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MADEIRA BEACH - Business obligations kept John Wolbert away from Tuesday's commission meeting. As a result, the commission's remaining four members split on two issues, effectively defeating those motions for now.
The immediate effect: The city has no vice mayor, and Ken Schwartz can hang onto his seat on the Planning Commission.
The vice mayor conducts meetings in the absence of the mayor or takes the place of the mayor for up to one year. At an April workshop, Charles Parker, whose term has expired, nominated Wolbert.
The only problem was, it isn't Wolbert's turn. Commissioners have an informal system of rotating the vice mayoral duties, and that rotation has Roger Koske, a four-term commissioner, coming to bat.
Parker told the commission he decided to deviate from custom and nominate someone out of the rotation because of Koske's temper. He said he had observed Koske yelling on five occasions in five years while chairing public workshops. All five offenses, he claimed, were against women.
Koske smiled as Parker, sitting next to him, recited charges and intoned on the seriousness of the vice mayor's position.
But Koske owned up to 40 percent of the charge. "I got mad twice," he said, adding that Parker had a temper as well. "He has a habit of making himself look like an angel when he's not," Koske said of his colleague.
Parker denied that he had ever yelled at anybody or spoken roughly to city staff, another offense for which he accused Koske. Parker said commissioners, particularly the vice mayor, ought to conduct themselves like Mayor Tom DeCesare, who operates meetings with an almost trancelike calm.
Blandishments for DeCesare ended abruptly when the mayor sided with Koske.
Parker whirled and questioned DeCesare's right to defend Koske because "you and Roger are fishing buddies and go fishing together all the time."
Yes, DeCesare said, we are fishing buddies. "And I would go fishing with anyone on this dais or anyone in the audience."
Then he voted with Koske against Wolbert's installation as vice mayor. Parker and Len Piotti voted for Wolbert. Reached on Friday, Wolbert said he would have voted for himself.
"I had no idea (DeCesare) would do that, but he did," Wolbert said. "We'll just have to do it again next time." Commissioners also split along the same lines over the fate of Planning Commission member Ken Schwartz, who has missed nine of the monthly meetings between March 2003 and February 2004. City ordinances forbid any commissioner from missing three consecutive meetings, or four meetings within a 12-month period.
Koske defended Schwartz, a developer with jobs out of the country, as an effective Planning Commission member when he could attend.
Parker took another approach, saying that board members make a commitment by accepting their positions and should be expected to attend meetings. He and Piotti voted to send Schwartz a letter of termination, with a 15-day opportunity to appeal.
Koske and DeCesare voted against sending the letter, thus giving Schwartz another chance.