CALLAWAY — A Callaway city commissioner announced his resignation at Tuesday’s City Commission meeting.
David Otano, commissioner of Ward 3, resigned effective immediately following his announcement at Callaway Board of Commissioners regular meeting.
At the beginning of the meeting, he said he was resigning. He left the meeting without saying why.
“Kudos to you guys,” he told commissioners before stepping down from the dais, “But due to personal reasons …” He then shook hands with commissioners and audience members and then he left.
Later, city attorney Kevin Obos stated Otano moved to Southport, forfeiting his seat. Commissioners agreed to leave the seat open until April’s election.
Otano was elected as commissioner of Ward 3 in 2012. The seat would have been occupied until 2016 elections had he not resigned.
The next person to win the seat will serve two years — until elections in 2016.
Also at the meeting, commissioners unanimously approved a revised interlocal agreement with the Bay County for Animal Control services.
The board had a lengthy discussion about the county’s oversight over calls, runs and billing process. Some commissioners wanted more reporting and accountability on the county’s part in order to accurately prove how many calls the service responds to. The city pays for the number of times the service responds to calls.
However, commissioners tasked the city manager and city attorney to find ways to penalize pet owners in Callaway for repeat pet offenses.
Mayor Thomas Abbott said to shift costs from the city to the pet owner would ultimately decrease the number of calls and runs to which the county responds because pet owners would not want to pay the fee and would make more measures to secure their pets.
Commissioners voted and approved unanimously changes to mobile home policies, requiring all existing and future mobile homes to have skirting.
Commissioner Dennis Delapp was absent from the meeting.
