Council finalizes ordinance, second meetings start next month

Starting next month, the Libby City Council will again meet twice a month to tackle city affairs.

The Libby City Council on Monday approved the second reading of an ordinance putting second monthly council meetings on a mandatory basis.

The measure passed on a 4-2 vote, with council members Peggy Williams and Barb Desch voting against the ordinance. The ordinance will go into effect after 30 days.

“Sometimes the amount of work we need to get done requires more time,” council member Brian Zimmerman said.

He also said if the agenda for the second meeting doesn’t contain time-sensitive items, that meeting could be used for a work session.

“We can get more discussion, talk about our committees and talk about more ideas. It isn’t too much to ask,” he said. “If people have other ideas to talk about, that’s a good thing.”

The city council passed the first reading of the ordinance last month with the same 4-2 vote. While council members held several discussion points over the ordinance last month, Monday’s vote was brief as the council ran through a list of house-keeping ordinances to amend the Libby Municipal Code.

The other ordinances approved by city council in their second readings included an ordinance that amended the city limits to include all properties described in the official city map kept by the city clerk and making the city engineer responsible for marking the city boundaries. Another ordinance officially changed the title of city officials from “alderman” to “council members,” and another eliminated ward designations to make council members into at-large, nonpartisan city officials.

While a number of ordinances simply brought the city laws up to date, other measures made slight adjustments to the city law, including an extension of the Libby Police Chief’s jurisdiction from three miles outside the city limits to five.

Aside from the ordinance mandating bi-monthly city council meetings, each ordinance passed on a unanimous vote.

Libby Mayor Doug Roll was not present at Monday’s meeting for the third consecutive council meeting.

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 293-4124 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.