If emails are any indication, and hopefully they are, decision making power in Blue Ridge will soon be where it rightfully belongs – in the hands of city council members.
In a May 8 email to Mayor Donna Whitener, Councilman Nathan Fitts wrote, “Decisions are not up to you, they’re up to the city council ... it’s called weak mayor, strong council.”
Fitts’ words came as part of a string of emails debating City Attorney James Balli’s attendance at all council meetings and the cost associated with that attendance.
But also in those emails are references to proposed annexation, changes to the city charter, and a projected $800,000 shortfall in revenue this year that means budget cuts are needed. Resolutions to rescind both the annexation and the charter amendments are to be ready for council approval.
Fitts said he is not necessarily opposed to the annexation, but wants to see everything done as it should be.
When council members voted earlier this year to approve annexation along Highways 5 and 515, they were told by Whitener county commissioners were on board with the plan. However, county commissioners came out publicly against the move, having learned about it through The News Observer.
Fitts said the main problem with the charter change, which has also been approved by council members at the mayor’s urging, would be the mayor would have expanded voting rights under certain situations. In his email, he told the mayor, “you are not a council member and you do not have a voting right ... My suggestion is you run for a council seat next election if you want to have a voting right.”
In their emails, Councilwoman Rhonda Haight and newly elected Councilman Mike Panter echo Fitts’ concern about the need for budget cuts.
Haight agreed the city attorney issue needed to be studied.
Panter pointed to $200,000 in back taxes owed to the city, declaring, “either these taxes will be paid by 12/31 or the property will be sold.”
The emails are a strong indication this council wants the authority back that it feels it has lost. As with annexation and the city charter changes, Whitener is seen as overstepping her bounds as a weak mayor – as the charter defines the role.
She, in fact, did strip council members of their authority in her first term when she removed them from overseeing certain departments. Council members had been elected expecting to oversee departments as had been the duty of previous council members.
When Whitener removed that power, council members did not come together to challenge her action.
The time for the council members to take control of Blue Ridge is long overdue. It’s their job. It’s what they were elected to do by the people.