March 5, 2020 Council Minutes (Special Meeting)
Once approved, a link to the official council minutes will be at the bottom.
COUNCIL MINUTES
SPECIAL MEETING of March 5, 2020
St. Clairsville City Council met in Council Chambers on Thursday, March 5, 2020.
Jim Velas, Council President Kathryn Thalman, Mayor
Perry Basile, Council, 1st Ward Open, Public Service/Safety Director
Mark Bukmir, 3rd Ward Open, Finance Director
Terra Butler, Council, 4th Ward Elizabeth Glick, Law Director
Linda Jordan, Council-At-Large Don Smithberger, Super. of General Services
Beth Oprisch, Council-At-Large Tom Murphy, Planning & Zoning Administrator
Frank Sabatino, Council 2nd Ward
Mike Smith, Council-At-Large
The meeting was called to order by Council President Jim Velas. President Velas led Council and attendees in the Pledge of Allegiance. Mr. Velas thanks everyone for attending this evening. This is going to be a relatively short meeting. President Velas and asks the Clerk to call the roll.
ROLL CALL:
Basile Here Oprisch Here
Bukmir Here Sabatino Here
Butler Absent Smith Here
Jordan Here
Council President Velas states that the minutes were corrected from the previous meeting [February 18] but they are not going to be voted on this evening. Everyone has a copy to take home to review. President Velas states that the sole purpose for the meeting tonight is to address the opening for Finance Director. At the previous meeting there were some questions that a couple of the Councilpersons had and there was wanting a legal opinion. Unfortunately, there was an absence of our Law Director. And, they did not feel it was wise to act without legal counsel here. So, the sole purpose of this meeting is to address the opening. And we are going to ask counsel, since this is a personnel matter and questions have to do with filling of the position, for clarification do we want to go into Executive Session in order to discuss these questions before any further action is taken? Nobody wants to go into Executive Session?
OK, if I might go to this point in time, we are in a situation with no Finance Director. We’ve got a lot of things coming up that are going to need their attention. We’ve got bank reconciliations to be addressed, and we are basically looking at the same situation that we are in actually with the water. We are in a bad situation with the water, but we have to deal with what we’ve got. We can’t look back and figure out what we could have done – should have done. And, we are in the same position with the Finance Director right now. We have a lot of financial issues that have to be addressed. The Finance Director is the one that has to make these moves. She or he is the person that has the knowledge to financially make sure we don’t get ourselves into trouble with the auditors.
President Velas So, I understand Mark [Bukmir], did you have some questions that you wanted to clarify on the?
Councilman Bukmir No. No.
President Velas OK. Linda [Jordan], did you have some questions about vacation?
Councilwoman Jordan We did all that.
President Velas OK. That was already taken care of?
Councilwoman Jordan Yes.
President Velas OK. So, at this point in time, we will defer to the Law Director on the resolution.
ORDINANCES & RESOLUTIONS:
Law Director Glick This will be Resolution Number 2020-5: A Resolution Confirming the Appointment of Annette Williams as the Director of Finance From and After March 5th, 2020 and Declaring an Emergency. And, we will need a vote on the emergency.
Council President Velas OK. In order to pass this…
Councilman Sabatino I’ve just got a question…Liz, since there was a motion, do we have to rescind that to establish what we are going to do here tonight?
Law Director Glick There was a motion, concerning?
Councilman Sabatino To, you know, pass it on emergency and then, you know, that didn’t go, so do we have to rescind that motion?
Law Director Glick This is a different meeting, so you can renew your motion now. I mean, still a motion to go into emergency…
Councilman Sabatino OK. So that motion the other night is…
Law Director Glick Right. Yes.
Councilman Sabatino It’s voided?
Law Director Glick Yes. You made the motion, and it didn’t pass. Now we are bringing it up in a different meeting.
Councilman Sabatino OK. That was my question.
President Velas Any other questions? If I’m correct in the procedure, since this does have emergency legislation, and it wasn’t read at the last meeting, we have to have the first reading tonight and then make a decision on whether we are going to attempt to pass it as emergency legislation. So, we can hopefully can get our Finance Director position filled.
President Velas asks for the first reading. The Clerk reads the title of the legislation. RESOLUTION NUMBER 2020-5: A RESOLUTION CONFIRMING THE APPOINTMENT OF ANNETTE WILLIAMS AS THE DIRECTOR OF FINANCE FROM AND AFTER MARCH 5th, 2020 AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY.
President Velas OK. That is the first reading. Does anyone want to take any action to pass this as emergency legislation?
Councilman Smith moves that the rules requiring Ordinances and Resolutions to be read on three separate readings be suspended and declaring an emergency. Councilman Basile offers a second to the motion.
President Velas requests a roll call vote.
ROLL CALL:
Basile Yes Oprisch Yes
Bukmir Yes Sabatino Yes
Butler Absent Smith Yes
Jordan Yes
Roll Call Vote: Six (6) Yes Zero (0) No Motion Approved
President Velas OK. The rules will be suspended. We will read the resolution again [for the third and final reading] and take a vote on the resolution itself. RESOLUTION NUMBER 2020-5: A RESOLUTION CONFIRMING THE APPOINTMENT OF ANNETTE WILLIAMS AS THE DIRECTOR OF FINANCE FROM AND AFTER MARCH 5th, 2020 AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY.
ROLL CALL:
Basile Yes Oprisch Yes
Bukmir Yes Sabatino Yes
Butler Absent Smith Yes
Jordan Yes
Roll Call Vote: Six (6) Yes Zero (0) No Motion Approved
President Velas We have a unanimous 6 – 0 vote to appoint Annette Williams the new Finance Director for the City. [Applause] Does she have to be sworn in?
Law Director Glick Well, we did the resolution, so she’s in.
President Velas That basically is what the meeting was for tonight. I think there might have been a…Tom, do you have something?
Planning & Zoning Administrator Murphy Something I would like to address under New Business quickly because I wasn’t able to talk about it at the previous meeting.
President Velas Can we do that?
Law Director Glick Well, it is a special meeting. It is just for the [legislation].
Planning & Zoning Administrator Murphy The only reason I am bringing that up is at the last meeting, everything ended so abruptly that I wasn’t able to inform Council on a few things. But, if we can’t do that, I guess we can’t do that.
Law Director Glick Yes, a special meeting is just for the purpose it is called for.
President Velas I think there was an unfortunate misunderstanding about some other things that might be discussed this evening. But, those will not be addressed and discussed until the March 16 regular Council meeting. So that is definitely the only thing we can discuss this evening. I will make one comment to the Council people. I did send everybody an email that I think you should take a look at, read, and take whatever action you need to do on that. I think it is self-explanatory. Other than that, we need a motion to adjourn.
Councilman Smith makes a motion to adjourn; Councilman Basile seconds the motion.
President Velas And, again, I want to thank everybody for coming this evening.