ICYMI, City Council has been making headlines lately – like their decision to approve reparations earlier this month, which made national news .
This week, Council has been taking up some different issues – and two of the most pressing include the annual budget and the replacement of council member Vijay Kapoor.
The budget
On Tues., Council held a meeting
to discuss, among other items
, the annual budget. The budget vote was postponed from July 9 because of protests and calls to defund
the Asheville Police Department. Here are the details –
- The budget discussion + public comment period took up most of the meeting time, which ran until almost 11 p.m. Council voted 6-1 to recess until today at 5 p.m., with Keith Young dissenting.
- Possibilities raised by Council members include: keeping the year’s budget as originally planned (including a funding increase for the APD), and cutting funding to the APD for a trial period of three months. City Manager Debra Campbell said that cutting + reassigning some funding was a top priority, with the goal of a divest/invest strategy in place by Sept. 22. A crowd of demonstrators also gathered downtown during the meeting in support of defunding.
- Tonight’s meeting will be held remotely , with no public comment.
- The adopted budget amendment will go into effect Sept. 22 .
The seat
Also this week, the City Attorney determined that there would be no special election to replace outgoing Council member Vijay Kapoor
, whose last day is Aug. 8. Instead, Council will appoint someone to fill the vacancy until the end of Kapoor’s official term in 2022. Here’s why.
- Kapoor, who is moving to Philadelphia , was originally planning to leave his seat after the budget decision sometime in July .
- In March, the City released a memo stating that if Kapoor resigned more than 90 days before the election (this November) there would be a special election to fill the vacancy. Kapoor announced his last day would be Aug. 8, within the 90-day period.
- However, as of this week, the City Attorney clarified that there would be no special election regardless of the date of vacancy. Only the state’s charter has a timeline for elections vs. appointments, and the city’s charter trumps the state’s.
Kapoor has advised Council to appoint a member from South Asheville, where he lives. He is currently the only member of Council from South Asheville.