The date for the public release of the final report of Aberdeen Mayor Michael Bennett's transition committee will be during a work session Feb. 4 at 6 p.m. in the city council chambers, which means the report won't be released in time for the Jan. 26 city retreat as originally suggested by Bennett and the panel's chairman.
That, and several other meeting dates, including a work session at 9 a.m. on the Martin Luther King Birthday holiday this Monday, were agreed upon by Bennett, the city staff and the council during last Monday night's regular council meeting.
Bennett is due to be briefed privately by the transition committee on the afternoon of Jan. 24. Art Helton, the chairman of the panel, said Monday that a full written report will be put together, with an overview, reports by each subcommittee, and a summary, which Helton said he will write. Helton said the report was not finished, but would be in "five or six days."
Bennett and Helton had said previously the report will be released to the city council in a public meeting. The next regular council meeting is Monday, Jan. 28, but the report won't be released then, either.
The report also won't be released at the retreat the mayor, city council and city staff have scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 26, at the Marriott at Ripken Stadium from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The retreat is open to the public.
During Monday's council meeting, Councilman Ron Kupferman asked why the report wouldn't be out in time for the retreat and Bennett replied it’s "a logistical issue,” adding it was because the head of the transition team was going to be out of town.
Two citizens who spoke during the council meeting urged the mayor to release the report in time for the work session. Curtis Coon, a lawyer who represents the group redeveloping the Wetlands Golf Course properties, asked Bennett to "seriously consider" making the report available prior to the retreat.
Helton said earlier Monday he will be out of town on vacation following the mayoral briefing on Jan. 24 and will not return until Jan. 31.
The work session set up for the release of the transition report on Feb. 4 will also cover preliminary budget matters.
Bennett said Thursday he wanted to give himself and the staff a little more time to study the report than the day and a half between the scheduled briefing on the 24th and the retreat. The mayor also didn't rule out the notion, which he brought up during Monday night’s meeting, that he and the staff may bring up some aspects of the report for discussion during the retreat.
Originally published in The Record, Friday, Jan. 18, 2008
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