In a split vote Tuesday, the City Council appointed former councilman Charlie Newell to the Columbus Light and Water board.
Newell, a former Lee High School principal who served 32 years in public schools before retiring in 2008, will replace T&M Steel Erectors Inc. Construction Manager Tom Sneed.
The council”s decision could change the outcome of a controversial, $969,000 CL&W deal to buy 118.8 acres for sludge disposal.
The board agreed in 2010 to buy the land from McArthur Properties LLC, which is owned by local developer Russell Sheffield.
Chairman Jabari O. Edwards and board members David Shelton and Brandy Gardner voted for the purchase on the condition that the land be properly permitted. Sneed and board member Jimmy Graham both voted against.
But the board”s contract with McArthur Properties expired June 8. With Edwards” wife in business with Sheffield now, Edwards has to recuse himself from votes, which means there currently aren”t enough votes to renew the contract.
That could change, depending on Newell”s opinion of the issue, which he said he had “no knowledge of.”
“I guess I”ll get into that when I get on the board in July,” he said. “I”m not familiar with anything going on at the Light and Water department.”
By his first meeting, Newell said, he will have done “a lot of homework.”
Charlie Box of Ward 3 said the sludge-land purchase wasn”t a major consideration in his decision to support Newell.
“I guess it did,” he added, “in that he”ll make good decisions.”
Besides Newell and Sneed, there were five other applicants to the board: Andrew Colom, Roger Coan, Jessie Davis Koonce, Greg Lewis and Larry Fuller.
Box was quick to make his motion for Newell, seconded by Bill Gavin of Ward 6. Ward 5 Councilman Kabir Karriem objected to that method of making appointments, arguing instead that the council take nominations on each candidate first.
“We had some very good applicants,” he added. “You want somebody on the utilities board who understands what they”re going into.”
Box said the council has done it the way he did for “years and years and years” and that Karriem was trying to buck the system — a charge Karriem denied.
Karriem and Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens Sr. voted against appointing Newell.
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