On June 25, at the meeting of the Danville City Commission, Mayor Hunstad apologized to Mrs. Linda Tillman for not showing her the courtesy of informing her before she was replaced that she would not be reappointed to the Ethics Board.
In this citizen’s opinion, he needed to do more apologizing than that. Unless he is instituting a policy that people cannot succeed themselves on city boards and committees, replacement of Mrs. Tillman could suggest that influential people disapprove of her performance on the board.
Mayor Hunstad distanced himself from any such assessment of her service by saying that he had only been presented with a vacancy to be filled and did not know who would be replaced by his nominee.
It is reassuring that no repudiation of Mrs. Tillman was intended, but not reassuring that he did not inform himself about who was being replaced and what the replacement does to the composition of the board — now five white men.
If having representation of women and people of color on the board is not a concern of his, he owes not only Mrs. Tillman but the people of Danville an apology. Decades ago, I was a member of our city’s Ethics Committee, and it included female and minority members. I had hoped that we would not regress.
Eric Mount
Danville
