All by myself, don’t wanna be all by myself anymore…

    Late last week, I got a call from someone about a vote taken by city council members concerning paying for an economic study relating to a tax increment financing proposal.  Apparently there was some dispute in the community about the developer paying for it, and the city was being asked to help fund the proposal.

    The question related to the fact that the Mayor apparently sent out an email to all members of the council asking if it was okay to agree to pay for part of the cost of the study.  This Mayor clearly had forgotten that this involved the expenditure of public funds.  A public governmental body cannot simply make those kinds of decisions by responding to information emails from the mayor.  This kind of a decision requires a vote to be taken in an open meeting.

    I suppose if some kind of emergency existed and this vote to spend money had been required for some reason where there was clear evidence that the body couldn’t wait to give the proper notice and hold a meeting, there might be a basis to argue that an electronic “meeting” was required with a lack of proper notice.  But there’s no evidence such an emergency existed, and even if it had, this was not the proper way to conduct such an emergency meeting.  The Mayor clearly failed on every level.

    What’s even funnier is that the Mayor’s hand was called by one of the very members of this city’s council.  And what did the Mayor do when her hand was called?  She told the member, in a huff, that this member’s vote was the sole one opposed to the measure, so it didn’t matter what she thought.

    Those sound like words that someone may regret someday!  How sad that only one member of this illustrious body understands their obligation under state law and wants to do the right thing!