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HomeMy Public PortalAbout2016_tcmin0208SPEC COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING February 8, 2016 Council Chambers, 25 West Market Street, 6:30 p.m. Vice Mayor Burk and Mayor David S. Butler presiding. Council Members Present: David Butler, Thomas Dunn, Suzanne Fox, Katie Sheldon Hammler, Marty Martinez and Vice Mayor Burk Council Members Absent: None. Staff Present: Town Manager Kaj Dentler, Deputy Town Manager Keith Markel, Town Attorney Barbara Notar, and Executive Associate I Tara Belote. AGENDA ITEMS 1. CALL TO ORDER 2. ROLL CALL: Showing all members present 3. APPOINTMENT/SELECTION PROCESS FOR MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBER a. Appointment of Mayor On a motion by Vice Mayor Burk, seconded by Council Member Martinez, the following was proposed: MOTION I move that the Town Council publicly advertise an opening for the interim mayor for five business days on our website and any other available media. The town council will seek resumes from interested individuals to fulfill the duties of the mayor. After five days, the Council will convene a special public meeting on Februaryl8, 2016 to review the resumes and select an interim mayor. This will ensure fair and transparent selection that allows all interested town residents to participate in the process. Council Comments: • Burk: The reason I have asked us to do this —made this motion today is my concern that there are people in the community that don't know about how the process is going to work. So, we had one meeting where we started the process and we were not able to conclude it. Mr. Dunn made a motion to postpone discussion to the next meeting. But that next meeting was cancelled due to the snow and so this is the following meeting that we have had. This is the second meeting on this particular topic. Council Member Butler and Fox called for a special meeting and so that is why we are meeting here today. I think I have been on the record the whole time that we have been through this process that I do think it is important that the public have input and be involved. So, therefore, that is why I have moved this motion. • Martinez: I know on our last meeting that we discussed this, I made a motion that we do this and it got shot down. I think that for those of us who ran our races, our campaigns, a lot of the discussion was open and 1 I Page COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING February 8, 2016 transparent and allowing the government, or not the government, the citizens to participate in our process and what we do. Now, open and transparency doesn't mean easy. It is when you have to make hard decisions and you know, involving the public even though there are mechanisms that we can push this thing through without any citizen input; without allowing the public to have some insight in our processes. There are mechanisms in place to do that. I don't think we should use them as easily as we are currently doing. This is not easy. We need to bring the public in. There are plenty of qualified candidates out there that we can review and can hold the interim mayor spot. The difference between my resolution and Kelly's is that she has a date certain on which we have to get this thing done, which I am totally in favor of. So, I believe that if we all agree that open and transparency mean bringing public input in—giving the public a chance to weigh in on the discussion, then you should support this. Any other thing says that you are willing to go ahead and bypass the process and not include the public or include our citizens. • Fox: By having a special meeting, does that preclude the public from any input from this meeting? It does, so they have no say in it whatsoever but what they have seen in the papers and things like that. • Butler: Point of order. We have no problem. We are all here. So, we can open up a council comments, or not council comments, public comments, if we wish. Since we are all present, we can actually in theory transact any business that we want to at a special meeting. • Burk: True, but the public didn't know that we would be doing this, so they might have wanted to have been here if they could have known about it. • Fox: I disagree with that. I have seen many members of the public say that there is a meeting tonight. They are aware of it and people should show up for it. • Hammier: Just for the record. When I check the record, I believe that Tom Dunn and I both supported in December having a work session about this very topic. So, this really should have been done in December. It was decided that we did not, for whatever reason, as the will of Council was not to do it, so it is a little inconsistent relative to deciding after a special meeting is called that we have to reschedule and do another special meeting, but clearly there is validity in as much public input that the public would like to provide. • Dunn: I have a long standing history of being opposed to just about any type of special meeting. I think we should conduct our business during our normal business hours and that there should be very little reason unless it is an emergency to call for a special meeting. I understand the desires of those who asked for this meeting of trying to select an interim mayor so we can start going forward with our regular meetings effective tonight with a work session and then tomorrow with our regular meeting with potentially a new interim mayor leading those. And I can 2 I Page COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING February 8, 2016 understand that. I would say to this motion that I would be for this if after our meeting now that we have actually drug ourselves out and these poor people that we should conduct some business other than just saying that we are now going to go back and punt and have another meeting later on. I would be fine with this, if we cannot come to a conclusion this