By ALICIA LEONARD
The DeFuniak Springs City Council made quick and tidy work of their agenda during their Oct. 9, 2017 regularly scheduled first meeting of the month. All council members were present.
The highlight of the meeting was also the opening when the council introduced new hire Danny Lucas as the new city manager for the municipality.
Lucas was greeted by a round of applause after the introduction. He appeared to hit the ground running, settling in and taking copious notes during his first meeting in office.
The council passed a series of meeting minutes unanimously after a few corrections for names and small issues.
They moved on to pass the consent agenda portion of their agenda before moving on to the agenda item requests portion..
A few items such as a request to place a dumpster on a city right-of-way near the building on 10th Street across from the Tesla charging station brought positive audience murmurs. The building that many have hoped to see in use appears set to have new life breathed into it.
Dr. Melinda Henderson once again appeared before the council imploring them to act on introducing a budget amendment to return the city mayor’s salary to the previous level. Henderson reasoned that all the elected officials not only paid filing fees under an understanding of what their potential salary would be but also that the mayor or any elected official deserved the income that was promised to them upon running for and/or accepting office.
Council member Janie Griffith told Henderson she agreed with the reasoning and made a motion for the council to make such an amendment to the budget. Griffith’s motion died on the floor without a second from any other council member.
Representatives for Dewberry/Preble Rish spoke to the council about possible funding and the projects it might cover around the city.
Council member Ron Kelley reminded the representatives and audience that the water levels of the lake on Circle Drive did not seem to be receding and could possibly be a much larger issue if the city does not find a way to handle them.
One closing item was mentioned by City Attorney Clayton Adkinson about recent stories concerning BP funds and the mayor or city. Adkinson told the audience that the funds were accounted for and anyone who would like to see the recipient would be welcome to a copy. He said it was an absolute untruth that anyone had handled those funds inappropriately or taken them for personal use.
To see more on the city’s agenda, future meetings, or listen to audio of meetings go to www.defuniaksprings.net.
Also, Channel 24 Hometown News representatives were streaming the meeting live on Facebook and said they had plans to save the video for future viewing.