The Fort Thomas City Council appointed a new member Monday night, but council members and the public were divided about how the matter was handled.
Council voted 3-2 to appoint former long-time Fort Thomas Independent School Board member Brad Fennell to fill the vacancy on the council left by Andy Ellison’s appointment as mayor. Council members Adam Blau and Eric Strange voted no, and Ben Pendery, Lauren McIntosh, and Jeff Bezold voted yes.
“I just want to be clear, too, that my nay vote was not about Brad,” Strange said. “It was about the process.”
At the Dec. 15 regular meeting, Pendery said the city had 15 or 16 applicants for the position. The application deadline closed on Dec. 10. Pendery moved to appoint Fennell, saying the council, as it did when it selected Ellison, needed to be decisive and make a decision.
“I’ve said this to a few people on the council,” Pendery said. “No knock on anybody who’s applied, and again, truly appreciate it, I think it’s really important to have somebody who can plug right in. This is a one-year position. I don’t want to drag it out. That’s my two cents.”
Bezold seconded the motion. Strange then moved to go into executive session to discuss the process. Blau agreed that he would like to go into executive session to discuss the appointment.
“I would say that, as the new mayor of Fort Thomas, that voting on somebody without really seriously considering the people that are involved is a huge mistake,” said Ellison, who was a non-voting member.
Blau said he believed the person they appointed should have been someone who filed to run for the city council to give them a trial run. He also said he would like to interview the top four or five candidates for the position.
“I think that a lot of times, the last couple of years, you can see we’ve ignored process or skipped ahead,” Blau said. “We had two motions come through tonight. It happens sometimes, but in order to gain the trust back of the citizens, we get these thrown in front of us, and we’re making decisions on the fly — I think it’s important we stick to a process.”
Fort Thomas City Attorney Tim Schneider said that because there was a motion and a second on the table, unless Pendery tabled his motion to allow the council to go into executive session, they had to vote on it. Pendery did not table the motion because he said he had support on it with a second from Bezold.
During the meeting, many residents spoke during public comment in support of candidates or themselves. Fennell had two people speak on his behalf, but was not in attendance due to a prior engagement.
A handful of residents spoke in favor of Steve Arey, who has filed with the Kentucky Secretary of State’s office for city council. Arey also spoke at the meeting to advocate for himself for the position.
After the vote to appoint Fennell, residents in the audience started making comments, displeased with how the voting unfolded. Arey was one of those people. He spoke from the audience and said he had reached out to everyone on the council but had heard back only from Strange and Blau.
“The problem in the city is that decisions are being made without due diligence being done,” Arey said. “This is making very apparent right now who is doing that.”
Ellison said he believed the vote was held without giving the other candidates full consideration.
“I don’t feel like I need to defend myself here at all,” Pendery said. “I think we made a good choice. I think there are several choices that would have been very good candidates who could come in and be effective; however, like I said, we’ve talked about this, we can go into executive session, but I wasn’t willing to go in to be persuaded.”
Fennell is a lifetime Fort Thomas resident. He graduated from Highlands High School in 1982. He has been a Fort Thomas business owner for 30 years and served 24 years on the Fort Thomas Independent School Board.