FLINT, MI -- Mayor Sheldon Neeley is excusing department heads from City Council meetings at 9 p.m. from now on.
The decision was made after a May 11 council meeting started at 5:30 p.m. and ended at 4:47 a.m.--lasting nearly 11 hours. The meeting ended after Councilperson Maurice Davis, Ward 2, left the meeting, breaking quorum. In a press release, the city announced the move was made after “months of poorly run, quarrelsome, late-night meetings.”
Council members approved two critical projects improving the city’s drinking water system, several policies and hazard pay for COVID-19 and held a public hearing on the city’s fiscal year 2021 budget. City Attorney Angela Wheeler and City Administrator Clyde Edwards will be required to stay at the meetings after 9 p.m.
Administrators at Monday night’s meeting said they were told by Neeley they could leave at 9:30 p.m. that night.
Council President Monica Galloway, Ward 7, could not immediately be reached for comment. Galloway has said administrators do not give council members ample time to review resolutions and contracts for big-ticket projects.
Councilperson Santino Guerra, Ward 3, said the meetings have gone later. He doesn’t expect staff to stay on a call for more than 10 hours.
“We have time to ask them questions during the meetings, but instead council members waste that time arguing with each other and talking about things that are not city business,” Guerra said.
City Administrator Clyde Edwards said council members aren’t adhering to the city’s procedure for asking department heads about questions. Neeley said the long meetings are a result of “a gross lack of leadership."
“I hope the City Council leadership will manage meetings better so that no staff – including Clerk Inez Brown and her office, which report directly to Council – will be subjected to these unreasonable working conditions,” Neeley stated in the release.
Council spent most of the meeting discussing a $14.7 million pipeline that would connect the city to a backup source of water in case their man transmission line is inoperable. The resolution was voted down twice before being approved Monday night. The project was supposed to be completed before December 31, 2019.
Flint gives green light to build $15 million backup water pipeline
At previous meetings, Galloway and council members Eric Mays, Ward 1, Allan Griggs, Ward 8, and Jerri Winfrey-Carter all agreed more time was need to discuss the project. Specifically, they wanted to ensure all of the documentation for the project was submitted to the state.
Mays said he knew the contract would pass at Monday night’s meeting but couldn’t vote in favor of the project without more time.
“This project is going to go. But some lessons need to be learned," Mays said.
Construction of Flint’s emergency back-up water pipeline is in limbo
Flint’s Director of Public Works, Rob Bincsik, said construction for the project will start as soon the council approved the contract. The council also approved a $2.1 million contract to reconstruct a city reservoir near Dort Highway.
The pipeline and reservoir are part of a larger plan with interrelated projects funded by the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act. The council approved the plan and its designs in 2018.
Read more:
Flint hotel to serve as backup emergency shelter for healthy people who are homeless
Flint’s proposed 2020-2021 budget takes $12M jump to cover legacy costs
Flint foots $238K bill for a mistake it didn’t make, postpones critical water projects
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Mayor limits Flint staff availability after 11-hour City Council meeting - mlive.com
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