Mayor appoints Lisa Fisher to housing authority; city signs wastewater contract and plans ARPA obligations

WASHINGTON — At its Dec. 9 meeting, the Washington City Council heard several administrative actions from Mayor Bruce Bailey, including a housing authority appointment, a signed wastewater engineering contract, and plans to obligate remaining ARPA funds to infrastructure.

Mayor Bailey announced that Malinda Miller resigned from the Housing Authority board and that he had appointed Lisa Fisher to fill the vacancy. Bailey described Fisher as having extensive construction, development and project-training experience; the minutes do not indicate whether Lisa Fisher is related to or the same person as Councilman David Fisher, Jr. The mayor added the appointment to the agenda and reported he had spoken with her prior to the meeting.

The mayor reported he signed a services contract with Carter & Slope Consulting Engineers (C&S file No. W5175.046) for wastewater treatment plant improvements and said remaining ARPA funds will be allocated to Carter & Slope for the infrastructure work; he asked staff to confirm the account balance. The minutes also note GEFA loans have been paid off.

Bailey described plans for an agreed-upon-procedures forensic audit intended to identify policy and procedure gaps so the city can update manuals and code. He also reported taxes due on recently donated land, listing county taxes of $1,022.33 and city taxes of $286.64 (total $1,308.97) and said those taxes will be paid this month; a district-property map will be provided.

Councilman Nathaniel Cullars raised several personnel matters for executive session — including Community Development Director and Economic Development/Mainstreet Manager positions and renegotiation of the city administrator’s contract — and moved the council into executive session. The council recessed and later reconvened at about 8:45 p.m.; Attorney Adam Nelson said three personnel matters and one legal matter were discussed but no action was taken.

A nomination by Councilman Cullars to appoint Marion Tutt to the WCCP board resulted in a 3–3 tie (Fisher, Gunter and Anderson opposed; Cullars, Hill and Mahoney in favor); the mayor did not break the tie and the motion stalled. The meeting adjourned after the executive-session return; the adjournment motion passed on a unanimous roll call.

What happens next: staff are to confirm ARPA account balances and return with costs and implementation details for the wastewater improvements and the forensic-audit work; the executive-session items remain confidential and produced no voteable outcomes at this meeting.