Cater resignation fallout continues

About 20 town business owners and area residents initially filled the town meeting room May 7 expecting a discussion surrounding Carter’s surprise, immediately effective resignation, and his replacement.

But within minutes, the meeting had been cancelled, and those who attended were forced to use the parking lot in front of the office as forum for their thoughts.

As soon as Mayor Willie Lamar called the May 7 meeting to order, he apologized to the full room, telling the audience the council needed at least three members present for a quorum in order to conduct business, a statement town attorney Jeff Early backed.

Councilman Alma Lu Ayers was unable to attend since she was home recovering after surgery, Lamar said, and Carter’s recent resignation left him to be considered just another member of the audience.

Carter – who sent his letter of resignation to Lamar April 3, the day immediately after the council’s last monthly meeting – declined to share his reason for resigning with The Eagle last week but had said that he planned to attend the council’s May 7 meeting and that he would possibly share his reason for resigning at that time.

In April, Carter had proposed the council consider a town zoning change that would have allowed new stores to share their buildings with single-family apartments – an issue that, since late 2006, multiple town property owners and representatives from the Greater Madison Main Street Project had repeatedly asked the town council to consider.

After some discussion at the April 2 meeting, Carter made a motion to put the ordinance revision on the agenda for the council’s May meeting to be reviewed and possibly acted on. But the issue “died” when no other council members backed the motion.

Although Carter has not shared his opinion of the events during the meeting publicly, other vocal supporters of the zoning change have expressed concerns about the other council members’ lack of action on the issue.

When contacted following the cancelled meeting last week, Carter still declined to provide The Eagle with his reason for resigning.

“Tonight I was planning to ask two questions relevant to the last meeting and I would rather ask them before I go to the press,” Carter said in a May 7 phone interview.

After the mayor informed those who attended that the meeting was cancelled, an area resident asked if the council and the group could have a discussion in the meeting room despite this, but Lamar turned her down.

“I do not choose to enter into a discussion,” he said, adding that its “appropriateness” was “questionable.”

Carter was the first to stand up and leave the meeting room but others stuck around, first chatting in the town DMV office area and eventually heading outside in front of the Peterson Building. Some town council members also lingered, remaining at the town meeting room’s table and chatting even after the meeting had been cancelled.

Carter said that he was “impressed” with the crowd and “expected it to be a heated discussion but without a quorum you can’t have a meeting so that took care of that.”

Some of those who stayed after the meeting expressed their frustration that they were not permitted to share their opinions of the “death” of the zoning ordinance change, which Greater Madison Main Street Project committee representatives have referred to as a “business friendly” provision since it would allow either business owners to live in an area of their stores or rent out a space to a family to collect some extra money.

“Next month someone will probably be conveniently ill and they won’t have a quorum. This could go on for months…because they don’t want to be accountable to the people,” Courthouse Mountain Road resident Delano “Dink” Kreis told The Eagle following the meeting.

Some of those who attended handed out copies of a letter that had been sent to the council by Madison Chamber of Commerce President Zane Byram, who is also a member of the town planning commission and voted to recommend the council approve the ordinance change. The letter voiced Byram’s disappointment regarding some town council members lack of action on the issue at the April 2 meeting and requested responses from town council members “explaining their inaction and lack of response to this important community issue,” the letter states.

State law requires that a town council vote to fill an open spot on the council within 45 days, which would be Monday, May 18. If this deadline isn’t reached, a Madison County Circuit Court judge is able to appoint a member to fill the vacancy, according to the law.

At the meeting last week, Early said that if Ayers didn’t recover in time for the deadline, the council might have to host a meeting at her downtown Madison residence in order to establish a quorum.

But it seems the council expects Ayers to be in shape to attend its specially called meeting set for 7 p.m. Thursday, May 14, which will be in the town’s meeting room next to the DMV office in the Peterson Building in downtown Madison.

The two items on the meeting’s agenda include appointing a replacement for Carter’s unexpired term and setting a date for a public hearing regarding the town’s proposed 2009-2010 fiscal year budget, according to Town Clerk Barbara Roach.

In order to satisfy the 45-day deadline, the council is expected to choose a replacement for Carter May 14 from the several town residents who have expressed interest in filling his post, Roach said.