HIGHFILL — Council members, at their Dec. 11 meeting, tabled the appointment of a member to the Highfill Planning Commission after Highfill Mayor Stacy Digby nominated Jason James for the position and former Mayor Chris Holland spoke in favor of reappointing the city’s treasurer-recorder, Stacie Williamson, to another term on the commission.

Mayor Digby, in an email, explained what happened in regard to filling Position 3 on the Planning Commission, which is up for appointment.

“I nominated Jason James to fill the Planning Commission position currently held by Stacie Williamson,” he wrote. “I said that Jason and his family had been long-time residents of Highfill with a vested interest in its future. I felt that he would make a good member of the commission.

“Chris Holland then spoke in favor of leaving his cousin, Stacie Williamson, on the commission. He said he couldn’t understand why I would want to remove her. She had done a good job, in his opinion, and wanted to remain on the commission.

“I said that I would like to see more diversity on the commission. I felt that having both Stacie Williamson and her sister Pam Harwell on the commission, two of a five-member commission, did not give a good representation of the city as a whole. I said that many years ago, we had also separated the role of minute taking from the secretary of the commission ... and instead had the recorder treasurer take them. Nowthat Stacie was in both positions, it made the meetings awkward because she participated in the discussion, took the minutes and called the roll for votes, which meant she had to call her own name and then state how she intended to vote.”

According to Digby, a motion was made by Paula Pautsky to accept the nomination of James, but the motion died for lack of a second. The council then voted to go into executive session and, upon returning, tabled the matter.

In department reports, Police Chief Chuck Eggebrecht informed the council that the cost of the Benton County West District Court was going to go up. According to information presented, a new law had gone into effect that would base each city’s rates off the number of citations the court processed.

According to information presented by Eggebrecht, Highfill should anticipate its share of costs to go from $15,000 for 2012 to $25,000 in 2013, and $35,000 in 2014.

Under the Street and Maintenance Department, department supervisor Vernon Reams updated the council on Hutchens Road project, saying it should be put out to bid soon, with bids opened after the first of the year.

The council also put its 2013 budget ordinance on its second reading and passed an interlocal agreement for the use of the new Benton County hazardous materials team, since the Benton-Washington County team was to cease operations at the first of the year. The cost to the city will be on a per-capita basis - estimated at 38 cents per person annually.

News, Pages 9 on 01/09/2013