Powell City Councilman Tim Sapp will continue to serve as the council’s president after being unanimously reelected to the post by his colleagues this month.

The council president’s primary duty is to lead the city’s meetings when the mayor is absent. Sapp was immediately pressed into service following his Jan. 16 reelection: With Mayor John Wetzel not in attendance, Sapp led the 16-minute meeting.

City ordinance states that, whenever the mayor is temporarily absent, the council president “is vested with all of the authority and duties of the mayor.” A temporary absence occurs when the mayor is out of town (and files a “declaration of temporary absence” with the city clerk) or when the mayor is unable to perform the duties of the office due to “illness or hospitalization.”

If both the mayor and council president are unavailable, the council can elect an acting president to temporarily take on the leadership role.

Sapp is beginning his sixth term and 21st year on the council. He’s served as council president since August 2020.

The council also decided to stick with some familiar faces on city boards — confirming the mayor’s reappointments of Heath Streeter and Ronn Smith to the city planning and zoning commission and Glen Holm to the zoning board of adjustment. 

The planning commission is a seven-member board that’s tasked with advising the city on “urban planning, land use studies, urban renewal plans, technical services, economic improvements, the creation of a long-range master plan, the creation of a master street plan, and any other and all types of planning studies requested by the city council.”

Meanwhile, the five-member board of adjustment hears appeals of zoning decisions made by city staff and requests for certain types of variances from the city’s zoning rules.