COLONY — The Colony Town Council appointed a new council member and town clerk during Tuesday’s meeting, and also approved a change to its meeting times beginning in July.

The council appointed Jerrold Flanigan to the council to take the place of Councilman Samuel Ashford, who resigned during the council’s June 8 meeting. The council also welcomed newcomer Councilman Michael Johnson to his first meeting after he was appointed on June 8 to take the place of Eric Carwell.

After he was welcomed by Mayor Curtis Johnson, Michael Johnson said he will not show any favoritism to any people or things except for the town of Colony and its residents. 

“I am here to do your bidding,” he said.

The council also passed a resolution to change its work session and meeting times, with the work sessions now beginning at 5:40 p.m. and the meeting beginning at 6 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month. 

The council also approved Gwendolyn Purifoy as its new town clerk after she had already been serving on an interim basis after the termination of previous town clerk Pat Ponder in April. Purifoy was selected out of four applicants to the position, and previously served as town clerk during two prior administrations. 

During the roll call vote to approve Purifoy’s appointment to the position, Councilwoman Ethel Alexander attempted to ask Purifoy questions about her previous stints as clerk, and was told by Purifoy that any questions about her employment must be asked during an executive session that is closed to the public. 

When Alexander asked to go into an executive session, the rest of the council disagreed, with Michael Johnson saying that the rest of the candidates were not present at the meeting to be questioned and pointing out that Alexander had missed the council’s work session when the applications for the clerk position were available to the council. 

After Alexander refused to make a vote on Purifoy’s appointment to town clerk, the motion passed after the rest of the council voted in favor of her taking the position. 

The council also voted to deny a reimbursement request for Alexander for her travel to the World Conference of Mayors in Tuskegee last month. 

Michael Johnson, who was appointed to Place 1 on the council and will be in charge of the town’s finances, said he wants to make sure that the council knows the rules about reimbursement that are included in the council’s handbook — any trips made by council members must be pre-approved by the council, and if the town’s vehicle is taking a group somewhere, anyone who travels in their own personal vehicle will have to pay for their own travel expenses.

Alexander said she was not asking for reimbursement for driving but for the hotel she stayed in while she was at the conference, but Michael Johnson said the trip was still not pre-approved by the council. 

“Any meeting where reimbursement is being requested must be pre-approved by the council,” he said.

The council also discussed the town’s food pantry and grab-and-go meal program after issues arose when Councilwoman Jasmine Cole allowed participants in Colony’s summer program to get meals and eat them on-site. Both the food pantry and summer program are located in the town’s educational complex. 

Margaret Dimbo, who has also been serving as an interim clerk along with Purifoy, said she had spoken with the Food Bank of North Alabama about the issue, and the food bank’s director told her that the state’s rules state that grab-and-go meals are not allowed to be eaten in the same place they are distributed.

She said the town can apply to be a grab-and-go meal distributor and a location for on-site feeding next year, which would allow for people to either take their meals to-go or eat them at the educational complex.

Cole said the town has purchased its own food for the children in the summer program and moved a microwave into the educational complex, so they will not need the grab-and-go meals in the future.