Asheville City Councilman Brownie Newman sprung another item on the agenda. He requested that the item be added four days in advance, when two weeks’ notice is required. The urgent matter was the creation of a standing council committee for handling human resources matters pertaining to council’s three direct reports, the city manager, the city attorney, and the city clerk.
Robin Cape explained the move arguing that the mayor spends more time with these people than everybody else. That logic raised several eyebrows. Dr. Carl Mumpower and Vice Mayor Jan Davis smelled a fish, but they didn’t want to guess what it was.
Council newcomer Bill Russell was flattered heavily by Cape, Newman, and Holly Jones. He was to replace the mayor as committee chair. Newman said he wanted the committee to have four members, which would have been a council majority. The proposition, however, was dead before arrival, as Mumpower’s refusal to accept the appointment was surely foreseeable.
Mumpower said nothing was broken, but Newman’s proposal was, “one of the most reprehensible and disrespectful, if not the single most†actions he had ever seen perpetrated against a mayor. He told his peers that some of them should be ashamed of themselves. If he had an issue with the mayor’s actions, he would confront her directly rather than trying to change policy and form a committee.
Russell argued that there was no impropriety, but four people have departed from one office in city hall in a very short amount of time. Russell felt he had skills and experience to help stabilize things.
On the surface, it appeared that Newman did not want Terry Bellamy to serve in the traditional mayoral lead in overseeing these three city employees. The committee was formed with only Mumpower, Davis, and Bellamy voting in opposition.
