Amarillo City Council made 77 appointments across 28 boards, commissions, and committees during their meeting on Tuesday.

The first two appointments were for councilmen Don Tipps and Les Simpson to form a subcommittee in charge of looking into the process of hiring a new city manager. Mayor Cole Stanley gave the subcommittee the “goal that we would have something back in the way of the firm designation either into December or January.”

The council then voted to ratify Interim City Manager Andrew Freeman’s reappointment of Lilia Escajeda to the Civic Service Commission.

Following those three appointments, the council then had 74 more appointments left on the agenda. Of those appointments, 58 of those had recommendations from staff. There were 12 where the council didn’t have a choice regarding appointments. These included several Public Improvement District Board appointments, where they were bound to accept recommendations from owners and developers.

Of the 46 appointments where staff had made recommendations where the council had the flexibility to appoint someone else, the council appointed someone else 14 times. Seven of those were instances where the council rejected recommendations to reappoint a current member. (Staff made a total of 26 such recommendations to reappoint a current member.)

The first board where the council made appointments that conflicted with staff recommendations was the Amarillo Animal Management & Welfare Advisory Board. On that board, staff had recommended reappointing Alexandrea Ybarra and appointing Sandra McCartt to the seat vacated by former Amarillo City Councilmember Eddie Sauer. Instead, the council appointed Kerry Dawson to Ybarra’s seat and Councilman Les Simpson to Sauer’s seat.

On the Amarillo Hospital District Board of Managers, Thomas Warren III was appointed over staff’s recommendation of William Biggs, JD. Staff had recommended William Biggs, JD to replace William Biggs, MD, who is stepping down from the board. Staff had recommended that Thomas Warren III be appointed to the Zoning Board of Adjustment, though the council instead appointed Jason Burr.

On the Beautification and Public Arts Advisory Board, the council appointed Carrie Rushing instead of Katt Massey, who was recommended by staff, for a full term. Katt Massey was still given a seat, with the council appointing her to a vacant seat where staff had recommended appointing Krisha Paul.

The council also rejected staff’s recommendation to appoint Krisha Paul to the Library Advisory Board to replace Howard Rodriguez Mori. Staff had recommended Paul as she was the only applicant with an active library card. Instead, the council appointed Katy Reid in a 4 to 1 vote. Councilman Les Simpson voted against the appointment, noting that he would have preferred appointing Paul.

On the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, the council rejected recommendations to reappoint Jeff Brain, Sherrie Ferguson, and Johnathan D Terry to full terms. Instead, the council appointed Hobert “Gunny” Brown, Ronny Head, and Rodney Hill. Staff had recommended that Brown be appointed to a vacant seat on the board, but, given that the council appointed Brown to a regular term, they instead opted to appoint former councilman Howard Smith to the vacant seat.

On the Advisory Committee for People with Disabilities, the council rejected a recommendation to reappoint Potter County Commissioner Warren Coble. Instead, the council appointed Kimberly Benson.

On the Planning & Zoning Commission, the council rejected a recommendation to reappoint Renee Whitaker. In addition to Whitaker’s seat, there were two other open seats with regular terms without recommendations. The council chose to appoint Josh Langham, Dick Ford, and Noah Dawson to those seats.

John Attebury, who had been recommended by staff to be reappointed to the East Gateway Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) #2 Board of Directors, was rejected by the council, who instead appointed Alan Gertonson. The council did appoint Attebury to one of three open seats on the South Gateway TIRZ #3 Board of Directors.

On the Construction Advisory and Appeals Commission, the council rejected a recommendation to appoint Mario Bolanos to a seat designated for a commercial and industrial contractor. Instead, the council gave that seat to Jared Fuller. The council also rejected staff’s recommendation to appoint Bolanos to the Condemnation Appeals Commission. Instead, they gave the seat to Gary Ward.

If Councilman Tom Scherlen had his way, there would have been one more appointment where a staff recommendation was rejected. On the Amarillo Convention and Visitors Bureau, Scherlen had nominated Surin Patel, who was not recommended for any of the open seats by staff. The rest of the council accepted the staff recommendations for that board, though Scherlen voted against the motion.

In addition to appointments, the council cast their votes for the Randall and Potter Appraisal District boards, which together form the Potter-Randall Appraisal District Board. The boards for each county are elected by the various taxing entities in each county.

For Potter County, the council evenly split their 715 votes between John Coffee, Zachary Plummer, Cindy Spanel, Mitzi Wade, and Thomas Warren III. Given that the board has five open seats and that there were five nominees in total, all five are expected to be elected.

For Randall County, which also has five open seats, the city split their 680 votes between Vance Snider and Jinger White. However, there are also 4 other nominees, meaning that one of the six nominees will not be elected.