Overland Council Meeting 04/09/07

This article not only reports what happened at the April 9th Council meeting, it also helps bring new readers up to speed on several of the older issues raised there. Regular readers will recognize many of these concepts and explanations. I included the information because our readership has grown dramatically. Unfortunately, this effort to clarify has made this article excessively long. Rest assured, this will not be the norm.

Based on an earlier report by Mike O'Connell, of Channel 4 news, everyone was expecting Mayor Purzner to attend last night's meeting. When she did not, Councilman Jerry May, the Council's current President pro tem, ran the meeting. Though there has been some dispute this last year about there having been a vote for the Council President pro tem, that vote can clearly be seen in the minutes of the May 30, 2006 Council Meeting. With the exception of Mayor Purzner, the Council was in full attendance.

One issue that might be raised from this meeting was how Councilman May, who was filling the role as Mayor, was voting. The confusion is understandable as the Mayor doesn't vote unless there is a tie. Most of the issues addressed by the Council last night came down to a three to three split vote. There would have been less confusion if President pro tem May voted after all of the Council members. However, the bottom line is that there is no real issue here, as President pro tem May would have cast the deciding vote either way.

We still had to deal with some unfinished business from the March 12th, 2007 Council meeting. Though it does not appear that the meeting actually needed to be adjourned again, and business left undone at the last meeting could have been addressed under "Old Business", the end result was that these issues were finally resolved.

The major issue left unresolved was the promotions of 4 police officers that Mayor Purzner approved and later rescinded. As we reported earlier, the City's insurance company attorneys have been advising the City to settle this case as it was "undefendable" in their opinion. One step in settling this suit is to make the promotions permanent. Though labor law entitles the officers to 3 times their back pay as well as their legal fees it is our understanding that they are willing to settle this case for their legal expenses and their back pay without a multiple. We previously covered this issue at length both here and here. This suit has already cost the City over $23000.00 in legal fees. Thankfully, it now appears to be resolved.

Councilman Owensby and Councilman Knode raised concerns with this, saying that handling the promotions in this way was a violation of State Statute. It's disappointing when elected officials openly claim something is a violation of law but do not reference the statute in question. Since it has been argued before that such issues cannot be discussed openly we are going to assume that these Councilmen are referring to the Missouri Sunshine Law.

Several elected officials have taken this position before. There seems to be a simple misunderstanding causing this issue. The purpose of the Missouri Sunshine Law is to require open meetings and public access to information. However, it does provide provisions where closed door meetings (aka executive sessions) can be legally conducted. For a better understanding of the Sunshine Law, the State provides a summary online. To answer the issue raised here you can review the summary, or you can refer to RSMo 610.022 (Closed meetings, procedure and limitation) subsection 4 which states:

4. Nothing in sections 610.010 to 610.028 shall be construed as to require a public governmental body to hold a closed meeting, record or vote to discuss or act upon any matter.

It's clear that there is no requirement to conduct any city business behind closed doors. Reasonable people can disagree on when to conduct business in closed meetings, but there is nothing in the law that requires it.

When the business left over from the March 12th meeting was resolved the Council opened the floor to resident comments. A few comments went too far in my opinion. The Recall was a success and the City will move forward as a result. Now is the time to let go of the past. I would ask all Overland residents to wish Mayor Purzner their best and start focusing on what we need to do in Overland. We cannot let the past hold us back.

Now is the time to welcome the newly elected Council members, not to publicly express disappointment that one or another was not elected. When you support a candidate to represent you they don't always win. When they lose you need to accept that and congratulate the winner. Don't assume the candidate that won will not represent you. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Their actions on the Council may later prove your original assessment correct, but until then, give them a chance, they might surprise you.

The meeting continued with several other issues addressed. Councilman O'Connell made a motion to bring Chuck Boone back to Public Works. The Council voted on this issue and agreed. With Roland Lettner's resignation we need someone to keep the place running for now. Also, the Mayor's handling of Mr. Boone opened up Overland to another lawsuit that returning him to work should allow us to avoid.

