A meeting of the City Council was held at one o’clock pm on Sunday in City Hall on February 10th.  Notice of the meeting was posted Friday and the local newspaper received personal notice.  The Sunday meeting was agreed to, publicly, at the meeting held Thursday evening.

The meeting was held to receive legal advice on an urgent personnel matter resulting from the executive session of the Council scheduled for the 7th.  Upon returning from the private meeting, Mayor Novak and two members of the Council refused to reconvene the public meeting; choosing instead to leave City Hall.  With two other Council members absent for the evening, the refusal of the three to participate left the remaining members without a quorum.

I was one of the two members required per Charter that called for the executive session on the 7th to consult with the attorney concerning several matters; one of which occurred the previous week.  With only thirty days under my belt as a member of council, my participation was a difficult decision.  I felt that circumstances in city hall required action before incidents occurring in 2007 and continuing to this date escalated.

The agenda for the Sunday meeting was, “Consideration of action regarding City Manager Employment Agreement with miscellaneous follow-up items.”  The meeting was packed due to the calls “to save the city manager” from some members of the Council and their residents.  All of this was not new to the City Manager because he faced the same public conflict while serving the city he left to come here.

One of the members, Susan Clyne, revealed some of the reasons the meeting was being held and chastised the Manager for his past behavior.  She then offered an amendment to the main motion to establish a corrective action program instead of termination.  Neither the Manager’s supporters nor detractors were willing to compromise at the last second.  As a result, the motion to terminate was defeated five to four.  Due to the nature of the strife in city hall I was one of the four.

As a new member of the City Council, I now know the motive behind the manager’s increase in severance pay that was rammed through in December by the old Council.  They should have addressed the issue rather than providing him with additional severance, looking the other way and putting the yoke on the new Council. As it stands now, the City Manager has heard the very public comments and warning about future dealings with the staff and public.  Let the peace begin in the seat of our local government.

The Council has made a decision and it is necessary for all parties to move forward.  We have much to do and are years behind in taking a new, progressive path.