Tuesday's City Council meeting raised a few questions about the fairness of the city's procedure for appointing new officials.
What started as a simple move to approve the appointment of a new presiding municipal judge became a debate about the ethics of the motion.
Charles Duggan, city manager, explained that incumbent Joe Bailey had expressed a wish to retire, but said he would settle for stepping down to associate municipal judge if another would fill his place. A motion was then made by the council to appoint James McLaughlin as presiding municipal judge and Joe Bailey as associate municipal judge.
Councilman Arthur Dowdell spoke up before the motion was passed in protest of the lack of procedure associated with the appointments.
"I hope that we have a process where it won't be like this again, that it come before the Council, and each and every lawyer who decides they want to be a municipal judge will have the privy and opportunity to do so," said Dowdell.
Although Dowdell did vote in favor of the appointments in the end, he expressed his wish that policy be different in the future.
"I support this, but I hope in the next two years that that's what we should do, let it be fair and open to lawyers, that they should have the privy and opportunity to want to serve as a judge in the City of Auburn," he said.
The motion was passed without further opposition.
There was also some debate over a motion to fill in a portion of the floodplain at the corner of East University Drive and North College Street. The motion was raised at the request of Pick Clark Holdings, LLC.
Councilwoman Sheila Eckman was concerned that filling in part of the floodplain would lead to flooding during heavy rainfall.
"I'd just like some perception of the total area that's gonna be filled in and how that's gonna impact the flow of water on down, because North Cedarbrook is in my ward, and they've had flooding issues, which have been the result of, historically, of development 10 years ago," she said.
David Slocum, representative of Pick Clark Holdings, said the area in question was approximately 13,000 cubic yards and 3-4 feet deep. He assured Eckman that the company investigated the impact of the fill-in, and it was not expected to cause any problems.
"A portion of the floodplain is receiving fill, so for city requirements we will excavate an equivalent amount to balance that," said Slocum. "So theoretically there would be no change downstream."
The motion was finally passed without opposition.
All other motions were passed without debate.
Other highlights of the meeting included the reappointment of John Folmar for a second term on the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and the announcement of Auburn University's Holiday Celebration to be held Dec. 2 on Samford lawn.
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