Though I have no issue with Mr. Boone personally, the issues residents and businesses have had with Public Works are not new. They existed through at least the last 3 directors and acting directors. I hope Mr. Boone is open to real reform and change in the Public Works department. If not, hopefully the new Council will take up the issue of finding a Public Works director that is.

There are many ideas out there to improve Public Works. Creating a Committee made up of volunteer residents, local business people, and Public Works representatives is one suggestion. The purpose of such a committee would be to examine how Pubic Works does business now and how we can streamline the process, creating a culture of customer service to better serve the community. The Overland Business Association has suggested that they could provide volunteer liaisons to help new businesses navigate the process of coming to Overland. The ideas are out there, what we need is leadership at Public Works to implement them. Hopefully either Mr. Boone is that leader, or his replacement will be.

One interesting turn of events was when it was suggested that the City recontact the East-West Gateway organization to start work on finding a City Administrator. It was surprising because the motion was unanimously approved. Even Councilman Owensby, who had strongly opposed this organization in the past voted for this measure. Hopefully this is a sign that our City Council has a much more reasonable future ahead of it.

There were a few more issues raised. Councilman Owensby and Councilman Knode voiced concerns about the 8801 Page Development that is seeking a Tax Abatement. We covered this issue in an earlier article here. At issue is lack of details and controls in the Redevelopment Plan.

Councilman Knode stated that the owner of this property could grow tomatoes there if he wanted to. Councilman Knode makes a good point as the Redevelopment plan is limited to commercial and industrial uses so agriculture (as well as residential development) would not be possible if the Redevelopment passed. What Councilman Knode seems to have missed is that based on the broad language of the plan, the developer could build a typical shack-like farmers market to sell tomatoes (a commercial enterprise) and Overland would still be obligated to give them the tax abatement for at least 15 years.

The key to this issue is that the plan for this redevelopment has too little information to be approved at this time. There is no reason that this deal could not be passed in the future if the developer puts together a plan with a reasonable level of detail for the Council to consider.

Another issue that was raised was the possibility of contracting for Red Light Cameras. There are several issues with these devices, as we detailed in this article. There have been many problems with Red Light Cameras throughout the country. Research is needed to ensure that the flaws in some of these systems that resulted in numerous lawsuits nationwide will not cause Overland the same problems. If those questions are sufficiently answered Overland could potentially move forward with this system.

Councilman O'Connell pointed out that this system might not be worthwhile for Overland as most of the traffic lights in our area are on roads (Page and Midland for example) that are County controlled. That leaves the Lackland and Woodson intersection as possibly the only place these cameras could be installed.

At the March 26th meeting there were two new officers in attendance seeking Council approval to begin their careers with Overland Police. As that meeting was unable to be conducted due to Mayor Purzner and her supporters on the Council walking out, those officers start with OPD was delayed. Thankfully they were approved by the Council last night. Overland PD is now closer to full manning than it has been for some time.

Another bit of great news came from Overland PD. Chief Herron proudly announced that Detective Ken Robinson was selected as the The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) Officer of the Month. Great Job! You can read about this award and the reasons for it in an article here. Also, the Chief pointed out that Detective Robinson had completed the difficult process of becoming a Certified Fraud Examiner, on his own time. We have some great professionals on the Overland PD who are fine examples for these new officers to learn from.

Overall the meeting went much smoother than we have seen for some time in Overland. Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come. However, for the City to move forward everyone needs to focus on the road ahead. What happened in the past is over, it is time to see what we can make happen in the future. When I first started this web site I posted the following:

"Remembering the Past

while looking forward to our future."
The Overland Missouri Motto.

Well, if some of our politicians (& their supporters)

do not let go of the past, the the only future

we will have to look forward to is one of ruin.

This has not changed. We should always try learn from the past. However, learning from history and living in it are not the same. We as a community need to let go of grudges and focus on what needs to be done for the good of Overland as a whole. Our future depends on it.