evening for either an interim mayor and/or a potentially open council seat, but since we are here now, I would just say let's go forward and see what kind of business we can do or discussion we can have and then if we can't reach a conclusion, then I am all for doing what we said originally, which I think is still on the agenda. By the way I forgot to get my new book. I have got the old book from the other meeting, that we should be having a work session tomorrow night on this. From that work session, we should be citing what our process would be. So, if we can't come up with a decision tonight, we should be going to what our process should be tomorrow. So, I feel that this motion is still out of order because we haven't all agreed to that. There has been no discussion about, actually what is our process. By the way, there was some discussion over the phone today—I talked to Katie about that today that our process is we are not dictated by anything other than we either appoint someone or if we can't do that, the court will select someone or in certain circumstances, the court will select someone and there could be an election depending on what the seat is and the length of time, so there is no dictate as to how we would do that. It is up to us to decide how we do it and I am always very interested in hearing from the public but I think that since we are here now, we should just go ahead and see what type of business we generate. If we can't, then we should have a work session on it tomorrow to decide what the actual process will be—not just decide that on the fly with this motion. • Hammler: Because Tom referenced a conversation we had earlier and I sent to Council, thanks to our Town Attorney, from my perspective and it seems logical and the citizens would expect that an interim mayor would presumably be the vice mayor. The vice mayor has been selected and we made that decision to serve as the mayor and absent the mayor being on the dais or any other function. It got rather complicated when Kelly announced publicly that she would not seek the interim mayor position so I was just checking the duties thinking at some point that is what the community expects from us, so it was pointed out to me today that technically according to our charter, we are not dictated by appointing, necessarily the vice mayor, but to me it seemed logical. Obviously for the record, I did not vote for Kelly last time because I was sort of taken up heart because she said she wouldn't take the seat and it requires special election so we had to do a little bit more research on how the special election would work. So, for the public's benefit what essentially happens is anyone running for council could, if the vice mayor were selected to be interim mayor would be able to run for the special election on the November ballot if that were the date of the special election because Kelly's term doesn't end until 2018, and could also run for any of the open 3 I Page COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING February 8, 2016 three staggered council terms. If somebody wanted both those seats, then we would be right back to where we started from needing to appoint someone given again the staggered terms. So, probably the thing that this Council has learned is when we chose a vice mayor that person should be willing and able to serve if the mayor determines he or she isn't going to finish her term given when that person's term ends. So, we are now back to presumably we will be looking towards a different solution and I would certainly support after this is all over having a better defined resolution that defines the continuity of Council operations because this has obviously been rather complex given how this has evolved. But that is a little background on why I had this discussion about, you know, ultimately are we bound, quote on quote, by any specific town charter verbiage. • Dunn: Just to expand on it a little bit just so that the public is aware that again there is no dictate that we must chose the most senior council member. There is no dictate that we should choose the person who got the next closest votes to getting elected. There is no dictates that we—the vice mayor is automatically in that position. The only thing that it says is we must choose in some form or another. So, we are working well within the very liberal guidelines that have been set before us. By the way, I don't think it is proper for the vice mayor to have to take that position, especially since the vice mayor was not elected to that position by the people. The vice mayor was chosen by at least four people here on Council. Only council makes a vice mayor, the citizens do not. So, the next person in line, should not, in my view become mayor because meaning the vice mayor should not become mayor just by that position because the citizens had no say in that unless they don't like that decision, they can vote down those people who put that person in that position. So, yes, we have all the cards that we have been dealt. We are using them and it is basically select somebody from amongst yourself. If you can't do that, the court will do it if we reach a certain time frame and under certain circumstances, there could be an election depending on the position and the time that empty seat is open. • Hammier: Point of order. Tom, were you tabling the motion by saying that you want to wait until later in the meeting. I was a little unclear. • Dunn: Are you talking about last meeting? • Hammier: I'm talking about this motion on the table. You said somehow we were going to have town business conducted, but now this motion is being called for a vote. Were you planning to vote on this motion or table it until later in the meeting? • Dunn: I am planning on voting against this motion for the reason I mentioned earlier, which is we come out to conduct business. We have announced that. A lot of folks are here looking for us to do something. I would not have