CITY HALL — Berea native Barry Poynter has been appointed by City Council to fill the seat vacated earlier this week by Cora Jane Wilson, who has moved out of the jurisdiction. Wilson was in the audience during the appointment.

In a special called Council meeting, six Councilmembers approved Poynter's appointment in a voice vote. Councilmember Ronnie Terrill was the sole dissenter. Following the vote, Poynter was sworn in by Mayor Bruce Fraley. Councilmembers Steve Caudill and John Payne, along with City Administrator Shawn Sandlin, City Clerk Robin Adams, and some reporters, attended Poynter's swearing in. The brief ceremony was held in a conference room at City Hall.

Poynter was nominated during the meeting by Caudill, who worked under Poynter in the EKU finance department when Poynter was employed there.

Poynter, who has an MBA from EKU, has spent his career working jobs in higher education finance. He currently is the vice president for finance at Berea College, where he began his career in a number of financial roles, including as director of trust and investment administration, before moving on to the University of the Cumberlands to become their vice president for business and finance. Next, he spent 18 years in the finance department at EKU, where he held a senior leadership position until returning to work at Berea College in 2024.

Before his swearing in, Poynter told The Edge in an interview that he has lived in Berea his entire life. "I went to Silver Creek, I went to Foley, I went to Central, I went to Berea College," he said. "Being on Council is something that interested me. I want to do it."

"[Poynter] meets a lot of objectives that I think are important on Council, like our relationship with Berea College, and [he'll] be thoughtful," Councilmember Katie Startzman told The Edge in an interview following the special called meeting. "One of the things I'm excited about is [he'll] raise the level of discourse for the upcoming election."

Startzman also said I the interview that since she did could not think of anyone to nominate for appointment, when Caudill recommended Poynter, she supported him. "I feel like I have a level of trust with my colleague, that if he recommended him, and I didn't have any good ideas, then I could support his nomination."

During the meeting, Terrill had requested to table the appointment so there could be more time to consider how to fill the vacancy. "I'm disappointed we're here, because I really think people have decided who they want instead of waiting. I don't know the guy, but I think we need to meet him before we swear him in, see what his policies are," Terrill said during the meeting, before Poynter's name had been announced.

After the meeting, Terrill told The Edge that, "They decided it when they knew Cora Jane was going to leave." When it was suggested by a reporter to Terrill that there needed to be a vetting process before choosing an appointee, Terrill said, "They didn't need to do it overnight."

When asked by The Edge about Terrill's complaint, Caudill also said it would have been impractical before the vote not to have come to a consensus on who to appoint and then not asking the candidate ahead of time whether, if appointed, that person would accept.

Caudill also told The Edge after the meeting that there had been several candidates "that there were good, viable options" but that Poynter "made total sense. He has the breadth of knowledge, and the history, and the background. From a financial perspective, you're not gonna find anybody who understands [government] and public accounting, the way we do audits, what they look like, like he does. He's done that for decades."

Before the vote was taken during the meeting, Councilmember Teresa Scenters said that Councilmembers had "had some input" that they should look to the most recent Council election and choose the person who'd just missed earning enough votes to win a seat, and offer it to them now. Scenters indicated that was impractical because that person, former Councilmember Jim Davis, said Scenters, "is no longer interested" because he is "happy being on the Tourism Commission." The next highest vote-getter, Bobby Abner, has moved away, according to Scenters. In an interview following the meeting, Scenters said that the "input" to return to the spate of candidates form the last election had come via email from some citizens.