Council - Special Meeting

to the Monday, December 15th meeting, special council meeting of the Pine Blast Town Council. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to theublic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [cough] First item of business is the approval of the agenda. I move we approve the agenda printed. I'll second it.

It's been uh moved and seconded to approve the agenda as presented. Any discussion? Um, is this when we talk about moving the If you need to amend that. Yes. Yes. So, I I would like to move the executive session up to the new business.

I make a motion to move. Do you want me to amend? I think Dennis just amended it. Okay, very good. What is the topic of the executive session? Um [clears throat] the u well there is no topic yet but after one happens there will be. Okay. So what's the hypothetical topic? The uh potential okay

uh discussion would uh revolve around the process of u how the selection of a replacement departing mayor would be handled. Okay. [clears throat] Do we have a second on that amendment?

I guess I'll second it. [laughter] It's been properly properly moved and seconded to amend the agenda to move the executive session to the second item of new business. Any further discussion? Can you have an executive session as new business under what? Can you have an executive session as new business? Well, it's not as new business. It's just moved up to Yeah. before visitor comments. Correct. Okay. I apologize. Executive session will follow new business. All those in favor?

I. All those opposed? Motion carries. Um now now we are back to the original um the original motion on the table which is the approval of the agenda. We did have a proper second but we have amended it. Can we have a motion for the amended agenda? I move that we approve the amended agenda. Second. It's been moved and seconded to approve the amended agenda. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I.

All those opposed? Motion carries. We are now on to the consent agenda. [clears throat] I move to approve the consent agenda. Second. Properly moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? I.

All those opposed. Motion carries. On to new business. Declaration of vacancy for the Pimluff's mayor. I'll just take a quick second to thank Mayor Fornstrom for his leadership over the past four years. Um, you will your absence will not go unnoticed. We wish you luck in your future uh position as our house district representative. We'll be cheering you on from the cheap seats and probably begging you for more money in direct distribution. [laughter] Thank you. Do we have to make a motion for this or

we will need to accept it? Yes. Do we have a declaration? Is there Well, is there a motion to declare a vacancy? I move that we declare a vacancy for the mayor of Pine Bluffs. I'll second it. It's been moved and seconded to declare a vacancy for the mayor of Pine Bluffs. All those in favor? I. Those opposed? Motion carries.

Okay. So, uh before we go into the huddle, um I need to correct [clears throat] uh attorneys never admit they make a mistake. You know, just they wait for the judge to tell them that. Um, but I did do some further evaluation of what we're looking at here and I I know that it was my explanation was done in public and with uh with your grace and understanding I'd like to expound upon that a little bit so that we get a little better handle on this. Okay. Uh there is a statute that is 2218102. Uh we just followed that. It's incumbent upon the governing body if um if anyone departs um with be [clears throat] it a council person or the mayor to acknowledge that in the public meeting and declare that there is a vacancy and you have done that. So that statute you're right on the money. Um 151107D um provides that uh a vacancy and this is unusual a vacancy in the office of mayor can only be filled by someone who's already been elected to the governing body. So, uh, it would that kind of narrows it down to the four of you. Okay. And [clears throat] and to do that, the governing body has to work through the process uh on their on their own u to decide who who will fill that vacancy. Um

the statute 151105 provides that the governing body has a general power of holding executive sessions. Um, the administrative procedures act 164 uh 905 I think it is uh talks about executive sessions and provides reasons why they are allowed. And this is where uh I kind of left off last time. It does provide that ex an executive session is appropriate. [clears throat] um when considering the appointment of a public officer, there's a narrow view of that and there's a broader view of that. Last time I took the narrow view of that which would be uh the appointed public officer of like Kim or Leanne or the judge or me or the police chief, those offices. However, um I broadened the the uh view of that after looking at other statutes and constitutional provisions that repeatedly refer to the office of mayor as a public officer. So, [clears throat] so the question that I was sort of scrambling to come to grips with is is what what are you doing? Are you appointing a mayor? And if so, is that an an appointment of a public officer? And I think that it is.

Uh the other question that I kind of dealt with is whether the four of you will be electing a public officer or will you be appointing a public officer. Um that's a close call, but you know I kicked it around with county attorney friend Mark Voss. Uh he struggled with it as well recently. the commissioners appointed our mayor. Uh they didn't consider that to be an election in the usual sense. So following uh in their uh in the path that they have plowed um I came to the conclusion that what we were probably it's fair to say that what you are doing is appointing a new public officer. And for that reason, uh the statute does provide that an executive session is permissible. Uh it's not mandatory. Uh if there's a motion to go into executive session, uh remember you cannot do things there, but you can talk about them. So um and you've done many executive sessions in the past, so you know how that works. So that's that's where we are and that's why uh I think it was a a proper thing to do to move the executive session up here earlier in the process so that it u so that sanitizes that if you wish to go into the executive session

u I won't say more than that I mean there's obviously some some uh finer points to some of these uh issues that we can talk about and you can question about. But for the benefit of the public and to just you know make sure everybody kind of understands what the level playing field looks like, I thought it wise to um you know to clarify some of those things. We're not viewing the appointment for mayor today though. Correct. That's something that we should talk about in the executive session is the process and timing. Yeah. [clears throat]

Right. [clears throat] I know it might make people uncomfortable, but I guess I'd prefer it to be public more than executive session since we're choosing a mayor for the down. But I understand some of that might need to be discussed in executive, but I guess I tend to lean more towards public for that if that's what you're asking. Well, I don't know. Did was there a motion? No, we do not have a motion.

So, I'm done. So now you guys, it's up to you guys. [laughter] Watching my hands. I understand what you're saying. Um, at the same time, I I feel that there might be interest from more than one party and to discuss all the particulars of the pros and cons of one candidate over the other. I I would feel more comfortable discussing some of that in executive session. I would say that I would also like to have more time to talk further with each of the individual council members before moving forward and any decision that I'm part of. And I I'm okay with going into executive session and talking about it. I just don't know how how productive it would be because I'm not completely clear about what I want to decide to do.

Well, I think we don't we don't have to do something today, right? We [clears throat] now know it's an option. we don't have to move forward with an executive session today, right? It sounds like maybe that's the pleasure of the council is to wait on that. Um [clears throat] is I think you should entertain a motion. Uh part of the reason I will try to shed some light on um we have some uh not a burning house kind of emergency but u we have real estate closing that's bearing down on us and the mayor has sign stuff. We have other things that operationally where we need a mayor. Um, if we end up in a deadlock, I got to make the rounds of the district court judges and see if I can bribe one of them into giving us a decision on how to dissolve that. And that may take some time. So I really think we need to talk about some of these things now.

So ideally we would enter to possibly pick a date talk through some of these nuances. Everyone else should you need some should everyone else need some time to mle it over. No decisions are made today, but we'll just kind of go through these steps is kind of what you're proposing. Correct. Yeah, something like that. Okay. I'll move to go into executive session. I'll second it. Okay. Moved and seconded to go into executive session. All those in favor? I.

Those opposed. We are now entering executive session.