made this motion and however I am for expanding the process, which I was before the same reason I voted to postpone our last vote to our next meeting, which is tomorrow—well, it's tonight, actually. It is at our work session. I keep forgetting this is the night we are actually 4IPage COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING February 8, 2016 having two meetings. So, yeah, technically if we don't get this decision made tonight, we should be having a work session on this tonight. The motion failed by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Martinez and Vice Mayor Burk Nay: Dunn, Fox and Hammier Vote: 3-3 On motion by Council Member Hammier, seconded by Vice Mayor Burk, C. Terry Titus was nominated for interim mayor. Council Comment: • Hammler: I would just like to mention that we have, I think a lot of the public was aware of what we were doing and in fact probably expects us to act tonight. Terry was willing and able to serve in the interim position previously. He has served on Council and has had many leadership roles for decades within Leesburg and Loudoun County. The motion failed by the following vote: Aye: Hammier, Martinez and Vice Mayor Burk Nay: Butler, Dunn and Fox Vote: 3-3 On a motion by Council Member Hammier, seconded by Council Member Fox, Council Member Butler was nominated for interim mayor. Council Comment: • Hammier: I believe we didn't officially have a vote, but we certainly had enough discussion at a work session—other avenues that it is certainly a benefit to have somebody on Council serve as the interim mayor and ultimately Dave has served as Vice Mayor and he has served on Council for eight years. I personally tried to find votes for in order of seniority on Council, could not get that in terms of Vice Mayor Burk, Marty Martinez, even myself, who is next in line—I think Dave would be a very effective interim mayor and I hope we could break the stalemate. • Burk: I will not be voting for Mr. Butler for reasons that I stated before. I feel very strongly that this should be someone who has not declared that they are running—that this shouldn't be a position that gives an unfair advantage to one person over another. I believe that there are many people out in the community that would obviously be willing, able and very talented to serve. So, for that reason, I will not be supporting this motion. • Martinez: I supported Terry because he set a precedent in helping us with the Council previously when we had a vacancy. I believe he is one of the most non-partisan, community oriented people. I am sorry that we didn't vote him in. Though, personally I would rather this go through public input where we do a candidate search. I think that a lot of the arguments 5 I Page COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING February 8, 2016 about having to have somebody on Council be mayor is really—it is- there are a lot of people come onto this Council that haven't had any experience that do a fine job and with Terry or others —there are a lot of qualified people out there that could step in and do just as well. I don't think it's necessary and I also believe that anybody who is running for any kind of office should not be interim mayor. It ends up being a political free for all when that happens so I can't support having anybody on Council and that includes the Vice Mayor. I would not vote for her. • Burk: I am crushed. • Martinez: I know you are crushed, but we talked about this before. • Burk: I am only kidding. The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Dunn, Fox and Hammler Nay: Burk and Martinez Vote: 4-2 Council Member Butler was sworn in as Mayor by Clerk of the Circuit Court Gary Clemens. On a motion by Council Member Hammier, seconded by Vice Mayor Burk, the following was proposed: MOTION2016-003 I move that we publicly advertise an opening for interim council member for five business days on our website and any other available media. The town council will seek resumes from interested individuals who can fill the duties of interim council member. After the five days, we request that staff coordinate with all members of Council to find a date the week of February 15 that works for all council members for that special meeting to select the interim council member. Council Comment: • Dunn: Again, I think that there was three council members who were in favor of Mr. Titus being on Council. I would be willing tonight to go ahead and join those three in voting for Terry to take the empty seat and not belabor this issue. • Burk: This obviously is the same motion that I made in regard to the Mayor's position, so obviously I am in support of it. I think that, again, the public needs to be aware of the process and what is going on and taking five days to notify the public, I think is the least that we can do. So, I most certainly will be supporting this. • Martinez: I echo Council Member Burk's comments. You know there is no disrespect to you, Mr. Titus. I respect everything you've done. I just feel that we need to be open and transparent about what we are doing for selection and I do respect—and I really appreciate you coming down here and willing to step in. 6 I Page COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING February 8, 2016 • Fox: I think I agree with opening up the process and giving a little bit of time for resumes to come in. I think the mayor should have come on record of that and there are several reasons for that and it can be agreed with or not agreed with, but when it comes to Council and opening it up, I do agree with that. The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye: Burk, Dunn, Fox, Hammler, Martinez, and Mayor Butler Nay: None. Vote: 6-0 4. ADJOURNMENT On a motion by Council Member Martinez, seconded by Vice Mayor Burk, the special meeting was adjourned at 7::20 p.m. QJi(gt,t14.., David S. Butler, Mayor Town of Leesburg Ai T' `T `410 '/ice Clerk of Coin 2016_tcmin0208pec 7 I Page