City manager idea fails, new meeting ideas tabled by members
The Blue Ridge City Council voted to send a resolution to legislators to incorporate staggered terms for elected officials during a special called meeting Monday, November 30.
“We would have the mayor, council members for post two and four shall be elected to a term of four years and on such date every four years thereafter,” Councilwoman Rhonda Haight said in explaining how staggered terms would work.
“And then on the Tuesday next following the first Monday in November 2021 the council members for post one, three and five shall be elected to a term of two years and on such day they shall be elected to a term of office of four years thereafter.”
She explained that this is needed as each council member could leave all at once, leaving no one with prior knowledge of city business on the council.
Councilman Mike Panter suggested reducing the amount of council members to three from five and incorporating a city manager.
“My only concern with that is we have a hard enough time meeting with just five,” Haight said.
“I can call Nathan (Councilman Fitts) now or you (Panter) or Harold (Councilman Herndon), Robbie (Councilwoman Cornelius), and I do that often just to talk one-on-one about issues,” she said. “If you have only three you can’t do that because then you’re breaking the Sunshine Law.”
Haight added, agreeing with Panter’s suggestion of a city manager, that a city manager is necessary in order for the city to stay on top of business.
Mayor Donna Whitener suggested hosting a town hall meeting in order to let the public have some input on the proposed change.
In the midst of Haight’s explanation of the need for a city manager, Whitener interjected that Haight needed to stay on topic.
“It’s a charter change for terms,” Whitener said.
On the contrary, the agenda item called for “Charter Changes” with no specific topic within the charter referenced.
City Attorney James Balli informed that the council can move to make these changes, but it will have to appear before state legislatures for approval.
The proposal for staggered terms was voted in unanimously.
As for incorporating a city manager, the motion failed with oppositions from Cornelius, Panter and Herndon.
In order to establish two meetings a month for the council, a second reading was performed; therefore, adopting the rule.
Balli explained that due to charter guidelines, the original vote could not stand alone to adopt the changes.
For future reference, he said if for some reason a second meeting is not necessary, it may be canceled by declaring it canceled during the first meeting of the month.
Whitener asked if the council would like to consider changing the meeting day as other government organizations meet on Tuesdays as well, and she’s received complaints from citizens who would like to attend more than one.
“They can find new meeting dates if they don’t like ours,” Cornelius said.
The Special Events Ordinance was approved with the opposition of Cornelius.
Following the advise of Balli, Fitts moved “to proceed with the ordinance as written.”
This includes a definition of “parades, marches, protests and processions means a group or number of people or vehicles, or the combination thereof, consisting of five or more vehicles or 10 or more persons or a combination of three or more vehicles or five or more persons proceeding or moving in a body or in a concert along the streets or sidewalks of the city.”
Lines 66 through 68 will also remain, which puts a number on the amount of participants necessary to obtain a permit.
An amendment on line 18 was made to change the 90-day requirement for when the permit must be applied for to 45 days in advance of the event.
Whitener had previously vetoed the ordinance in an attempt to remove the definition of a parade, which included numbers, and keep a standard definition.
Fitts suggested incorporating an email policy in which officials are required to respond in some fashion to the group within 72 hours of receiving an email.
Panter asked what would happen if someone were to not respond.
Balli explained that there could be no legal repercussions.
“Based upon our charter ... the vote of three council members can also remove one of the council members or mayor from office,” Fitts said.
The motion failed with oppositions from Cornelius, Panter and Herndon.
Haight suggested allowing for public commentary at the beginning and end of meetings, require three council member’s approval to cancel meetings, and only allow the member who requested an item be placed on an agenda remove that item.
She also referenced the meeting in which Whitener slammed her gavel declaring a meetings end saying that if this were to happen again a council member should call the meeting to order and proceed with business.
The suggestions were tabled.