A former Newcastle Planning and Zoning Commission member whose term expired in 2024 is no longer on the board, and City officials said although he continued serving through earlier this year, there was no wrongdoing on the City’s part.
Jared Bennett, recently removed from the Planning Commission, went to social media to say his term expired on the Planning and Zoning Commission in March 2024, but he continued the position and continued to vote on agenda items through February 2025. He said if entities had items on the agendas from March 2024 through February 2025, they should question their authenticity.
City officials said there is nothing illegal, and all business taken up by the commission continues to be in force. Newcastle’s Code of Ordinances for a Planning Commission indicate that members shall be appointed for a three-year term, and until their successors are appointed and qualified.
The City Attorney’s opinion of this is that even though Bennett’s term was over on March 2024, no replacement had been appointed, so any votes he continued to be involved in are still legal.
The City indicates that Bennett was appointed by the City Council, and they decided to terminate his place on the commission. They believe that City ordinance allows for a planning commission member to continue service until some action is taken to either reappoint, appoint, or replace, but any votes placed by that Planning Commission member who has continued serving past their term are still valid.
In an unrelated item, comments were also made on social media about City Council member Gene Reid missing two meetings in a row. The City indicates that the person making the post had misinterpreted state statutes on the matter.
State Statutes, which are adopted into City Code, indicate that “whenever a member of the City Council is absent from more than onehalf of all regular and special meetings of the City Council held within any period of four consecutive months, he or she shall thereupon automatically cease to hold office, unless the remaining members of the City Council vote to retain him or her on the City Council.” Reid did not miss more than onehalf of all regular and special meetings.
Reid told the Newcastle Pacer he missed one meeting in October 2024 and one in December due to two different illnesses.
He said, “No matter how you measure the four-month period, I just had the two misses. It did not trigger that aspect of our ordinance.”
Reid said when the complaint was made, his first check was with the City Attorney, where he acknowledged missing two meetings.
Reid said, “He did a thorough search, looking into the laws and ordinances, and determined I did not trigger that statute.”
Other city officials verified that, saying the attorney agreed that there had been no wrongdoing on the part of the City concerning Reid’s service on the Council.
