New Janesville City Council President Aaron Burdick wants to change how council members get appointed to city committees.
He has asked the council to pick one — and only one — committee they want to be on.
Emails that Big Radio obtained in an open records request filed with the city of Janesville reveal one city council member has misgivings.
In emails to Burdick, council member Paul Williams says he is concerned over the change because he wanted to sign up for more than one committee.
Under city rules, Janesville’s council president gets to set appointments for committees, although the council must vote to OK the appointments.
In the past, city council members gave the council president a ranking for their preferences on all committee openings. Burdick told Williams in an email he wanted a more streamlined signup for 11 open council spots on city committees.
Burdick’s new edict also asks each council member to give him the name of one committee they would not want to be on.
Williams says in an email to Burdick that he wants to be on both the plan commission and the Alcohol License Advisory Committee, which is the city’s liquor board.
Williams has served on those two committees for years during his decades-long tenure on the city council.
Last year, Williams failed to get reappointed to the city liquor board for a 17th year. That happened after Williams called full legal reviews of liquor license requests he opposed for wine walks, dining patios, and a 4-H Fair beer garden.
A city council agenda for Monday shows Burdick did not recommend Williams for a seat on the liquor board, although he did reappoint Williams to the city’s plan commission.
Burdick recommends council members Heather Miller and Larry Squire for seats on the liquor board.
Miller has served as the liquor board’s chairwoman for the last year. She won an appointment to the committee.
Miller won the chairwoman seat in a coin toss after she and another liquor board appointee repeatedly tied on a vote over who’d be at the committee’s helm.
Burdick did not return calls from Big Radio on Wednesday. Williams declined comment.
