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Friday, 09 December 2005 08:44 |
By DAVID FORBES
A ticket arising from an unauthorized street mural that remained unpaid for over a year has become an issue in the possible appointment of Bryan Freeborn to Asheville City Council.
Freeborn, who finished fourth in the Nov. 8 general elections, may be appointed to fill Mayor-elect Terry
Bellamy??s seat, which she vacated when sworn in as mayor last Tuesday night. He paid the $322 ticket on Nov. 11, three days after the election.
Freeborn??s appointment was expected to be decided at last night??s meeting, which occurred after the Daily Planet??s press time for this edition.
Chris Pelly, who finished fifth, asserts that the incident raises issues about Freeborn??s fitness to serve on council, while Freeborn has said that the controversy is ?®a political ploy over a non-issue.?∆
In a guest commentary that appeared in the Nov. 30 issue of the
Asheville Citizen-Times, Pelly said that the incident brought up
concerns over Freeborn??s willingness to obey the city??s ordinances and
that the issue was not raised before the election.
The same issues still concern him, Pelly told the Daily Planet last Thursday.
?®Voters didn??t know about this during the election,?∆ Pelly said. ?®I was
another candidate and I didn??t even know about it. It??s important for
voters to know that he had a fight with the city since he??s now up for
a position where he would be charged with upholding the city??s
ordinances.?∆
Freeborn noted that he raised the issue at several forums during the
campaign, and that for Pelly to assert that he did not know about the
issue before election day is ?®a bold-faced lie.?∆
?®I mentioned it at several forums while Chris Pelly was right there,?∆
Freeborn said. ?®If he had brought this up during the election, that
would have been legitimate. To go to the media now, after he finished
fifth, is just sour grapes. This definitely seems political.?∆
Bellamy, who after the election stated her support for appointing
Freeborn to fill the seat, said that her position was unchanged by the
controversy over the ticket, while also noting that he mentioned the
issue in forums during the campaign.
?®I??m still supporting Bryan Freeborn,?∆ Bellamy said. ?®It was not a
secret during the campaign. Bryan himself brought the issue up,
referring to how the city needed to enforce its fines, and he mentioned
that he owed the city. I think Bryan??s worked hard and was the
fourth-highest vote getter. We can??t ignore that.?∆
Councilman Brownie Newman, who campaigned for and endorsed Pelly during
the election, said that there was ?®strong pressure personally?∆ toward
voting for Freeborn??s appointment, but that the unpaid bill had raised
concerns.
?®I think that you should vote for the fourth-highest vote getter unless
there is some compelling reason not to,?∆ Newman said. ?®Not paying a
city fine would be such a reason, but Freeborn has paid the ticket. But
the incident did raise some concerns. Bryan clearly violated city
ordinances. City staff said they were open to the idea if the proper
procedure was followed and he just decided to run with it.?∆
He also speculated about Freeborn??s motives for paying the ticket after the election.
?®I have to wonder ?? would he have paid the ticket if he wasn??t being
considered for a council seat??∆ Newman said. ?®I don??t like that. I also
think that city staff handled this very professionally and he made some
disparaging remarks about them.?∆
The issue began in May 2004, when Freeborn and several other residents
of West Asheville painted a mural at the intersection of Carrier and
Winnifred streets in an attempt to slow down traffic.
Freeborn said that the group believed they had the go-ahead from the city.
?®Some people in the group talked to the traffic engineer (Anthony
Butzek) and sent him a specific date we wanted to do this, and he said
it looked OK,?∆ Freeborn said. ?®We sent pictures to the city. It??s not
like someone from the city heard about this through the grapevine. We
informed them.?∆
At that point, he added, Butzek informed Freeborn and the group that the mural was not authorized and would have been removed.
?®We tried to get them to let us keep it,?∆ Freeborn said. ?®We had done
this with the belief that it was OK and the whole community liked it.?∆
However, city employees removed the traffic paint before sending Freeborn a ticket for $322 for the cleanup process.
The reason he did not pay that ticket, Freeborn said, was due to a
consensus by the group of residents that they would not pay the fine
until the city told them what the clear, legal process was regarding
the request and implementation of such traffic-slowing measures with
the city.
?®There was no speed-limit sign posted in our neighborhood; people could
go almost 45 miles an hour through it, and the roads are just too
narrow for that,?∆ Freeborn said. ?®That was just too dangerous. We
always said that when the city gives us a clear process for how to do
this, we??ll be happy to pay the bill.?∆
In the 17 months after the initial incident, Freeborn noted, the city did not give the residents such a process.
?®One of this group is a 92-year old woman, others are Ph.Ds. This is
not a group that was out to break the law,?∆ Freeborn said. ?®We just
wanted the city to explain a clear process to us.?∆
On election night, as Councilwoman Holly Jones and newcomer Robin Cape
celebrated their victory in the election, Freeborn said that he came to
congratulate them ?? and was taken aside by Newman, who was also in
attendance at the celebration.
?®He said that this unpaid ticket had come to his attention,?∆ Freeborn
noted. ?®We talked and I told him the reasons we had for not paying it.?∆
Jones and Cape both said shortly after the election that they would support Freeborn??s appointment to council.
Meanwhile, Freeborn said that he was contacted by his supporters about
the ticket ?? and they believed he should pay the ticket to avoid a
possible political controversy.
?®These are the people who have worked very hard for me, because they
believe I??m the kind of person they want to see on city council,?∆ he
continued.
?®They told me that this was not an issue for them, but they wanted to
prevent it from becoming a political issue. They said they would
provide the money to pay the bill. They gave me the money to pay it and
I paid it.?∆
As for what Newman termed disparaging remarks about council, Freeborn
said they had mostly come up during an exchange with Director of Public
Works Mark Combs.
?®I did say that the city seemed more interested in destroying a
neighborhood project than in helping them end a dangerous traffic
situation,?∆ Freeborn said.
?®But that wasn??t meant as disparaging towards the city??s staff. I??ve
heard members of council say much more disparaging things about staff
in the middle of public meetings.?∆
Freeborn said that he believes the issue of his unpaid fine is minor compared to many other issues.
?®How much of an issue is this compared to all of the dollars that
developers owe the city of Asheville??∆ Freeborn said. ?®How much is that
compared to my $322 fine??∆
He added that the issue had become a controversy because Newman and Pelly were trying to use it ?®as a political ploy.?∆
?®This came up during the campaign at the forums and no media gave it
any attention then,?∆ Freeborn said. ?®Newman endorsed Pelly during the
campaign. Now he and Pelly are the ones to bring this up as an issue.
This certainly seems political to me.?∆
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