New day at City Hall

Actually, the new day began yesterday, when the newly sworn-in City Council held its first meeting of 2010. A Council member had told me beforehand how much she was looking forward to a 10-minute meeting — strictly a formality, mind you — and then joining the inaugural reception in the atrium.

But it didn't work out that way. Instead, newly reinstated Councilman Michael Bond proposed a resolution for the city to extend an apology to the victims of the Eagle raid. After much discussion and a warning by city attorneys that such a gesture, while compassionate, could open the city to increased liability, the measure was sent on to the Council's Public Safety Committee. The Council never got to party.

Which leads me to news from yesterday (although this may only interest City Hall junkies) — committee appointments. With one minor exception, every committee chair was shuffled by new Council President Caesar Mitchell. Here's the run-down:

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• City Utilities: Carla Smith has been replaced as chair by Natalyn Archibong

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• Community Development: Jim Maddox replaced by Joyce Sheperd

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• Public Safety: Cleta Winslow replaced by Ivory Young

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• Transportation: Clair Muller replaced by C.T. Martin

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• Zoning: Ivory Young replaced by Aaron Watson

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• Finance/Executive: Howard Shook replaced by Yolanda Adrean

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• Committee on Council: Felicia Moore stays puts

It's considered quite a shake-up to appoint two new Council members as committee heads, although Watson has previous experience as an elected official and Adrean is a CPA. Actually, Watson and newcomer Alex Wan are also CPAs — which gives the Council three more CPAs than it used to have, which was none. All three are on the Finance Committee.

The final two newcomers — Bond and Keisha Lance Bottoms — will have to content themselves with standard committee appointments.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)