City Council Study Session – Board and Commission Applicants Interview Citizen Minutes
Updated 13 March, 2016
23 February 2016
Council met to interview applicants for board and commission appointments. There has been an attitude that if council expresses their decisions without taking a roll call vote that they are not voting. Polling or coming to a consensus is not a vote in their view. This is important – our charter says that the council can only act by making a motion, a resolution or via an ordinance. So if the council does not make a motion or take an official roll call vote but expresses their opinion that is not considered a vote. In this instance not much damage is done but if this attitude prevails there will be an instance when the consequences have more impact on the community.
When the interviews were completed Bruce Beckman asked the council how they would like to proceed. He mentioned that the meeting was not being videotaped but the city clerk would provide minutes. He wanted to try to find consensus and to submit those names to the clerk to be put in a resolution to be voted on at a regular meeting at which time a council member can modify the selections if desired.
Phil Cernanec suggested they make their preferences known and hear rational reasons for the preferences and have conversations in order to direct the city clerk to prepare a resolution.
Beckman proposed a filtering down process using the white board and get to a commonality.
Doug Clark asked about the content of the minutes…..will the filtering process be in the minutes? He also said he did not think the meeting had been posted.
At that point someone said it was posted and Clark got up to go ask the city clerk who said it was posted but she had removed the posting at 5pm. (Meeting started at 6 pm) Beckman said Clark could do whatever he wants to do but he was going to trust the clerk.
Clark came back and said someone needs to write down the actions taken so we know and the public knows how we got to the resolution.
Jerry Valdes said he was prepared to make recommendations. Brinkman said they were not taking a formal vote and not making a decision. Valdes said they used to televise the interviews but then they stopped and he was opposed to that at the time. Peggy Cole said it was done out of a sense of fairness.
Beckman asked Clark if they proceeded what his objections would be. Clark wanted minutes written that records the process they use. He wanted the minutes to reflect which council members supported which applicant for which board.
Brinkman said they would vote in public when the resolution is presented. Cernanec asked if the council was OK with directing staff to prepare a resolution based on their discussion?
Clark said without making motions it would be difficult to track their decisions. Cernanec said in the end there will be a list. Clark said there is no video and the video is the official minutes and a decision was made not to video the meetings outside of regular meetingd.
Brinkman, clearly agitated, said we are not going to get into this……….
Beckman said they were not going to vote on anything – he would give the clerk his recommendations.
Clark told the council that they would have to let him know what they decided and he excused himself from the meeting.
Brinkman told the council that they were in this as a team. We are not making policy – this is a volunteer decision and by dividing and separating out individuals……to start splitting hairs……..we are talking about members of the community and we need to be respectful.
The selections were made. The process was sloppy and difficult to follow since motions were not made and their votes were not recorded microphones were not used, and they talked over each other at times. Another problem, they referred to applicants by last names and I did not have a list of applicants that would have helped. What follows is the best effort to record their selections. I am sure I have misspelled some of the names. The first column are the names of applicants and the second column lists the council members that supported the particular applicant.
Board of Adjustments
Alternates Donald Genna and Jack Rychecky were moved up to Regulars.
Joseph Riemer (1st Alt) Beckman, Cernanec
Pete McClintock (Reg) Beckman, Cernanec, Brinkman, Valdes, Cole
Scott Prieamu (2nd Alt) Beckman, Brinkman, Valdes
Fey Valdes
Askew Cole
Manskie Cole
Cirbo Cernanec
Building Board of Appeals
Alternates Jeff Eaby and Dustin Hubbard were moved up to Regulars
Dave Mitchell Beckman, Cernanec, Brinkman, Valdes, Cole
Ron Manske Cernanec, Valdes
Shey Cole
Historic Preservation Board
Alternates Edward Leighty was moved up to Regular
Sharon Gaare Beckman, Cernanec, Brinkman, Valdes, Cole (Reappointment)
David Spartlen (1st Alt)
Quinney Cole
Paul Kastner Beckman, Cernanec, Brinkman, Valdes, Cole
Field (2nd Alt) Beckman, Cernanec, Brinkman, Valdes
Licensing Authority
Alternates Mike Buchanen and Kenneth Shock were moved up to Regulars
Andrew Cole Beckman, Cernanec, Brinkman, Valdes, Cole
Timothy LeVier Beckman, Cernanec, Brinkman, Valdes, Cole
Day (1st Alt) Beckman, Cernanec, Brinkman, Valdes, Cole
Jerome Wiencek (2nd Alt) Beckman, Cernanec, Brinkman
Shay Cernanec
Watkins Valdes, Cole
Planning Board
Alternates Brian Corbett was both moved up to Regular
Fey Cole
Lynne Krueger (Alt 1)
Stahlman (Alt 2) Beckman, Cernanec, Brinkman, Cole (Stahlman is a former council member – liaison to urban renewal and voted in favor of all urban renewal projects. This appointment puts him in a position to vote on urban renewal projects that come forward.)
Hayne Brinkman
David Bolt (reappointed) Beckman, Cernanec, Valdes
Cirbo Valdes
Election Commission
Thornton Beckman, Cernanec, Brinkman, Valdes, Cole
Askew Beckman, Cernanec, Brinkman, Valdes, Cole (withdrew)
The third opening was not filled although it was suggested that Shay be asked if she wanted to serve on the election commission since she had not been appointed to anything else. A very interesting suggestion since council insisted that they were not voting or making any decisions for board appointments until a regular meeting sometime in the future.
Museum
Rick Cronenberger, Jennifer Aldridge and Karen Wojkyla – Three openings and three applicants – all were approved
Library
Dawn Shepherd (Reappointed) Beckman, Cernanec, Brinkman, Valdes
Paul Bingham (Reappointed) Beckman, Cernanec, Valdes, Cole
Cecile Tobey (Appointed) Beckman, Cernanec, Valdes, Cole
Bradish Brinkman
Fine Arts
Shari Rossie Beckman, Cernanec, Brinkman, Valdes, Cole
Carolyn Bradish Beckman, Cernanec, Brinkman, Valdes, Cole
Filed under: 2016 Council Minutes, Current Citizen Minutes, General, Littleton City Council |
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