Why Asheville City Council should give Bryan Freeborn the open slot

There’s been a lot of discussion lately about Asheville City Council’s decision to have local residents apply to be appointed to the seat that will be left open when Councilwoman Holly Jones moves over to the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners in December. (It’s not a “commission,” people. It’s a “board of commissioners.”) Talk radio guru Matt Mittan got all up in it last week, and the Citizen-Times splashed it on the front page, then editorialized about it today.

They come late to the party, as the Scrutiny Hooligans have been dissecting the issue for months, and I jumped on board with my two cents. Freeborn wrote Ashvegas back in August about the issue.

I think City Council should stick to the precedent it set back in 2001 when it appointed Jim Ellis to fill the vacancy left when Charles Worley moved from a council seat to mayor. Back then, nobody could really remember council having to deal with this issue, but it’s come up more regularly in recent years. That’s an indication that we’re electing some ambitious politicians, but more on that in a minute.

That was an interesting race, because before the election results came in, a couple of council candidates had made statements and put out press releases urging council to pick the fourth highest vote-getter (three seats were up and the three highest vote-getters win). Brownie Newman, who was running for a seat and was teaming up with Jones during the election, urged that the fourth highest get the seat. It was odd that even before Election Day, Newman was arguing for the fourth highest.

In the end, Jones won a seat. Newman lost, and it was Ellis who finished fourth. Ellis got the appointment. (Terry Bellamy voted against the Ellis appointment, saying she didn’t like the process.)

Then Freeborn ran in an election that saw Bellamy move from her council seat to the mayor’s post. Freeborn was a fresh face and ran a fantastic newcomer’s campaign and finished just out of the money. He got the appointment, as the board followed the precedent it had set with Ellis. 

When Freeborn’s seat was up last year for election, he lost.

Now we have another vacant seat. Nobody seems to want to hold a special election, which I agree can cost some cash and might not get a large turn-out. But it’s the American way, folks.

Freeborn, although he rubbed some people the wrong way during his council tenure, has grown and learned and has the experience council is looking for to serve. He’ll serve for a year, then decide if he wants to run when it comes up for election next year.

The Citizen-Times, in head-scratching fashion, argues that the appointment method is fine because we don’t need anyone with experience, just somebody willing to “do their homework.” That’s odd, because the newspaper editorial board cited experience over and over again in making its political endorsements this political year. (Although the newspaper editorial board didn’t let the experience issue stop it from endorsing Barack Obama for president.)

It’s clear that a majority of City Council members just don’t want Freeborn back on the board. (When Freeborn was appointed, Council members Jan Davis and Carl Mumpower (who voted for the Ellis appointment) voted no. They’re still on the board, with Bill Russell, Newman, Robin Cape and Bellamy.)

And it appears that there will be no “will of the people” expressed here in terms of picking a council member to represent us.

That’s too bad, and it’s another indicator of the trend I mentioned earlier — the fact that our City Council races appear to be attracting ambitious politicians, rather than people mostly looking out for our best interests.

I don’t want to elect people who look at a council seat as a launching pad to the mayor’s office, yet that’s what seems to be happening. Or people that look at a council seat as a launching pad to Congress (i.e. Carl Mumpower. And by the way, I will not be surprised at all if Mumpower runs for mayor next year.) I want to hire people who look out for me first.

There’s nothing in the city’s charter that sets out exactly how such a situation should be handled. But council needs to change the city law right now to force sitting council members to give up their seat if they run for another office. It’s a simple fix for future situations.

In the meantime, Scrutiny Hooligans is encouraging everyone and anyone to apply to City Council. I have no doubt that Citizen-Times columnist John Boyle is already preparing his resume (the job situation at the newspaper is looking grim, after all.)

Who else should be drafted to run for council?