Jeff Fitter Joins Arnold City Council

Arnold Mayor Ron Counts and City Councilmen appointed Jeff Fitter to the vacant Ward 2 Councilman position during the city council meeting at City Hall, 2101 Jeffco Blvd., on Thursday night. 

Counts needed to fill the position after Ward 2 Councilman Jim Edwards succumbed to stroke complications in August.

Counts waited a month to fill the position in order to respect Edwards, councilmen said.

No election was needed to fill the vacancy because less than a year remained in Edwards' term, which ends on April 5, 2012.

Fitter's appointment creates vacancies on two Arnold commissions, the planning and zoning commission and the police board.   

Counts, in response to Ward 2 Councilman Bill Moritz's question about potential conflicts of interest, said Fitter must leave those commissions. 

Counts also said he needed to find new candidates to fill those commissions. And he must appoint Fitter to other city commissions.

City councilmen sit, and vote, on commissions to provide up-to-date information various issues. A majority of commissioners are not Arnold councilmen.

Edwards, after this year's elections, was on Arnold's Liquor Commission and on the Planning and Zoning Commission with Fitter.

In a light-hearted moment during the meeting, Fitter asked a presenter to throughly explain an issue to the council. 

"I'm the new guy, notice the look," Fitter said, with a laugh, in reference to his suit jacket and tie.

The other council members dressed in golf shirts or blouses.