Council gets heated over recordings

Monday night’s City Council meeting came just shy of serialized reality television drama as accusations of deceit, dishonesty, and manipulation were thrown across the Auditorium stage by nearly every alderman at the table. Coming hot off a wave of public discourse over an article published by The Lovely County Citizen on April 14, alleging that members of council and the City Advertising and Promotion Commission lied under oath in litigation with previous employees of the CAPC, the discussion of “dishonesty and credibility of city officials” as amended to the agenda cranked the temperature up what was originally a long but swift ledger.

In Public Comments, business owner Rodney Slane explained his reasoning for secretly recording conversations with Mayor Butch Berry and members of council, which were used as evidence of malfeasance in the referenced article. He said that he felt that he was being manipulated by those in charge. He said as he acquired recordings, he reported them in confidence to the mayor’s office and ethics board, and said he hoped Berry would bring, in R. Slane’s own words, “atrocities to light.” He voiced a want for backdoor politics to stop and called for clarification and transparency from city government officials.

Realtor Ken Riley was the other Public Comment that referenced the recent talks saying that seeing trials on Facebook felt wrong to him. He spoke of his time as a resident of Chicago and that there were solutions saying, “screwing each other is not the way to get ahead, unless you are married to them.”

Discussion between aldermen was the first item of new business with Nick Roberts reading a prepared statement that the discussion was not meant to be a coup to remove individuals from office and that he was surprised by the overreach and lack of transparency revealed in the recent article.

Roberts continued that council is meant to “serve as a model of leadership” and must inspire public confidence. He said that constituents had expressed a loss of confidence in city leadership.

Alderman Autumn Slane passed a packet to aldermen saying it was further proof of dishonesty. She referenced problems with the city navigating increasing numbers of FOIA requests beginning in 2015 through last year, and that her understanding was that the community doesn’t “trust what we are doing here.” Without getting into specifics, she referenced newspaper articles through the years covering issues with water meters, the sinkhole that opened on Main Street and structure underneath the Auditorium and that these issues had not been brought to the forefront, ending by saying “I don’t trust anybody up here, to be honest” and “I think the recordings speak for themselves.”

Alderman Harry Meyer asked, “Why are you here?” to Slane if she did not trust those at the table. He argued some of the FOIA’s were made because the city “couldn’t satisfy one pair of people.” He also questioned if Slane could become an expert on issues from the past saying “I’m just dumbfounded you can be so smart in such a short amount of time.”

Alderman Melissa Greene said she had been recorded voicing her opinions with a friend, that she was ashamed for gossiping, but that she had not accused anyone of anything. Greene lamented the recordings describing them as “low as low can go.” Referencing the recording made of Berry, Greene told Slane that he was trying to prepare her to being a good alderman and that Slane had been the one to ask about the possible embezzlement of CAPC funds. Greene also declared that Tracy Johnson could not have embezzled funds.

Greene then described the work of a councilperson and mayor as being charged with the “health, safety and welfare of the city,” and that anyone assisting others in suing the city were not looking out for the city. She also questioned “Does everyone believe what is put in the paper?” saying that she doesn’t and that the case was not fully open to the public and implored “anyone with a brain,” to wait to hear the city’s side of the story.

Slane argued that private conversations after council meetings were not appropriate and that in private conversations, she was told that she needed to hold certain opinions to mesh with council. She accused council of dirty politics and said, “I fought dirty.”

While saying he was not familiar with everything going on, alderman Terry McClung said if everyone had been “playing by the rules” the city would not have received so many FOIA requests. He continued saying he did not like how things were run at the CAPC and he wished to put everything behind. Meyer scoffed with McClung saying, “Laugh all about it Harry.”

“You’ve been crying about the CAPC ever since you lost…” Meyer was interrupted before he could finish the statement with McClung repeating that he wanted to move on.

Greene stated that she agreed with Slane that conversations after meetings was inappropriate. She said she would learn and that she wants a diverse council as, “that’s how we learn and that’s how we get good laws.” Greene said that every person on council has gossiped but that they would learn from it. She also tried to assuage McClung’s worries of CAPC operations, “Every penny has a receipt, invoice, or contract.” And that she, Meyer, and McClung had all played a “huge part” in helping to change contracts and make the Aud more profitable.

Roberts said that the discussion was about dishonesty among officials saying, “Don’t shoot the messenger.” He said aldermen did not have the luxury to participate in gossip, “especially when you are defaming people’s livelihoods,” and asked why members would argue against honesty and transparency, which elicited applause from the unusually high attendance of council audience.

Meyer, whose voice raised once more, questioned who had been dishonest and that Roberts should “Come out and come out with your complaints.”

Aldermen Bill Ott, who had been silent, gave a point of order that while council was discussing the item, there was nothing actionable for council to proceed on and motioned to move on. Berry was quick to declare a motion on the table and asked for a second which was given by Meyer. Roberts, who had his hand up before the motion was made, questioned whether he could respond to Meyer. Meyer gave another scoff and chuckle while Berry argued to Roberts and Slane that the motion takes precedence. Slane declared to the audience that it was “another hush tactic.”

Ott said he would hold back on his motion to give Roberts the floor. Roberts read a Facebook post made by Meyer saying that a coup was developing, and citizens would be coming to council to request the resignation of Berry and other aldermen. Roberts said that a public forum was not the place to make such a post. Meyer argued it was his opinion and Roberts argued it was a statement and call to action. The discussion fizzled shortly after.

In Mayor’s comments at the end of the meeting Berry said he had not accused Tracy Johnson of embezzlement in the recording, but had been trying to explain the rumors in question were not about the city.

After the heated discussion there was talk of procedure and code of conduct at the table with Greene asking aldermen not to conduct business through personal phones at the table. Greene mentioned that texts between council members during a meeting were subject to FOIA and that she, the CAPC, and council were all guilty of doing so.

Other Items

• 2322 and 2323 which establish a city attorney and city prosecuting attorney passed third reading and emergency clause unanimously.
• Of the five new opportunities of food truck lottery slots three requests had been made which meant all three addresses won the lottery without needing a draw.
• Ward districts were successfully redrawn with three unanimous passes and evoking of the emergency clause to make it immediate. Changes included Ward 3 and Ward 1 both pushed into the original lines of Ward 2 to keep an approximate 205 people per ward. City Clerk Ann Armstrong had to ask for a five minute recess to allow her to go to city hall and bring back the original ward map to better show aldermen the changes.
• Item 3 that was a discussion of hiring an employee to handle FOIA requests was dropped with Greene saying she did not have all the information she wanted to present.
• Berry gave an update on city employee raises saying that department heads had resubmitted budgets with all full-time employees receiving a minimum of $15 an hour. The changes can be implemented at the city’s midterm budget review.