Thoughts on July’s Earlington City Council Meeting

An interesting thing happened at Tuesday’s Earlington City Council meeting.

Members of the council informed Mayor Mike Seiber that they are adults, and expect to be addressed as equals.

They told Seiber that angry outbursts, question-dodging and vitriolic, condescending remarks to the council are inappropriate behaviors for city government meetings.

Perhaps it was the presence of city attorney Keith Cartwright that kept Seiber’s temper in check as council members voiced their opinions. The Mayor was uncharacteristically quiet through most of the two-hour meeting, his voice only turning sharp on a few occasions — mostly toward Councilman Tim Brister and his repeated comments about the city’s budget, and lack of a new one.

Brister and the council should be concerned about this. Is Seiber’s five-week vacation — or his full-time employment — a legitimate excuse for any elected official to put off creating a new budget? Especially in a city that’s in such a dire financial situation, as Seiber insists?

A June “Soundoff” post submitted by Seiber to The Messenger’s web site within the past five weeks let readers know he was vacationing in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s hard to pity an elected official who bemoans the financial state of his city, yet leaves town during the final 35 days of the fiscal year to have some fun in the sun while other city’s mayors are meeting with their legislative branches to approve their new budgets.

And what about Seiber’s promise earlier in the year that the council would be involved in the preparation of the 2009-10 budget? There wasn’t any mention of that Tuesday — only that he would have a budget prepared for the August meeting.

Which, of course, is two months late.

Remember the June meeting, when Seiber told the council he’d awarded a mowing contract to Police Chief Chris Proctor and Sewer Department head Brian Ruffin to mow the city’s cemetery? Seiber told the council Tuesday that the money to pay Proctor and Ruffin was coming from street department funds.

Seiber didn’t tell the council this at the June meeting, when members said money had not been allocated in the budget for cemetery maintenance. He was too busy insisting that awarding the bid to Proctor and Ruffin was the right thing to do for the city — implying by his tone and labeling of member’s objections as “asinine” that only he, not the council, is capable of making decisions best for the town.

Contrast this with Dawson Springs City Council’s June meeting. Police Chief Bill Crider informed the members that he and other officers had accumulated several vacation days they wouldn’t be able to take before the end of the fiscal year. The council discussed the issue with Mayor Ross Workman, and moved to allow city employees to cash in some of those days.

Someone at the meeting told Workman he could have taken the action on his own rather than bring it up at the council meeting.

Workman said he realized he could have, but he didn’t want to do it without bringing it before the council for discussion. He wanted the council to be involved in the decision.

There were questions. There were disagreements. There was debate.

Finally, there was consensus.

You tell me which leader commands more respect — the one who seeks and accepts counsel before making a major decision, or the one who belittles, bullies and badgers others until they back off, just so they can get some relief?

It is obvious, after Tuesday’s meeting, Earlington City Council has decided they’re not going to take that anymore.

From Councilwoman Wanda Wilson: “We’re adults, we want to ask questions, we want to discuss things. … There’s nothing wrong with discussing and asking questions and I don’t like to be appeared as being trivial all the time. This is serious business, and I don’t appreciate that.”

From Councilman Philip Hunt: “The Kentucky League of Cities Official Handbook states that city council members and the mayor are co-equal, I”m sure you’ve read that. We’re co-equal, that means that we need to interact with each other, we need to know what’s going on … like when you tore down the Price Building.”

For what it’s worth, Seiber said in his “Soundoff” post that he intends to run for reelection.

Seiber wrote: “I can only hope that the citizens who voted for me the first time (aprox 300) will show up again in 2011.”

“I will be elected again,” he said.

What do you think?

It appears that the sun is shining all over Hopkins County

The consecutive sunny days we’ve enjoyed recently have provided a happy respite from the overcast days of January’s ice storm and April’s steady rains.

It appears that the sun is shining all over Hopkins County.

It’s even shining a little in Earlington.

There have been some interesting changes to Earlington’s City Council meetings since January.

City council members have been bringing ideas to the table. Some have asked for reports from department supervisors. Others have asked for action to be tabled on certain items, saying more time is needed to research, learn the options, and determine the best course of action. They ask questions about the city’s budget and where, how and why the dollars are being spent.

At the February, March and April meetings, the city clerk read the month’s expenditures, line by line, and explained the purpose of each one. Council members asked questions about line items and the clerk answered them.

Remember all those long nights without electricity after the ice storm? Remember how great it felt when the lights came back on?

In Earlington’s case, two and one-half hour city council sessions are something to celebrate after two years of wandering around in the dark, trying to figure out what was going on in city government and having trouble getting clear answers from anyone.

The most important changes, at least from this journalist’s seat, is that The Messenger is being allowed more access to city information.

Since January, prior to the start of each council meeting, the attending Messenger staff writer is given copies of all the paperwork that will be reviewed by the council.

The packet includes copies of the agenda, the treasurer’s report, budget reports, bills, appointments, resolutions and ordinances.

Perhaps the most significant change is that Mayor Mike Seiber is returning calls when the paper requests information.

Earlington still faces difficult issues, among them two lawsuits pending against the city — one filed by the landlords opposed to the city’s ordinance that requires them to pay a $75 per unit fee, in addition to the 1.5 percent occupational tax; the other by former Earlington Police Chief Craig Patterson, who asserts that he was unfairly removed from the job.

However, there’s no denying the fact that after the two years this reporter has covered Earlington city government, it’s good to see the sun shine for a change.

In this writer’s view, the city looks much better in the light.