ANC welcomes back the queen of the neighborhoods

After a brief moment of rest, it looks as though Mary Ingle will be heading up the Austin Neighborhoods Council once again.

Last Thursday, City Council Member Ann Kitchen appointed then-ANC president David King to the Zoning and Platting Commission. He told the Austin Monitor that he thought it was important to take the opportunity offered to him and serve the city in that fashion.

At Wednesday’s ANC meeting, King officially resigned his position as president to avoid the conflicts of interest that would inevitably arise from hearing and voting on the many land use cases that ANC had weighed in on.

Ingle told the Monitor that she saw the rules that determine who can and cannot serve on land use commissions as a “double standard” that favored lobbyists and penalized neighborhoods. However, she said, she was happy to serve as president of ANC “during this very critical time in Austin’s history,” referring to the CodeNEXT Land Development Code process currently underway.

King’s resignation drove ANC members to consult their bylaws and Robert’s Rules of Order. According to these resources, King should be succeeded by one of the council’s vice presidents. However, a quick survey of the three vice presidents – Lottie A. Dailey, Linda Bailey and Kevin Wier – established that none of them wanted the job. Under these circumstances, the task of appointing an interim successor fell to King, who selected the most recent past president of ANC, Ingle.

Though King’s resignation is effective as of Wednesday and Ingle is now serving as ANC president, her rule will be voted on by the general membership of ANC sometime in the next couple of months. If endorsed by a majority of the general membership, Ingle will serve out the remainder of King’s term, which began in October 2016 and will end in October of this year.

At the time of publication, King was still researching whether his general membership would also be in conflict with his new role as commissioner. His first meeting as a Zoning and Platting Commission member will be March 7.

Photo, Public Domain.

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