An 11-member panel will be presented to City Council for approval to serve as the City’s Unity Coalition Advisory Committee, as selected by Mayor Harold Perrin.
The proposal will be made at the 4:45 p.m. Tuesday, July 16, meeting of the Council’s Rules and Nominating Committee. If approved, it will be forwarded to the full Council meeting at 5:30 p.m.
The committee was created at the mandate of Council at its June 18 meeting, to “bring back a recommendation on before Sept. 17 … on a solution to the situation of Jonesboro not having a street named after Martin Luther King Jr.”
Perrin’s nominations are:
- Emma Agnew
- John A. Beineke
- Judy Casteel
- Charles Coleman
- Sandra Combs
- Jeffrey Gibson
- Jeff Mead
- Lisa Melton
- Chris Moss
- Adrian Rogers
- Garry Tate
Perrin also recommends that Coleman, a city council member, chair the committee.
The nominees were chosen from a field of 32 applicants, and Perrin said initial plans to limit the committee to nine members produced an inadequate representation of the community.
The nominees range from Arkansas State University employees to business community members to a variety of neighborhood leaders. Perrin said
“We had some highly qualified applicants, and to create a truly representative cross-section of the community, it became clear to me that we needed at least two more members,” Perrin said. “That said, a lot of good people were left off – not because they weren’t qualified but because we needed a balance of everything from personal background to where candidates live. If you were not chosen, I hope you will apply to participate in city government again in the future.”
If the Council approves the mayor’s nominees, the committee’s first meeting will be 5:30 p.m. July 24 in the first-floor conference room of the Municipal Center, 300 S. Church St.
This is a press release from the City of Jonesboro.
