Letter from City Manager, Jesse Wallace, dated May 4, 2006:
The first meeting was held June 19 with the new planning group, and it was apparent that City representatives failed to adhere to the instructions laid out in this letter.
First, there were several people added to the new committe who were not affiliated with any of the members detailed in paragraph three of this letter.
(BTW, the Council decided not to make any decisions on the makeup of the group, so where do you suppose the additional people came from?)
The City failed to ensure that the applicants did not have a direct connection to Buckroe by not requiring resumes or any other type of data sheet from the applicants, nor did advertisements for applicants specify a non-Buckroe connection.
As a result, it was impossible for the new group to screen the applicants by locality or by any other criteria.
It was later learned, after the first meeting on June 19, that Joan Charles, in attendance as a member from the public, passed a note to the facilitator recommending that the six at large members be picked at random by zip code from localities other than Buckroe.
This useful information could have solved the gridlock imposed because of the lack of an agreement by the group resulting in sending the idea for picking the six back to the Council for decision.
Let's hope the Council members make the right decision.
