North High Shoals: like a fine wine, keeps getting better with age
Stay tuned for the latest episode in the ongoing saga that is the North High Shoals town council and mayor. Will they actually meet with a quorum? Will Mayor Jeff Thomas ever resign like he said he would? Will the current Mayor ever actually attend a meeting with the current council members? Will this election tomorrow be binding? And what about Naomi?
The following have been pilfered from Small Town Politics blog:
Here is the latest from the Mayor:
Wow Steve,
I love the way you spin things around. Are you seriously wanting me to believe that a public hearing concerning city business -an official meeting of the council - a meeting that requires a quorum - would not need to be set by the council?
As to the expressed language of the attorney, the question is one of availability. Your previous statement is incorrect meaning either the attorney did not understand the question or you did not understand the reply. I was never 'not available' by phone to discuss the issue of rescheduling a meeting date - if council desired to set one. Instead it appears that you and Violet decided on the date - or Violet by herself. I was never contacted - if an attempt had been made, then you would have known I was not unavailable. Again, I state the question, why would anyone propose a meeting without even notifying all members of council in advance?
Jeff Thomas
Mayor
Town of North High Shoals
From Steve:
The call for two public hearings and their dates, WAS set by the council. Rescheduling, to me, anyway, shouldn't require a full council vote. But once again, I ask, what is the big deal! Is it really just procedural? Or is it something more?
Since this may go in circles, let's try this as a way to get to a solution. Until such time as we can get this codified in the code, when a meeting is canceled, the clerk calls you and all councilpersons and finds a suitable date for rescheduling? If she cannot reach everyone within 48 hours, but she is able to reach enough to constitute a quorum, then she uses that date.
and yet another overview from Steve's blog:
There's been a flurry of activity via emails and blog comments. Here's a summary. Feel free to add a comment or two.
The Code.
One of the first things we were advised to do by our town attorney was to update the charter and then update the code. We finished the charter this spring, and the approval of the code is almost complete. After 10 work sessions on the code, I would think that citizens have had ample time to weigh in. We scheduled two public hearings at our September meeting. These were set for Oct. 19th and November 16th. Both to be held before regularly scheduled meetings. Mr. Cape had earlier in the week notified council of his unavailability, but we didn't get notice from Mayor Thomas about his unavailability until 2:23pm on the date of the hearing. So without Mr. Cape and Mr. Thomas, we would not have a quorum. As it was late, I felt that I should be there to let citizens know about the cancellation personally. A note on the door is just bad form. Fred & Violet decided to do the same thing. We met some citizens that had shown up and let them know about the cancellation. I hoped we could reschedule a public hearing, but that is not my job. Obviously, November 2nd was out because of set-up for elections, but Nov. 9th seemed to be a good date. I told Violet (mayor pro tem) that the 9th would work for me. On the 20th of October our clerk sent out an email with the rescheduled code hearing set for Nov. 9th. All seemed well.
On the 28th the mayor sent a note to the clerk asking where the Nov. 9th date came from and letting her know that he would be unable to attend. The clerk sent this to council on Sat. (31st) night. Today, Mr. Cape also let it be known that he will not be available on the 9th. They do not support Violet's authority to reschedule the public hearing. They believe she should have called the Mayor (I don't know if she made an attempt...I haven't been able to reach her today) and Mr. Cape to see if the date would work with them. In hindsight, it certainly would have made things easier. I guess I didn't think rescheduling a public hearing was such a huge deal. I guess I overestimated the commitment of the Mayor and Mr. Cape to creating a new code. Mr. Cape, can you summarize your thoughts about the code in a comment to the blog? I don't want to paraphrase our recent email conversation.
So...a public hearing on the code is still scheduled for November 16th at 6:30pm. I have heard nothing about a rescheduled October regular meeting.
The following have been pilfered from Small Town Politics blog:
Here is the latest from the Mayor:
Wow Steve,
I love the way you spin things around. Are you seriously wanting me to believe that a public hearing concerning city business -an official meeting of the council - a meeting that requires a quorum - would not need to be set by the council?
As to the expressed language of the attorney, the question is one of availability. Your previous statement is incorrect meaning either the attorney did not understand the question or you did not understand the reply. I was never 'not available' by phone to discuss the issue of rescheduling a meeting date - if council desired to set one. Instead it appears that you and Violet decided on the date - or Violet by herself. I was never contacted - if an attempt had been made, then you would have known I was not unavailable. Again, I state the question, why would anyone propose a meeting without even notifying all members of council in advance?
Jeff Thomas
Mayor
Town of North High Shoals
From Steve:
The call for two public hearings and their dates, WAS set by the council. Rescheduling, to me, anyway, shouldn't require a full council vote. But once again, I ask, what is the big deal! Is it really just procedural? Or is it something more?
Since this may go in circles, let's try this as a way to get to a solution. Until such time as we can get this codified in the code, when a meeting is canceled, the clerk calls you and all councilpersons and finds a suitable date for rescheduling? If she cannot reach everyone within 48 hours, but she is able to reach enough to constitute a quorum, then she uses that date.
and yet another overview from Steve's blog:
There's been a flurry of activity via emails and blog comments. Here's a summary. Feel free to add a comment or two.
The Code.
One of the first things we were advised to do by our town attorney was to update the charter and then update the code. We finished the charter this spring, and the approval of the code is almost complete. After 10 work sessions on the code, I would think that citizens have had ample time to weigh in. We scheduled two public hearings at our September meeting. These were set for Oct. 19th and November 16th. Both to be held before regularly scheduled meetings. Mr. Cape had earlier in the week notified council of his unavailability, but we didn't get notice from Mayor Thomas about his unavailability until 2:23pm on the date of the hearing. So without Mr. Cape and Mr. Thomas, we would not have a quorum. As it was late, I felt that I should be there to let citizens know about the cancellation personally. A note on the door is just bad form. Fred & Violet decided to do the same thing. We met some citizens that had shown up and let them know about the cancellation. I hoped we could reschedule a public hearing, but that is not my job. Obviously, November 2nd was out because of set-up for elections, but Nov. 9th seemed to be a good date. I told Violet (mayor pro tem) that the 9th would work for me. On the 20th of October our clerk sent out an email with the rescheduled code hearing set for Nov. 9th. All seemed well.
On the 28th the mayor sent a note to the clerk asking where the Nov. 9th date came from and letting her know that he would be unable to attend. The clerk sent this to council on Sat. (31st) night. Today, Mr. Cape also let it be known that he will not be available on the 9th. They do not support Violet's authority to reschedule the public hearing. They believe she should have called the Mayor (I don't know if she made an attempt...I haven't been able to reach her today) and Mr. Cape to see if the date would work with them. In hindsight, it certainly would have made things easier. I guess I didn't think rescheduling a public hearing was such a huge deal. I guess I overestimated the commitment of the Mayor and Mr. Cape to creating a new code. Mr. Cape, can you summarize your thoughts about the code in a comment to the blog? I don't want to paraphrase our recent email conversation.
So...a public hearing on the code is still scheduled for November 16th at 6:30pm. I have heard nothing about a rescheduled October regular meeting.
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