The Mandeville City Council voted 3-2 to appoint Councilman Jerry Coogan’s nominee to the Planning and Zoning Commission Thursday night but voted unanimously to table an ordinance that would regulate term limits for those on the commission.

Mayor Pro Tem Trilby Lenfant and Councilman Jeff Bernard voted against appointing nominee Scott Quillin Thursday night, saying the appointment should wait until the appointment process is reviewed and problems are addressed.

“If we are going to look at the section (of the city’s Comprehensive Land Use Ordinance) concerning appointments (to the Planning and Zoning Commission) I’m not ready to make an appointment tonight,” she told the rest of the council. “Since we deferred the ordinance, I don’t see why we can’t defer the appointment,” Bernard said.

Coogan said he requested the ordinance, which he and Councilwoman Adelaide Boettner placed on the agenda in the first place, be tabled because it was not written as he intended.

“I agreed instantly to defer it,” Coogan said, “because, frankly, it needs work.”

Currently Planning and Zoning Commissioners can serve an unlimited number of seven-year terms as long as they are reappointed every seven years.

Coogan wants to change that, saying “there are a lot of bright, willing citizens out there who would bring fresh ideas to the commission.”

If adopted as written, the tabled ordinance would limit commissioners to serving only one seven-year term. The only exception would be for someone who is finishing up an unexpired term. At which time, he or she would be allowed to finish that term and be appointed to one more.

Coogan said while he would be willing to vote in favor of limiting the number of seven-year terms to one, he would much rather see the length of the terms reduced.

“Seven years is too long,” he said. “If we go with seven years I want term limits.”

Ideally, Coogan said, he would like the terms changed to four years, and he would like them to run concurrent with the council’s. He would like each councilmember to have an appointment, which would run as long as that councilmember is in office.

Council members are limited to two four-year terms.

He said once a new councilmember is elected, he or she could decide if they want to keep the same person or appoint someone new.

Lenfant’s beef is not with the number of terms commissioners are allowed to sit on the commission, but rather with the process with which they are placed on the commission.

Currently the council as a whole appoints members to the Planning and Zoning Commission but traditionally council members have each had one nomination.

Lenfant wants that to stop.

“It’s not supposed to be a political appointment by one council member,” she said. “It should be advertised. It should be opened up and made a transparent process. Take politics out of the process.”

Two of the current members have served for more than 20 years.

Leonard Rohrbough and Nixon Adams have served on the commission since 1985 and 1984 respectively.

At their meeting Tuesday night, both scoffed at the idea of term limits, saying experience helps them make decisions.

“One four-year-term concurrent with the council term is absurd,” Adams said. “You could imagine what would happen if this whole board had a turnover every four years.”

Quillin was appointed to replace Larry Rase, who was appointed by Coogan to fill Ron Green’s unexpired term when he moved outside city limits three years ago.

Rase said Tuesday night that he is “not sure what his (Coogan’s) main goal is.”

He applauded the efforts of Rohrbough and Adams, saying they “led the city of Mandeville through the 90s and into a new century.”

He said he was “taken off guard” when he was notified of Coogan’s decision not to reappoint him.

“I see something in Mr. Coogan’s efforts,” he added, not elaborating as he finished out what would be his last meeting as a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission.

His replacement, Quillin, is an electrical engineer and a commercial contractor. He has served on Parks and Parkways since 2006 and is president of the Fontainebleau Property Owners Association.