Adjourning divides Peabody council
Staff writer
Usually the motion to adjourn is an uneventful pin at the end of city council meeting.
In the final seconds of a Peabody City Council meeting Monday night, a small discourse between a council member and the mayor put that pin at an odd angle.
Linda Martinez was the sole nay in a vote to adjourn the meeting. When asked why, Martinez said she thought there still were things to discuss going back to the council’s Jan. 12 meeting.
In that meeting, Martinez called for Mayor Kevin Burke to resign because of controversy between him and the police department.
Burke said he did not know what Martinez was talking about, to which she responded that he should re-familiarize himself.
“Take the time in the next two weeks to go back and read it then, because it’s in the minutes,” she said.
Burke replied, “We’re moving forward, Linda. We’re not going backward. This meeting is adjourned.”
Before adjourning, the council focused on cleanup of city code and technology policies.
Council members debated whether to change an ordinance requiring the council to elect a president in May.
The ordinance has been in place since at least 2010, when elections to fill council seats were conducted in April instead of November, as at present.
City attorney Zach Strellathere was no legal risk in moving the election, but several members favored keeping the May language as a backup while adding flexibility to choose a president at the first regular meeting after a vacancy.
The council has no president, who fills in if the mayor is not present, because Burke was president before he was elected mayor.
Staff will work with the city attorney and return with options later this month or in March.
The council also recommended purchasing cell phones for the mayor and city administrator to keep official communication on city-owned devices and thereby streamline responses to Kansas Open Records Act requests.
The council favored creating a separate phone group for city hall rather than expanding the police department’s plan. The phones will be folded into broader IT and device-use policies now being developed.
The council also postponed final decisions on committee assignments until members can review responsibilities.