No public comment in Russell
RUSSELL The usual public comment portion of a regular council meeting was “not scheduled” for the first time since Ron Simpson became Russell’s mayor.
It was scrapped from Thursday’s agenda, barring individuals from speaking directly to the council, to allow time for budget-related information, Simpson said.
“In five and a half years as Mayor, this is the first time that I have not scheduled the audience to speak, just due to the fact, when we have our budget workshops, generally they are earlier in the day, but this is the way this has played out,” he said.
Toward the end of the meeting, local business owner Susan Callihan voiced requested an opportunity to speak, because a couple of other people were granted a few minutes to talk about other topics. She asked to be “recognized to speak about the budget.” Simpson denied listening to remarks from Callihan.
“I closed it just for our internal discussion just on our budget tonight on our workshop,” Simpson said to Callihan.
“So you are denying me the opportunity to speak in a public meeting?” she said in response.
“No, I am not denying you. The offices are open 40 hours a week, if you want to call; that’s always an option,” Simpson said.
Ruth Hopkins, councilwoman, proposed a question about a recent meet-and-greet event that was bothering her, considering she was not invited. She told the council she and an anonymous person questioned it, wondering if it was a closed or open invitation.
“This was asked of me,” Hopkins said. “It is about the meet-and-greet party or get-together that you all had last month. They wanted to know and I wanted to know if it was open to the public or was it a private get-together, which I was not invited to,” she said to the council.
“There was an invitation sent out and I did not get the invitation; I got a copy of it from another council member. ... You all knew about it,” Hopkins added.
The council heard from Jennifer Sizemore, the city’s finance director, on various preliminary budget items for the city including: office, police, street and distribution, fire and water plant.
A special meeting for the first reading pertaining to the budget has been scheduled for Thursday, June 6, at 2 p.m.
Water rates will increase for the first time in two years, Sizemore announced to the council.
Police Chief Kenny Huddleston cited an issue with three 2017 Dodge Durangos and requested the city to look into obtaining four new vehicles.
“I have spent $8,245 on one, $6,888 on another and $7,507 on the other one. In the last three years I have spent about $22,000 on three vehicles just trying to keep them on the road,” he said.
“This is not normal maintenance. … This is stuff that we had to do to keep them on the road.”
After 25 years of service to the Russell Police Department, Huddleston announced to the council his plans of retirement set for August.
Simpson announced the 47th running of the Kiwanis Run by the River beginning at the Russell Senior Citizens Center. Registration opens at 7 a.m. and the race begins at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 8.
A SOAR concert is scheduled for Saturday, June 1, Simpson added.
