city attorney and city clerk do often give legal opinions contrary to state and even city law. I wonder if someone in Century’s city hall told Mr. Boutwell that he had to resign his council seat to run for mayor. If that happened, and I am not saying it did, it would be a bad news story for town hall.
I met and spoke with Ms. Bourgeois last year after a council meeting. I thought that she was an extraordinary person of great intelligence and vision. I liked also that she was plain spoken. If Mr. Gomez’s only objection to supporting Ms. Bourgeois as an interim replacement on the council is her role as the campaign treasurer for Ms. McCall, the obvious solution is for Ms. Bourgeois to resign from that role sending Ms. McCall an email saying so with a Cc: copy to all of the council members. Ms. McCall can then appoint a new campaign treasurer, or appoint herself, and file the appropriate paperwork with the Supervisor of Elections office.
I like Century but it seems a town of squandered opportunity and with a confused identity starting with the sign out front that wrongly says “city hall.” In 2009, Mayor McCall took my wife Yvonne and I on the grand tour when I drove up to ask if he would support 25-member Escambia County Consolidation Study Commission holding a meeting in the town. We had a few “north county” people on it like Jimmy Cunningham and Rusty Tanner. I was one of two City of Pensacola appointees and the commission’s secretary responsible for organizing our meetings. Most of the commission members did “not” want to hold a meeting in Century but I insisted and won that argument by organizing the meeting and then reporting what I had done as a done deal. As it turned out, and as I expected, some of the best and most brutally honest input we got was during our meeting in Century. Nobody sugar coated anything. That said, when I recently drove up to Jay, I made a point to drive using the western route via Century on the way up. I was shocked to see that the general state of decay in Century seemed far worse than what I observed in 2009.
“…that would be a conflict of interest.”
Really?
Never stopped you in the past!!!
Good ole boy Century. Up to their usual tricks again.