New P&Z term for Swan irks rival

A Cape Girardeau City Council decision to give politically connected businesswoman Kathy Swan a new term on the Planning and Zoning Commission irked a former board member who tried to get the seat.

Swan was automatically removed from the commission Oct. 12 after missing her fourth meeting since being appointed in late 2005. Members of all city boards and commissions are required to miss no more than three meetings in a 12-month period to keep their positions. Swan was reappointed Oct. 23 to the Planning and Zoning Commission.

In an e-mail sent to city clerk Gayle Conrad and copied to council members, former planning and zoning commissioner R.J. McKinney asked that his application be removed from city files because of the council decision.

"In my opinion, for what it is worth, this makes a joke out of the mandatory attendance rule but apparently the lady council members felt they still needed a female commission member, even though she would not be able to attend the required number of meetings," McKinney wrote.

On three occasions when Swan was absent, she was attending meetings of the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education. In an e-mail to city officials asking for reinstatement on the commission, Swan said she would try to attend meetings "with the only conflicts being out-of-town travel due to our own company business or state business."

Swan and her husband own JCS/Tel-Link, a retail communications company.

Neither McKinney nor Swan could be reached for comment Wednesday.

The commission is one of the city's most important boards, hearing developers' plans for new construction and requests from property owners for zoning changes and making recommendations to the council. Several members have been on the board for many years.

In his e-mail, McKinney said he was urged to apply for Swan's unexpired term. At the same time Swan's seat was up for consideration, the council had three other slots to fill because of expiring terms. The council kept two commissioners, Scott McClanahan and Ralph Maxton, but selected Kevin Govero to replace Cliff Crosnoe. Govero has since told city officials he must decline the post because of pressures at his business, BP Financial Services, city manager Doug Leslie said.

Swan is well-known in Republican circles, both as a contributor, activist and candidate. She ran unsuccessfully for the Cape Girardeau County Commission in 2004, co-chaired U.S. Sen. Jim Talent's re-election bid in Cape Girardeau County and met with President George W. Bush in St. Louis in 2003 to discuss his tax-cut package.

Council members interviewed Wednesday said her political ties did not influence their decision, but one did acknowledge that she voted to keep Swan on the commission because of her gender. All the other members of the 11-person commission are men.

"Kathy is certainly competent," Councilwoman Loretta Schneider said. "I think it is important to have a woman on there. I think we should have another one there."

Schneider, Councilwoman Marcia Ritter and Mayor Jay Knudtson all said they did not believe Swan's absences showed a lack of commitment to the commission's work.

"If you look at Kathy's reasons for having missed, it is the conflicts with the Missouri Coordinating Board," Ritter said. "Other than that, her commitment was there."

Council members choose members of the various boards and commissions by reviewing applications and considering reappointments at the same time, Knudtson said. Each council member votes their choices during the council work session held before each council meeting, he said.

The votes are tallied by Conrad, who delivers a sheet to the mayor showing the names of enough applicants to fill any open seats, he said. The final selections are made in the regular session of the council through a motion to accept the consensus choices, he added.

The reappointment of Swan was made without an explicit promise to abide by the attendance policy, and Knudtson said he's not bothered by that.

"There is a clear difference between people missing meetings because they are tired and stay at home and people serving in other volunteer capacities that have scheduling conflicts that cause them to miss," he said.

Swan's reasons for absences, Knudtson said, should perhaps be a catalyst for a city discussion of whether to divide missed meetings into excused and unexcused absences.

The issue was discussed about five years ago, Leslie said, and the council at that time decided not to make changes. "Who determines what is a legitimate excuse for an absence?" Leslie said. "If you are absent, you are absent."

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126