News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Monterey Board of Aldermen voted Nathan Walker to serve as interim mayor at a special called meeting Monday.
Walker was the only nominee made by the board to replace JJ Reels who resigned earlier this month. Walker will serve as the interim mayor, board chair, and keep his seat as a Third Ward Alderman until the August elections.
“We have a lot of goals, first thing is to get in here and kind of go through where we’re at,” Walker said. “I know a lot of things were kind of left hanging with the abrupt resignation, and of course, we wish their family the best, but it’s just time to get back to business and that’s all there is to it.”
Vice-Mayor Mark Farley was originally slated to serve in the position for the remainder of the term. However, he said he didn’t want the role.
“I never wanted to be mayor,” Farley said. “I’ve been on this (board) 20-some years and I’ve never wanted to be mayor. And I never had a notion to be the mayor.”
Walker is running for mayor in the August elections.
In other business, the Monterey Board of Alderman voted to terminate their partnership with current City Attorney Will Mullins. Mullins has been serving in his role after the resignation of the previous city attorney last March.
“We’ve been waiting on work product for months and months and months,” Walker said. “We keep getting the bills but we don’t really get a whole lot of paperwork. So I think it’s just kind of time we move on.”
Walker said that they are in talks with other attorneys and hope to have something finalized this week. He said that to his knowledge, they haven’t heard from Mullins since Reels’ resignation.
“Like every other attorney, they’re all super busy and I understand that,” Walker said. “But hopefully we’ll be able to find a good replacement for him.”
Mullins was not present at Monday’s special called meeting.
