Council reacts to canceled meeting

The members of the Libby City Council are split in their reaction to the decision of Mayor Doug Roll to cancel the Sept. 21 meeting of the council.

Mayor Roll, through City Administrator Jim Hammons, issued a short notice Friday, Sept. 18.

“There will be no City Council meeting for Monday Sept. 21, 2015,” was sent to each member of the council and City Clerk and Treasurer Glena Hook by email from Hammons. 

Councilman Gary Neff was surprised by the decision.

“I received notification of the cancelation from the city manager,” he said. “I was not contacted, in any fashion, by the mayor prior to his decision. Had I been contacted, I would have eagerly sought to have the Sept. 21 meeting maintained. There are too many important city matters to be discussed and kept updated on. There is no possible way to adequately live up to council duties with only one meeting per month.”

Councilwoman Barb Desch said the second meeting of the month is not required and any outstanding issues can be addressed at the next meeting.

“We are only required to have one meeting a month,” she said. “A second one is optional and if the Mayor feels that there is not enough items for an agenda then we do not need a meeting. If there is anything out there it can be taken care of on the first meeting next month.”

The second City Council meeting of the month, typically held on the third Monday, is not required by law, nor is it even referenced in city statute.

Section 2.48.010 of Libby’s municipal code establishes one meeting per month, to be held on the first Monday, unless an advance notice is given by the mayor or any two council members changing the time and/or place.

“Hereafter all regular meetings of the city council shall be held once every month, on the first Monday of each month at the hour of 7 p.m. at the City Hall in the city. On reasonable notice thereof given by the city clerk or given by the mayor, or any two aldermen, the time may be changed to any other hour or place for a particular meeting.”

The second meeting of the month started taking place in 2008, listed in the council’s official minutes as special meetings. Beginning Jan. 17, 2012, the minutes list the second meetings of the month as regular meetings, although the city’s municipal code does not reflect a legislative action to formalize the occurrence of the meetings.

The city charter makes no mention of the mayor’s authority to cancel scheduled council meetings.

“Section 3.04: Powers and duties. The mayor shall 1. Enforce laws, ordinances and resolutions; 2. Perform duties required of him by law, ordinance or resolution; 3. Administer affairs of the local government; 4. Carry out policies established by the council; 5. Recommend measures to the council; 6. Report to the council on the affairs and financial condition of the local government; 7. Execute bonds, notes, contracts and written obligations of the council, subject to the approval of the council; 8. Report to the council as the council may require; 9. Chair council meetings and may take part in the discussion; 10. Execute the budget adopted by the council; 11. Appoint, with the consent of the council, all members of boards; except the mayor may appoint without the consent of council temporary advisory committees established by the mayor.”

Montana Code Annotated sections 7-4-4303 and 7-5-4102 also delineate the powers and duties of a mayor, but neither grant the explicit authority to cancel a scheduled meeting of the city council.

Councilwoman Peggy Williams said she was not consulted on the decision, but saw no pending issue that would have necessitated the meeting.

“The only time sensitive business the council has at the moment is the City Judge appointment,” she said. “Judge Briggs’ contract expires Sept. 30. The advertised deadline for submitting a letter of interest for that position is Friday, Sept. 25.  That appointment could not have been made Monday night,  prior to the filing deadline. Union negotiations are ongoing. Allen Olsen has demanded Allen Payne’s presence at the Oct. 5 meeting to discuss the city attorney contract, so discussion on that topic would have been premature. While I was not involved in the decision to cancel the meeting, I see no business that demanded one Monday.”

Councilman Allen Olsen said Roll’s decision was not only not in the city’s best interest, but also childish.

“We always have had two meetings a month,” he said. “If I remember correctly, years ago when Roll was a council member, he was the one that said there was so much city business that we needed two meetings a month. Now that we have a rogue mayor, he and Payne have gone even further underground with their meetings and city business. Roll has canceled seven or eight meetings since Jonathan Motl’s decision to charge the “Chicago 7” with election fraud. This has cost the taxpayers thousands of dollars. He sees that he does not have a group of rubber-stampers and is not getting his way, and acts very childish. He does not care about Libby.”

Councilman Brent Teske also expressed his disappointment about the canceled meeting and suggested the council take formal action to institutionalize the meetings in code.

“I think we should pass a resolution to mandate a second meeting each month,” Teske said. “If we don’t have council business to discuss, we should just open it up to the public. Maybe they have business they’d like to bring up to us. We could even use it as a work session or agenda meeting. We have a lot of issues we need to discuss.”

Councilwoman Dejon Raines declined to weigh in on the matter.

“No thank you, I prefer not to comment,” she said.

The council’s next scheduled meeting is at 7 p.m. Oct. 5 at Libby City Hall.