City Council - Special Meeting

mayor Parton here councelor Ellis here vice mayor Joiner here councelor Harris here councelor D here councelor Stokes here councelor Holloway here we have a quorum okay uh let's see first thing is uh do we have a motion to allow councel Holloway to participate remotely second okay motion's been made by vice mayor Joiner and seconded by councelor Stokes is there any uh any discussion uh councelor hallway for the record can you state where you're conducting the meeting from and the reason you're asking to participate remotely uh yes um from my residence and medical okay all right any discussion seeing no lights roll call please councelor Harris mayor Parton yes councelor Ellis yes councelor day yes councelor Stokes yes vice mayor Joiner yes motion passes 6 to zero okay at this time is there a motion to go into close meeting pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2 d37 71 A7 consultation with legal counsel oh on in briefings by staff members or Consultants pertaining to actual or probable litigation where such consultation or briefing in an open meeting would adversely affect the negotiating or litigating posture of the public body and 2.2 3711 A1 discussion consideration or interviews of prospective candidates for employment followed by an open session to discuss the repeal of the recently adopted conflict of interest policy and to the

extent such discussion will be aided thereby so okay um let's see I'll give that one to councelor day and then the second to councelor Holloway any discussion seeing no lights roll call please councelor Harris yes mayor Parton yes councelor Alice yes councelor day yes councelor Stokes councelor Stokes hold on I'm reading something I'm reading the second part hold on yes councelor Hollow discuss yes vice mayor Joiner yes Mo motion passes 7 to Z okay okay I'll second it is there any discussion seeing no lights roll call please councelor Harris what coming out close coming out close session yeah mayor Parton yes councelor Ellis yes councelor day yes councelor Stokes yes councelor Holloway yes vice mayor Joiner yes motion passes 7even to zero okay uh our first item that we have to do is action coming out of close session do I have a motion to end all legal action injunctions appeals demurs uh to Ronnie Ellis second all right motion's been made by counselor Day seconded by vice mayor Joiner is there any discussion yes yes uh councelor Holloway and then counselor

Stokes yes I'd like to publicly commit to the constituents tonight that we um are in the middle of Court litigation in which the city uh has been uh bought a filing of suit uh by now counselor uh Ronnie Ellis in regards to conflict of interest matters um and select uh members of council which en joined by the majority tonight had agreed um to stop all litigations I am not in favor of stopping these litigations because there's so much conflict of interest um according to things that were stated um all of the counselors believe that having a employee um from the city all seven councilors believe that having an employee from the city um directly causes conflict of interest and could be quite problematic having um employees from the city but some particular counselors even though they think that this is a conflict truly believe um in the right to privilege for this particular counselor to go forward um to grandfather him in even against our City's ordinance and aside of our city ordinance State statutes um I think that it is quite improper um because even it even with the ordinance out of the way right now we have ordinance in place and so there's legal matters um that stopping the litigation legal matters are still in place that we still have a standing ordinance and we still have standing state law by the Commonwealth of Virginia that says that this is a pratic conflict of interest

especially in the seat as an employee to be basically uh a boss to to his boss I think it is it is is such a a conflicting thing I will be going live tonight via social media and doing a press release um to go into detail and release um recordings from certain Clos session meetings on tonight previous Clos session meetings and also um other recorded conversations concerning counselors uh via phone calls and in person uh that is my statement I digress okay uh councelor Stokes um this was a very very difficult uh place to be in a decision to had to be made but from my standpoint and from reviewing all that has been presented regarding this nothing prevented uh counselor Ellis from sitting as a counselor um so in making my decision he is on councel he has every right to serve as a counselor the issue now becomes his employment and at that point that's a separation of apples and oranges um it's an employment matter and federal law state law local law allows an employer to hire and fire at will and to take away that at will status um from city government is unfair to the constituents it's unfair to us um he's won his election he's sitting on Council and now that decision regarding his employment has to be decided those are two separate issues and to to join them is mixing apples and

oranges so that's what my decision was based on okay seeing no more lights uh call please councelor Harris yes mayor Parton yes councelor councelor day yes councelor Stokes no councelor Holloway absolutely not vice mayor Joiner yes motion passes four to two Okay and for the record uh Mr Ellis has excused himself uh from this vote and he also not participate in any Clos meeting discussion uh please make sure that that's annotated in the minutes okay uh moving on to uh special business uh the repeal of the recently adopted conflict of interest policy uh we received an AG's opinion uh on this policy at this time is there a motion to repeal uh the recently adopted conflict of interest policy s all right motion has been made by councelor J and seconded by vice mayor jiner is there any discussion okay seeing no lights roll call please councelor Harris no I said excuse me I said yes there was discussion okay we did not hear you uh U uh this question is is a point of voed to the City attorney if if if this motion fails and it continues to be in place then the ordinance is still in place and and in fact are we violating uh any laws at that

space um I'm not quite sure I understand the question but uh the ordinances I'm sorry not the ordinances the state statutes form the basis for the policy that was adopted by resolution and even if you don't have the policies the policy you still have to abide by the state statutes and uh there's a whole Litany of um State statutes that apply to conflict of interest in their very complex and uh a an opinion of the Attorney General was sought with respect to this conflict of interest policy and um the city now is um uh advised by the AG's office that the Attorney General's office that um any questions about whether or not the conflict of interest policy is uh effective or applies to a particular uh individual uh is done on a caseby Case basis and those questions should be put to the Commonwealth's Attorney so I suppose my opinion doesn't really matter because it's the Commonwealth attorney's opinion that supposedly um forms the basis for decisions now if forms the B form the basis okay so that so so now every single time for instance if I have a um uh U thought of a basis of something that we're voting on and I cander

against it then that has the the vote or whatever has to then become mute and wait for the Commonwealth's opinion to come in at that point uh well yeah um you probably should get the Commonwealth opinion Commonwealth Attorney opinion before the matter is uh put forward for a vote and and that would then be his opinion would then become public record correct yes all right so if there's something out of line and we believe that it is uh against the law then that is something that we take to the courthouse to file suit and those matters ifs soever we choose to do um I I would think that you would go to the Commonwealth attorney's office first and ask the Commonwealth attorney's office for an opinion as to whether or not um the law has been broken and the Commonwealth Attorney will advise you whether or not the law has been broken thank you so very much I digress okay see no more discussion roll call please Council Harris no mayor Parton yes councelor Ellis yes councelor D yes councel Stokes no councel Holloway and this is voting to repeal correct can can you give me a count Madam uh City uh city clerk the rated two all right and and I do not wish to repeal vice mayor joinor yes

okay all right is there a motion to adjourn move all in favor say I I any opposed so