Remove ImagesPugh Forgets To Re-up Davis
November 21, 2012
Ward 3 High Point City Councilmember Mike Pugh is having a bad week.
Fresh from a dispute with High Point City Manager Strib Boynton over whether or not he has to return a city-issued Apple iPad (he does), Pugh, at the Monday, Nov. 19 City Council meeting, got slapped down when he tried to get his protégé, Cynthia Davis, reappointed to the High Point Planning and Zoning Commission.
The High Point City Council lets councilmembers from each ward assign a seat on some boards, including the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Pugh nominated Davis for her original appointment to the Planning and Zoning Commission, where she created a stir by reading the commissioners' packets, asking actual questions and otherwise doing the job of a commissioner. Other commissioners found Davis abrasive, and exiled her from the commission's pre-meeting sandwich-fest.
Davis ran for one of the two at-large City Council seats this year but lost.
With Davis running for City Council, Pugh apparently didn't think to nominate her for reappointment to her Planning and Zoning Commission seat. Her term expired July 1, 2012, but she has been serving ever since.
Pugh, himself a lame-duck councilmember, having been defeated 56 percent to 44 percent by former High Point Mayor and City Councilmember Judy Mendenhall, tried to have Davis reappointed to the Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday.
When Pugh asked for Davis to be reappointed, Smothers told him he should have done so before the election, and that Mendenhall, as the new Ward 3 councilmember, should get to make the nomination for the Ward 3 seat on the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Since reappointing Davis wasn't on the agenda, Pugh had to make a motion to suspend the rules to consider reappointing her. Councilmember Foster Douglas, Pugh's frequent ally, seconded the motion.
When the City Council voted on Pugh's motion to suspend the rules, however, only Pugh, Foster and Councilmember A.B. Henley voted "yes." That prevented Pugh from nominating Davis.
Mendenhall on Tuesday said she hasn't given much thought to the appointment yet. She said she would talk to Davis if Davis approaches her.
"Sure," Mendenhall said. "But I'm leaning towards someone new, just because I think that's the kind of situation where you need new people. It's a very important commission. I don't have anything against her, but I just think it's an opportunity to get another citizen involved, which I think is important. I have a few people in mind, but I haven't spoken to anyone yet."