Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy announced tonight that she is running for re-election as mayor in 2009. Like it was any secret.
Bellamy’s announcement followed a council discussion about the appointment of of a new council member to fill the seat being vacated by Councilwoman Holly Jones. Jones just won election to the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners and will move over next month.
Bellamy said she has no intention of going anywhere, and hopes to win re-election as mayor. Bellamy was responding to rumors started over at Scrutiny Hooligans. Hooligans, let it be known that the mayor is reading the blogs. (By the way, when did city staff start referring to the mayor as “your honor”? Isn’t that a term reserved for judges?)
Council outlined the process for making the appointment, which essentially boils down to any city resident being allowed to answer some essay questions, then be up for an interview. Click here to fill out your application.
There’s been a lot of talk about the proper process that City Council should follow. I’ve been a proponent of City Council following the precedent it set in making appointments in recent years. The last two times this issue has come up, council has chosen the top vote-getter from the last election who didn’t win a seat. That’s a precedent.
Councilman Carl Mumpower said that’s not a precedent. He said the application process, developed by Jones and others, was perfectly fine and open and transparent. Councilman Bill Russell jumped in, saying he’d actually just thought about the issue and liked the new application process better. And Vice Mayor Jan Davis said that “detractors” in the community have tagged him for being responsible for moving to the new appointment process. Davis said he’s all for the new process. Davis also said council is approaching the appointment with an open mind.
Personally, I think council already has a good idea of whom to appoint, and I’ll make a prediction: City Council will appoint Charles Worley to fill Jones’ seat.
There you have it.
I heard it from multiple city hall sources and noticed that she had closed her campaign account right after the primary win by Purdue. Could be that the offer did not come that she was positioning for or just wishful hopes on the part of city staff.
Gordon, she just said she was responding to rumors "in the community."
I didn’t actually start the rumor, and I’m excited to hear she’s running again. Did she actually say she was responding to online rumor?
WLOS had the mayor on last Friday, and asked her the question whether she was leaving for Perdue administration and she said no she was staying and running for mayor. Guess no one picked up on it.