Council mum on closed session

During an hour and a half closed session to discuss city finances and how they related to a personnel issue Tuesday night, the Neosho City Council took one vote.

However, the city did not relate the results of that vote. Mayor Jeff Werneke said it will be 72 hours before those results are made public, in accordance with the Missouri Open Records, Open Meetings law.

The move to go into closed session came at 7:15 p.m., shortly after the council convened the regular session, although it was originally scheduled to be held after the public session. After the meeting, Werneke said it didn’t make much sense to discuss borrowing $1.85 million to cover upfront construction fees on transportation projects and engineering costs on water improvements without first discussing how the council had been apprised of how city finances related to the personnel issue, so he requested moving the closed session forward on the agenda. This marks the first time in recent memory a city council has elected to move a closed session up on the agenda.

Council member Heather Bowers objected to the closed session, saying she didn’t feel the session was warranted under the section of the Sunshine Law regarding closed meetings and personnel matters.

Out of a standing room only crowd estimated at about 80, only one person, Neosho resident Doug Skaggs, spoke before the council. He asked that Werneke and Mayor Pro Tem Richard Davidson not present their findings of an investigation into city finances and how they relate to a personnel issue during a closed session, but that the report be given during the council’s open session.

“I believe the finances should be presented to the citizens, and the dealing with someone should be done in closed session,” Skaggs said.

Last week, City Manager Jan Blase told the Daily News he would seek $1 million in a tax anticipatory note to alleviate the city’s cash flow problems. He said this loan would be repaid with a variety of funds, including $505,000 from the closure of two railroad crossings, $178,000 from a mobile telephone franchise settlement, and the remainder from sales tax revenues.

After the closed session, Blase brought forth a resolution authorizing the sale of $1.845 million in short-term special obligation bonds for water system and transportation improvements to alleviate what he called a city “cash flow pinch.” A total of $1 million would go toward the transportation council improvement obligations, including the controversial “quiet zone” railroad crossing projects, paving La-Z-Boy Drive, and maintenance on Missouri Highway 59. Additionally, $810,000 going to engineering fees for water system improvements, and the remainder to be used for fees by the bonding company, Piper Jaffray & Co., whose nearest office is in Kansas City, Kan., and Gilmore & Bell, a national public finance law firm which also has an office in Kansas City. The bonds will be repaid in two years.

In a prepared statement, Blase said “There may have been a lack of communication for which I am responsible; however, one only has to look back to [the] July city manager’s newsletter to see the prediction that a day would come when money would have to be borrowed due to a decline in sales tax income. Whether this has caused a crisis in confidence in the office of the city manager is for people other than me to decide. For some time now, I have been speaking on the issue of sales tax as a major source of operational and capital funding and the implications of those revenue policies.

“The past three years I have been focused on projects that will make neosho the best place to live in the four states region. These projects were all part of a published plan. One of my professional goals has been to build public trust in local government by open communication.”

That comment elicited laughter from the audience, to which Blase said “None of the ones chuckling has ever called me.”

Blase then listed Web site improvements, newsletters and public speaking as methods he used to explain where the city is and in what direction it is heading.

“I will admit that I was caught off guard by the cash flow situation,” he said. “I believe that recently instituted safeguards will alert the public, elected officials and the employees if this occurs in the future. As long as the city depends upon sales tax, this is likely to be a reoccurring problem in a depressed and volatile economy.”

After hearing reports from Michael Zimmerman, marketing director with HDR Archer, and a representative with Gilmore & Bell, the council voted 4-1, with Bowers dissenting, to adopt the resolution. In making the motion to approve the resolution, Davidson said he wanted to see three proposals come before the council when it meets in a special session at 5 p.m. next Monday: a combined measure of $1.845 million, a measure just for the water improvements, and another measure just for transportation improvements.

Should the council pass one of these measures at next week’s meeting, it would be presented for second and final reading when the group meets for its regular session on Dec. 15.

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More on Tuesday’s city council meeting will be in Thursday’s edition of the Neosho Daily News.