There wasn’t much news today, so I was hoping something would come out of the Asheville City Council meeting. About the only thing that came out of that was increased awareness that the city’s parking garages were filthy. Cecil Bothwell got past the euphemisms to say people were using the stairways as restrooms after the public restrooms closed. The city is therefore looking into doing something about that embarrassment.
In another matter, consideration of a request for $15,000 from Asheville LEAF was added to the agenda. Council members were told they had the staff reports at their seats. Questions were raised about why the request didn’t coincide with the official outside agency triage. Council was told the applicant had problems navigating the system. However, it was imperative they get the funding by Tuesday, because they would have to start entering into contracts. To that, I say we’ve been around the block enough that poor management or manipulation of the timing is no excuse for funding. Gwen Wisler and Jan Davis voted against the request because it would have been too unfair to sidestep existing processes. City Manager Gary Jackson did not want to recommend a budget amendment this late in the game, and so he said the $15,000 would have to be squeezed out of the general fund here and there.