Council members call for special meeting to discuss meeting cancelations, attorney

Three Libby City Council members have called for a special council meeting to be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the council chambers of Libby City Hall.

Council President Brent Teske, along with councilmen Allen Olsen and Gary Neff have requested the special meeting for the purpose of discussing two items: The addition of a second mandatory meeting each month and the status of a contempt of court claim filed against the city by the attorneys for Stinger Welding.

Libby Mayor Doug Roll said he would not attend the meeting, as calling a special meeting of the City Council is a power reserved solely for the mayor, so the council members do not have the statutory authority to call such a meeting.

“They can’t call a special meeting,” Roll said. “Only the mayor can do that, the statute is quite clear. They can call a meeting, but they can’t call a special meeting.”

Councilman Neff said he was frustrated with the mayor’s repeated canceling of council meetings.

“I do not know why the Oct. 19, 2015, City Council meeting was canceled,” Neff said. “I know, I and other council members submitted items to be placed upon the agenda. The Mayor is responsible for creating the agenda, calling and posting public announcement of regular meetings. This is the second time a regular meeting has been canceled with out consulting the council. Therefore, I believe it is necessary that a mandatory second monthly meeting be established.”

Councilman Olsen said the Oct. 5 City Council meeting demonstrates the need for a second meeting every month.

“The reason for calling this meeting is at the end of the last meeting (Mayor) Doug (Roll) said two hours was long enough, meaning we need a second meeting every month to take care of the city’s business,” he said.

After the second meeting in September was canceled, Council President Teske said he felt a second meeting was necessary in order to ensure all of the necessary public business was discussed. He suggested that a second meeting each month could be used for a working session, in the event there were not sufficient items on the agenda to justify a formal council session.

Libby’s city charter has no provision for meeting times or frequency of meetings of the City Council, other than to grant the council all legislative powers of the city.

“The Council shall be the legislative and policy determining body of the City,” Section 2.0.3 reads. “All powers of the City shall be vested in the city council except as otherwise provided by law or this Charter.”

Montana law provides the City Council with the authority to establish its own rules and procedures in Section 7-5-4103. “The council may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for improper conduct and expel any member for the same by a two-thirds vote of the members elected.”

Section 7-5-4102 allows for the mayor to call special meetings of the council, but does not specify the authority to call said meetings belongs exclusively to the mayor.

In order for the council to conduct any business, a quorum of members must be present. A quorum is defined as one more than half of the members of the body, meaning four members of council must be present in order for any decision of the council to be valid.

Councilwoman Dejon Raines said she would not be present for the Wednesday meeting, should the others proceed. She said she felt it was important for the council to have a second meeting, but as no code, regulation or ordinance has yet established a mandatory second meeting, she felt it was an item best discussed at the next regular meeting of the council, which is scheduled for Nov. 2.