Jackson mayor signs subdivision ordinance

A three-day wait for Jackson Mayor Paul Sander to sign an ordinance approving a new subdivision made developer Ron Clark nervous. And Clark's questioning of Sander's actions made the mayor angry.

Clark, who is developing 96 acres off U.S. 61 north of Jackson for a subdivision he calls Nine Oaks, won final approval Monday for a plat of 20 lots from the Jackson Board of Aldermen. He prepared to finalize the sale of six lots after the vote, then learned that Sander hadn't signed the ordinance, leaving the plat in limbo.

And with a history of disagreements with Sander, Clark worried that the mayor was deliberately delaying approval of the ordinance out of spite. "It has just been a hard road the whole time on everything we do."

Sander signed the ordinance Thursday afternoon and said it had nothing to do with his prior dealings with Clark.

"This issue is this issue," Sander said. "If you have any integrity at all, you deal with one issue at a time."

Under the city ordinances, the mayor has until the next meeting of the aldermen to sign or veto an ordinance. If he takes no action, the ordinance takes effect at the time of the meeting.

After he had signed the ordinance, Sander said he was within his rights as mayor to review the ordinance thoroughly before signing it.

"It took me three days to do that, and he thinks it is excessive," Sander said.

The highest profile fight between Clark and city officials took place in 2003 when he did extensive work preparing land along U.S. 61 for sewer construction, believing he had an agreement with the city to do the work. But the city said there was no contract and approved another bidder to complete the project.

An issue related to the Nine Oaks development resulted in Sander vetoing an ordinance to abandon a street easement that would have connected with the new subdivision. After issuing his veto, landowners near the proposed abandonment accused him of taking the step as a slap at Clark. The delay in signing the ordinance was just an extension of that dispute, Clark said.

"What he was doing was holding us up from selling the lots," Clark said. "He was just delaying it."

Sander, who was defeated last year by Clark's sister, Kara Clark, in the race for Cape Girardeau County Clerk, is not seeking another term as mayor. Sander defended the veto as keeping with established city policy, which requires that subdivisions connect. The veto was in the best interest of all Jackson residents, Sander said Monday.

"All I was doing in this particular case was my job," Sander said.

At one point, Clark said Sander had "refused to sign the plat" when asked about it by assistant city administrator Larry Koenig. But Koenig said he only reported to Sander that someone had called city hall asking whether the plat had been recorded with the county and "I didn't get any indication one way or another what he was going to do. And I don't normally question that. It is not my place to question it."

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126