WILMINGTON – Define irony.
Less than an hour-and-a-half after being criticized for lack of transparency in how it appoints members to citizen-run boards and committees, the Wilmington City Council made a decision — that turned into a controversial debate — regarding the reappointment of a board member at Tuesday night’s meeting.
The council debated for 20 minutes over the reappointment of Dr. Jessica Cannon to Cape Fear Public Utility Authority’s 11-member board. Opponents said she had a political agenda, while supporters believed she had good standing on the board in her first term.
Before council addressed Cannon’s reappointment, resident Andrew Blank, who applied to be on the tree committee but wasn’t chosen, took the podium during public comment. He spoke to the lack of diversity on the city council, and the personal relationships among recently appointed board members and the appointment committee.
Lindsey Hess and JoAnn Daley were both appointed to boards with a connection to appointment committee chairman and council member Charlie Rivenbark. Hess works at Cape Fear Commercial along with Rivenbark, and Daly used Rivenbark as a reference.
Blank said he did research on recent nominations, expecting to find corruption but said he found no evidence of such of the 22 new appointees since October of 2022. However, he stood behind the claim there was a lack of transparency in the process. Blank suggested streamlining it to ensure every resident of the community can have a chance to serve.
Blank also pointed out appointees like Hess and Rainey Wallace “ran in the real estate circle.” Wallace is a broker with Intracoastal Realty.
He surmised that with three members on city council and the mayor working in real estate, it wasn’t a good look.
“This perception hinders the essence of community engagement and undermines the principles of fairness and inclusivity that should govern our citizen-run boards, commissions and committees,” Blank said.
A Navy veteran who moved to Wilmington from San Diego two years ago, Blank recommended the appointments committee make accessible the full applications of everyone who applies to boards.
“By embracing transparency, you will foster an environment where citizens like myself can feel confident that the selection process is fair and unbiased,” Blank said. “It will allow us to evaluate the diversity and qualifications of the candidates and give us reassurance that our community is being represented and served by the most qualified individuals.”
As it stands now, only applications for residents recommended for appointment are included in the council’s meeting agendas. Council member Neil Anderson, also on the appointments committee, noted the city clerk manages a “book” with all applications, open for the public to view.
“I appreciate your comments, respect them,” Anderson said. “It’s just a long way from reality as to what we’re dealing with.”
He pointed to vacancies and how the appointment committee struggles to find community members with backgrounds appropriate for the open boards. He also suggested they try to find the most qualified members to align with certain positions.
Rivenbark took exception to Blank’s suggestion he might be biased.
“I can’t prevent somebody from putting my name as a reference,” he said. ”If I see that, and I can’t do it, I withdraw it.”
Rivenbark invited Blank to attend the appointment committee meetings and echoed Anderson’s sentiments.
“Have you noticed the vacancies that we have?” Rivenbark responded to Blank. “We struggle to get qualified people to even apply. So at least we have an appointments committee here in the city. The county does not.”
PCD reached out to the City of Wilmington to get official numbers for board and committee vacancies, but did not receive them by press.
Later in the meeting, the appointments committee — Republicans Rivenbark, Anderson and Luke Waddell — recommended another candidate to replace Cannon for CFPUA. Cannon has served one term on the utilities committee and had applied for a second.
Rivenbark cited his years of experience on the appointments committee and accused Cannon of pushing a political agenda.
“Some people come on that board, and they’re worker bees and they come on there with an agenda,” said Rivenbark, who is also a CFPUA member. “Not in this case.”
Mayor Pro Tem Margaret Haynes protested the move.
“I think it’s very unusual,” she said. “In fact, I think it’s probably the first time in the fairly recent history of the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority that we have not reappointed someone who’s well-qualified and has a good attendance record.”
Haynes read into the record an email sent from outgoing board member Larry Sneeden to Mayor Bill Saffo. Sneeden served on the CFPUA for 12 years and indicated politics played a role in her potential dismissal.
“If there are politics at play in Jessica’s reappointment, it appears to me to be coming from those that do not want her progressive voice on the board and not from her actions over the last three years,” Sneeden wrote.
Waddell suggested replacing Cannon with someone who had financial experience as to replace the treasure exiting in the future. Saffo countered there would another opportunity to fill that position when the time arose.
Community advocate Rebecca Trammel sent an email to Saffo — obtained by Port City Daily — in support of Cannon, touting her work with Clean Cape Fear, a nonprofit advocating for PFAS contamination cleanup.
“Dr. Cannon rose to the occasion to raise awareness for ‘Gen X’ when the news first broke [about PFAS] in 2017,” Trammel wrote. “She immediately helped found Clean Cape Fear, and has relentlessly advocated for safe drinking water for our region ever since.”
Local residents Megan Camp and Will Eppes also showed their support in an email sent to Saffo, saying the committee’s move was clearly politically motivated.
“I’m not sure I understand why the board in charge of appointing these positions consists of three Republicans when the Democrats have a majority on city council,” the email stated. “But I hope the mayor will rectify this at some point. Be that as it may, I applaud you for recognizing the clear political agenda in trying to remove Dr. Cannon and fighting for her, and us, as a community.”
Rivenbark said to Port City Daily on Thursday the motivation was far from political, and there were no guarantees anyone serves more than four years. He also said the media was trying to make this more of a story than it was (PCD’s media partner, WHQR, first reported on it Wednesday).
“The appointments committee meets once a month. There’s nothing political about it,” Rivenbark said. “We go through putting out the best people we think are out there; we put it out to the full city council and it ended up the way it did. End of discussion.”
The council voted 4-3 to reappoint Cannon; dissenting votes included Rivenbark, Waddell and Anderson.
Cannon declined to speak to PCD about the nomination.
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