Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Looks like Chris Pelly still wants that Ashvegas City Council appointment after all.
In a Wednesday newspaper guest commentary, Pelly took some cold shots at Bryan Freeborn, the candidate everybody expects to be appointed to fill the seat that Terry Bellamy will vacate when she moves into the mayor’s seat. This will all go down on Tuesday, when the new council and Bellamy are officially sworn in.
Everyone expects City Council to appoint Freeborn because he finished fourth out of six, with the top three winning. The precedent is that the fourth-place finisher get the appointment. Also, in a previous newspaper story, a majority of the new council has publicly stated its support for Freeborn.
But just how strong is that support? Looks like Pelly, who finished in fifth place, was asking the same thing as pulled out his rhetorical axe and started whacking away in his Wednesday column.
Pelly’s issue – the fact that Freeborn flagrantly disregarded city rules recently and refused to pay a city fine. More than a year ago, Freeborn and friends painted a giant funky circle shape at the intersection of a couple of city streets in West Asheville where Freeborn said people were speeding. Freeborn wasn’t happy about the city’s response to his traffic complaints, so he took matters into his own hands.
But the paint job violated city rules and Freeborn got a ticket. A $322 ticket that he refused to pay. Well, refused until a couple of days after last month’s election, when he finished in fourth place and everyone started looking at him as a possible council appointee.
So here’s Pelly:
“The (newspaper) article seems to raise more questions than it answers. And how City Council deals with it will tell the rest of us what kind of leadership we can expect from the new mayor and council.
“For instance, is it good enough that Freeborn paid the outstanding debt only after having to be counseled to do so by Newman? And was it only because he knew he would need council’s support to
get appointed? And, after not paying for 17 months, would Freeborn have paid if a council seat were not at stake?
“And why wasn’t this information made available to voters before the election? If Freeborn truly
had a problem with city traffic policies or city staff why did he not make it an issue during the campaign? Why was this story hidden until after voting was complete?”
Pelly goes on at length. But he makes some solid points. He raises some valid questions.
“This is a basic, bottom-line trust issue. Freeborn hid from voters pertinent information about how he has related to the city. Voters deserved to know if this City Council candidate was having a
fight with the city. This wasn’t some obscure incident from the past but instead a recent conscious thumbing of his nose at the city’s authority, the very authority he will now pledge to uphold if appointed.
“Freeborn stated in the same article that he has learned from this incident. Just what exactly has
he learned? He is quoted in the article as blaming his neighbors because the bill wasn’t paid. How
is that accepting responsibility?”
Has the issue created big enough cracks in the Freeborn coalition for Pelly to sneak in? Will it be enough to derail Freeborn?
We doubt it. Bottom line: expect yet another long-winded meeting Tuesday as council members feel compelled to further explain their support for Freeborn.
i seem to remember a great american writer who refused to pay what he considered an unfair civil tax (see fine, bill, etc).
his act of civil disobedience and subsequent essay motivated millions, including MAHATMA GANDHI and MARTIN LUTHER KING.
he was henry david thoreau.
sometimes youre damn’d if you do, sometimes youre damned if you do nothing.
i got no problem with freeborn’s decision.
uptown ruler
This op-ed says more about Pelly than it does about Freeborn.
Chris Pelly has been working his hind-end off to get elected to city council for years now, and he doesn’t want the seat that he sees as rightfully his being given to Bryan Freeborn.
I think Freeborn ought to have just paid his frickin’ ticket, to be sure. But for Pelly to somehow conclude that Freeborn is unfit for council due to this event is disingenuous at best. It’s called mudslinging, and people usually do it before an election.
Get over it, Chris. You came in fifth, or, as Joe Lieberman put it after his fifth place finish in New Hampshire, "A three-way tie for third". You’ll have to wait and run again. And if you don’t stop bitching and whining, you’ll lose my vote.
Still think Pelly is taking the high road? Looks like a pretty petty effort to get appointed by slinging a little mud to me.