Town councilman resigns

Longtime Madison Town Councilman Charles Carter has left his post, publicly offering no reason, but hinting that he may give one at the Thursday, May 7 town council meeting.

Carter, 63, had served on the council for almost 17 years. The Church Street resident, a retired Madison County High School English teacher, was about to enter the second year of his fifth term.

The councilman declined to share his reason for resigning with The Eagle earlier this week.

“I’m not sure I want to release [that] to the press at this time,” he said. Carter said he plans to attend the council’s monthly meeting set for 7 p.m. today, Thursday, May 7, and that he may make some comments regarding his resignation at that time. (The council meets in the town meeting room, which is next to DMV office in the Peterson Building.)

Carter sent his letter of resignation to Mayor Willie Lamar April 3, the day following the council’s last monthly meeting. (The Eagle was not immediately notified of Carter’s resignation.)

At that meeting, Carter had proposed the council consider a town zoning change that would have allowed new stores to share their buildings with single-family apartments.

Since late 2006, multiple town property owners and representatives from the Greater Madison Main Street Project had repeatedly asked the town council to revise its zoning ordinance to include this type of provision. But for about two years, the issue was never “officially” considered, until Carter finally drafted a version of the ordinance revision in December 2008 and the issue was sent to the town planning commission, which voted 3-2 a few months later to recommend its approval.

After some discussion at the April 2 meeting, Carter moved to put the ordinance revision on the agenda for the council’s May meeting to be reviewed and possibly acted on.

But when no other council members backed the motion and the town’s mayor announced that the issue had “died,” Carter seemed surprised. Although he did not share any comments about his opinion of the events during the meeting, other vocal supporters of the zoning change expressed concerns about the other council members’ lack of action on the issue.

The resignation – which was effective immediately – also withdraws Carter’s post as a town council representative on both the town planning commission and the Greater Madison Main Street Project committee.

It’s unlikely the council would need to conduct a special election to choose a replacement to serve the three years left in Carter’s unexpired term, according to Town Clerk Barbara Roach. She said she was unsure, but believed the council would be able to vote to appoint Carter’s replacement, and said the issue would likely be discussed at the May 7 town council meeting.