Nutt appointed city attorney

— Mayor Charles Linam appointed Michael Nutt, of Williams Law Firm in Gentry, as Decatur’s city attorney at the Nov. 13 city council meeting.

Nutt was one of four attorneys to submit his resume for the position.

Former city attorney Tom Smith was elected to the position of Benton County Circuit Court Division 3 judge and will take office in January.

Jay Williams has been serving as interim city attorney since Smith resigned but announced at the October council meeting that he would not be able to serve as Decatur’s city attorney. Williams recommended his associate, Nutt, to serve in his place. The city councilasked to see the resumes of the other candidates and for more time to consider the decision.

In addition to Nutt, Will Trentham and his partner Seth Bickett, Kelly Unger and David Bailey applied for city attorney. Nutt, Unger and Trentham appeared before the council at the November meeting.

Decatur mayor Charles Linam said it was the mayor’s responsibility to appoint a city attorney, although the city council has the right to overturn his decision.

“We have four excellent candidates. I don’t think we could go wrong,” Linam said.

After listening to presentations by Nutt, Unger and Trentham, city councilman James Jessen made a motion to go into executive session.

After the 15-minute executive session, Linam announced he had decided to appointed Nutt as attorney. He asked if anyone would like to make a motion to overturn his decision and there was no response.

“There is not an attorney that does not have a champion on this board,” Linam said.

Nutt took a place at the city council table and began serving as city attorney immediately.

Sports, Pages 12 on 11/21/2012