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Allenhursts council search continues
Mayor: No obvious candidate to replace resigned councilman Douglass Burgess Jr.
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Since an Allenhurst councilman resigned last month, a spot on the council has yet to be filled and may not be until November.

Allenhurst City Councilman Douglass Burgess Jr. stepped down from his position April 8, which cut short his four-year term by seven months.

The mayor of Allenhurst, Thomas Hines, said that although both he and the other council members are searching for a new person, no one has come up as an obvious candidate for the job.

“(We want) someone that has Allenhurst in its best interest and someone who wants to be there to work with us and better Allenhurst and not a personal agenda,” Hines said. “We’re just trying to find someone interested.” 

Hines met with a few potential candidates last weekend in hopes of selecting a council member relatively soon. 

“I’m just really waiting for a phone call from them,” Hines said. “As long as there are two council members and myself, it makes a quorum. We have a quorum every time. We’re going to see how it goes and if it has to be, we can work until the election and see if someone’s going to run for this spot. If we can find someone to replace him now, we will. If not, we will wait until the election until someone is voted in.”

Council member Amanda Cox was tight-lipped about the search for a new council member.

“I have no comment,” Cox told the Courier in a phone interview. “We’re looking.”

According to Hines, both of his council members — Cox and Carl Easton — knew about Burgess’s resignation before he could tell them.

“They had already known before I had talked to them; I guess news travels pretty quick,” Hines said.

In an earlier report, Burgess said he had bigger plans and goals that he wanted to work on in his life and felt that he no longer could make changes to the city of Allenhurst through his position.

The former council member is working on jump-starting a nonprofit called HH Foundation, dedicated to helping locals find jobs and other services.

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