Mount Pleasant City Commissioner David McGuire resigns from position

• Tweet
• 

City Commissioner David McGuire resigned from his position Monday to avoid a possible conflict of interest regarding the Mount Pleasant Center.

McGuire has served on the commission since January 2007 and his resignation will take effect on March 15. His term was set to expire at the end of 2012.

Being a developer, McGuire said he may have interest in developing parts of the Mount Pleasant Center property in the future. The City Commission has until March to decide whether it wishes to purchase the abandoned property.

McGuire thanked citizens for the opportunity to serve and left the commissioners with a final request upon his resignation.

“I hope you would replace me with someone who thinks and votes along the same lines as I do because that’s what the people voted for,” McGuire said.

How his replacement will be handled remains unclear. The city charter states special elections can be held when called by resolution of the commission, but 45 days notice must be given before a special election.

There is no immediate need to fill the position as the commission can still function with six members, similar to when Jeffrey Palmer resigned last May, said City Clerk Jeremy Howard.

But with McGuire’s resignation and the upcoming decision to purchase the Mount Pleasant Center approaching, the split vote of a six-member committee could be crucial.

“A tie vote is essentially a no,” Howard said. “It doesn’t pass.”

The commission heard from Ryan Londrigan of AKT Peerless, the company conducting an environmental study on the Mount Pleasant Center property.

He reported the company plans to be out at the property every day this week collecting samples.

“Our main goal is to prepare everything you need for liability protection to purchase the property,” Londrigan said.

He said the company has already discovered one new tank that could be cause for concern, but overall the contamination to the property appears minor.

The company will also try to put together more comprehensive estimates on clean-up and demolition costs, he said.

Other business

Prior to the meeting, a work session was held to discuss criteria for the Redevelopment Liquor License District Policy.

Rich Morrison, director of community services, presented some general ideas in hopes of receiving commission feedback.

“We’re not looking for a decision tonight,” Morrison said. “In two weeks we hope to be working on an actual policy.”

The next steps would be drafting the policy, approval by the city commission and reviewing the existing liquor license policy, he said.