Signal Mountain, Tennessee Issues and Happenings

Lusk appoints Robertson to Planning Commission

There is certainly some irony in this news. When Lusk told me he was running against me for Mayor in 2008 (he didn't have the courtesy to contact me himself, waiting until I asked if he was interested in running for the open vice-mayor position and then telling me he was going to run against me for mayor), I told him that a major reason I wanted to remain mayor was to finish the land-use work of the Planning Commission that I had run on. He state that he didn't know he had to be on the Planning Commission (as mayor) and that he didn't have time to do that and that I could remain on the Planning Commission when he became mayor (ie, he would take the position, but I would do the work-I declined). Ironically, (again) Robertson's (and Allen's) excuse for supporting him was that he was "retired" (or at that time actually unemployed after being fired, or pushed out by US Xpress) and had the time to do this that I supposedly didn't have since they insisted that the Mayor position was a "24/7" job and required someone not otherwise employed. Of course, soon after taking the mayor position, he took a job, first in Atlanta and now in St. Louis. Since then the Planning Commission has been unable to complete its work on subdivision regulations and zoning law re-writes begun over 5 years ago. It is unclear from the article if a vote was taken as required by the town ordinance "The mayor may appoint another councilmember to serve in his place if approved by a majority of the town council." although it appears from the article that Bill Wallace was the only one speaking in opposition. I would be curious to know if a vote was held and if Councilmember Dick Gee was present and took a public position on this issue. It's also worth noting that this appointment was not on the public agenda published in advance.