Dykes Forced To Resign From Northport Planning & Zoning Commission

NORTHPORT, AL — Less than a week after announcing she would resign from her Northport City Council Committee assignments, District 4 Councilwoman Jamie Dykes on Monday officially stepped down as the council's representative on the city's Planning & Zoning Commission.

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Sources indicated to Patch that, following her decision to resign from the committees last week, Dykes was given an ultimatum on Monday by City Attorney Ron Davis to either resign from the commission or face a public hearing and subsequent council vote to remove her from the advisory board.

Dykes will remain the District 4 representative on the City Council and declined to speak on her resignation from the Planning & Commission when asked for comment by Tuscaloosa Patch.

As Patch previously reported, Dykes resigned from her two assignments — as chair of the Community Outreach Committee and chair of the Projects Committee — and spoke out against the committee system used by the council to suss out tedious details regarding agenda items prior to council meetings.

In her recent arguments, she has claimed this structure puts decision making authority into the hands of too few, instead of providing equal representation for all five council members and the mayor.

Dykes was the City Council's lone representative on the Commission — an appointed position that serves at the pleasure of the Council.

Despite the Council agenda for Monday night's meeting originally showing that the Council planned to appoint new members to the open Committee seat, an amendment was adding during the pre-council briefing to address a related position on the Northport Planning & Zoning Commission.

Absent from Monday's pre-council meeting were Dykes, Council President Jeff Hogg and Council Pro-Tem and District 1 Councilwoman Christy Bobo. However, the entire council was present during the regular meeting.

During Monday's night's regular council meeting, the Council also approved appointing District 3 Councilman Karl Wiggins to the Planning & Zoning Board to replace Dykes.

Dykes abstained from voting for Wiggins to fill the seat on the advisory board.

It's worth pointing out that while the council committees meet on Mondays prior to the regular meeting, the Planning & Zoning Commission is an advisory board that meets at 6 p.m. on the second Tuesday of every month. This is important because Dykes told Patch she has had to use personal leave time at her job to attend committee meetings, which are held prior to the end of the business day.

In her letter of resignation from the committees, which was obtained by Patch last week through a public records request, Dykes lamented what she views as a lack of efficacy for the committee system and confirmed to Patch that she would prefer the city do away with committees altogether and instead hold work sessions prior to each meeting.

"I am not in favor of committees in any shape, form or fashion," Dykes wrote to Webb. "We are all equals and committees put the entire power of the Council in one or two people’s hands and every one else’s opinion is a moot point. EVERY Council member should have input on EVERY item/issue that comes before us; be it a board appointment, agency funding, budget, a future event, a speed table or pedestrian/bike path."

Dykes argued that each council member should have the opportunity to hear agency funding requests or consider board appointments, insisting those decisions should not be left up to two members on each committee.

"I, personally, will never take time away from my job again to attend a committee meeting where my voice is total irrelevant, no matter what is decided," Dykes said. "My plan was to step down from the two lame committees I am on anyway. It just is not worth my time off work when my voice isn’t heard ... I'm quite certain I am in the minority - as always - but I feel strongly enough about this to step down from my committees."

As Patch previously reported, Webb proposed three different remedies to the issued raised by Dykes, including doing away with committee system and just have a work session, possibly at 4 p.m., every third Monday of each month. Conversely, she offered the possibility of continuing with the existing committee structure and times.

Lastly, Webb suggested the Council could "Keep the committee structure, but with a twist."

"Notice that committees begin at 4 p.m. on every third Monday, and that the respective chairs of each committee will preside over their respective portions as we get to the agenda items that relate to that committee," Webb said in response. "So, we say that they all start at 4 p.m. and then we set them up much like our comment section on Council agenda — we roll through each and spend only the time needed for the discussion on that particular item. With this, we should eliminate the delay between meetings. An added benefit is that we don’t have to cancel a particular committee for lack of items, rather the chair merely reports that there are no items for consideration."

Webb said if there is a majority of the Council that favors the third option, she can reach out to the Alabama League of Municipalities for its blessing on the proposed change.

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