WHITEHALL — After some occasionally contentious discussion on the matter, the Whitehall city council voted 4-3 to approve mayor Steven Salter's nomination slate for a Playhouse sustainability committee during Tuesday's regular meeting.
The committee will comprise Salter, fellow council member Tom Ziemer, local business owners Elie Ghazal,
Amanda Kiefer, Kara Smith and Ryan Briegel, and Frank Bednarek and
Laurie Audo from the nonprofit Friends of the Playhouse group.
The committee was not originally an item on the meeting agenda, but was added later after discussion broke out during the consent agenda portion of the meeting. Multiple members of the council again expressed support for appointing council member Scott Brown to the committee, but Salter said Brown will not be appointed. Brown himself said he doesn't care if he is on the committee - he will be attending the committee meetings regardless - but took issue with Salter appointing himself to it, deeming it a conflict of interest. He joined Ziemer and Scott Sikkenga in voting against the committee appointments.
This led to a side conversation in which multiple members of council disputed what they deemed as Salter using "personal dislike" to refuse to appoint any of the four people with written interest in joining other committees despite there being vacancies to fill. Ultimately, the council decided to approve the mayor's original nomination slate despite its objections so work can begin on finding ways for the Playhouse to generate more revenue. For his part, the mayor stated he's always pleased to meet with any council member or citizen about any issue they want addressed.
The council also unanimously approved its annual resolutions regarding property tax poverty exemptions, citizens' right to protest their tax assessments, setting board of review dates and its employee personnel manual. The council added a unanimous approval of support for Feet on the Street, the annual area event that will take place Sunday, June 1 in the North Mears promenade and social district.
