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Mayor Myra Campbell has selected a member of the city’s clergy to be her representative on the Asbury Park Planning Board.

City resident Rev. Kenneth Mitchem, pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Cookman Avenue, will join the board as the mayor’s designee.

Mitchem is a retired Marine, she said. He keeps an element of diversity on the dais and represents a constituency of people that are underrepresented as the city moves forward with the planning process, she said.

Under state law, four classes of members serve on the planning board. The class one member is either the mayor or the mayor’s designee.

The move allows Campbell [shown above, in center, at a previous City Council meeting] to free up some time so that she can get to work establishing a Quality of Life Committee, which she has wanted to do for some time, she said.

“For years, there have been several quality of life issues in the city including speeding, abandoned cars on the streets, trash … these are just a few examples,” she said. “Hopefully we can put together some kind of program so that our city is cleaner.”

Campbell hopes to have people from all parts of the city involved in the committee, she said

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