New era in New Bern

New Bern is just two days away from having an almost entirely different set of elected leaders, but their first two planned priorities — a term limit for the mayor and removal of lifetime health insurance — were yanked from Tuesday night’s agenda.

During an agenda-planning session Dec. 1, the leaders-to-be indicated that they would support creating a term limit for the top job and that they would immediately move forward with removing the lifetime health insurance option for elected officials who serve more than 16 years in office. They said both of those ordinance-altering matters would come up, for action or discussion, on the agenda for Tuesday night’s meeting, the same one when the new folks are sworn in.

But they aren’t there. So what happened?

“Danny Meadows didn’t think that we had the right to ask city employees to draft ordinances,” Mayor-elect Lee Bettis said Saturday, referring to the interim city manager. “And technically, he’s probably right. We’re just private citizens right now and maybe not in a position to order the city employees around.”

Before either of those changes could become a city regulation, City Attorney Scott Davis would have to draft ordinance amendments for the aldermen to vote for or against.

Meadows said Saturday that he is “quite sure” that the new officials will request ordinance amendments for a mayoral term limit and for insurance soon after they are sworn in.

And Bettis says “soon” will come pretty quickly.

“We’ll be asking Scott Davis to draw up the ordinance Tuesday night,” Bettis said Saturday. “His office is less than a block away (from City Hall) and we can recess and wait for him. When he comes back with them, we can move forward with the business of governing.”

Whether they do or don’t consider those changes, the new leaders will act on at least one thing Tuesday: appointing a stand-in for Bettis.

The mayor pro tempore fills in whenever the mayor cannot preside over a meeting of the New Bern Board of Aldermen. That person also fills in whenever the mayor cannot make ceremonial appearances for luncheons, ribbon-cutting events, or other events that require city representation.

Alderman-elect Denny Bucher is expected to be named mayor pro tempore. Bucher had a 37-year management career with Bridgestone-Firestone, during which he was responsible for managing 325 tire stores in the Northeast, and later, all aircraft-tire activities in North America and South America. Since moving to Taberna a few years ago, he has opened Family Tire & Auto Service stores in New Bern and Morehead City.

“Historically, the person with the most votes of all the aldermen is named mayor pro tem, and Denny Bucher will make a good mayor pro-tem,” Bettis said.

And in this term, the mayor pro tempore may be filling in more often than his predecessors did. The mayor gets an average of 217 appearance requests every year, and Bettis, a lawyer with Emmanuel and Dunn, has already said he “won’t go broke” to do ceremonial duties.

“I have no intention of taking off work to cut a ribbon,” he said this month. “If it’s a big box store, that’s one thing, but you won’t see me cutting a ribbon for a pet-shampooing business.”

The new aldermen — Sabrina Bengel, Victor Taylor, Bucher, Johnnie Ray Kinsey and Bernard White — and the re-elected Dana Outlaw—will also have to make some decisions on appointing city staff.

The appointments to be considered affect Mary Muraglia, the city finance director; Davis, the attorney; and Donna McRoy, the tax collector. A city clerk and city manager will also have to be appointed, but in both cases, the people will be serving on an interim basis only. Sue Hardison will serve as interim city clerk until the board finds a replacement for longtime clerk Vickie Johnson, who retired in July. Meadows will continue to act as city manager until New Bern hires a replacement for Bill Hartman, who retired, officially, in September.

Nikie Mayo can be reached at 252-635-5665 or nmayo@freedomenc.com.