Christian Peterson
reporter.riverbendnews@gmail.com
On Thursday, April 24, the White Springs Town Council held its organizational meeting for the newly elected town council. After the vacating of the council by the previous administration, elections were held, and four new individuals were elected: Tonja Brown, Robert Gamsby, Cheryl McCall and Nicole Williams. The organizational meeting was called in accordance with the town charter, which reads, "On the first Thursday after the election, or any date established by resolution of the Town of White Springs, Florida, the new council members shall be sworn into office, and an organizational meeting shall be conducted for the purpose of acquainting the new members with procedures and transferring authority from the outgoing members."The meeting began with Attorney Leslie Jean-Bart administering the oath of office to the new administration. After that, the council had internal elections for the new mayor and vice-mayor at which time Brown was elected mayor and Williams was elected vice-mayor. After the elections, Mayor Brown took over control of the meeting.
"First, let me thank you all for electing me as mayor," she said. "This is not going to be an easy task for us, but we are all going to work together at this." She then requested that the council oppose the agenda they had been provided. "We are new elected officials; we have not had anything like this come up before us. I am not going to re-enter into a meeting or a discussion with this. We are here to do one thing and that is to be sworn in and to elect the mayor and vice-mayor, that's it. We are not discussing anything on this agenda. We will talk about it later on down the line, but right now, we don't need to discuss anything on this agenda." Brown then requested a motion to close the meeting. However, Vice-Mayor Williams stated she would like more information on the item regarding acquainting the new council with procedures. “May I ask the question of the town attorney before we close out?" Brown responded, saying the new council didn't know anything about the item to which Williams clarified that was her point; she wanted clarification from the town attorney on what was involved. Councilman Gamsby asked Brown if she was trying to make a motion to table the agenda for the special council meeting. Brown responded in the affirmative. Gamsby continued, asking, "Are you also trying to table 'acquainting with new procedures?'"
"The reason why that's on the agenda is because that is in the charter as what is to take place during the organizational meeting is acquainting the new council with procedures," said Town Attorney Jean-Bart. The portion of the charter that Jean-Bart was referring to is Section 2.05 Procedures (a) (1), which reads, "… an organizational meeting shall be conducted for the purpose of acquainting the new members with procedures and transferring authority from the outgoing members."
Confusion arose amongst the council, with Brown stating they were only supposed to swear in the new council members and elect the new mayor and vice-mayor. "I want to make sure that we follow the charter exactly. That's why that's there, because...those are the exact words," Jean-Bart replied.
"We are not going to discuss this tonight. This is not supposed to be on the agenda at all,” Brown stated. “It's just two things. I'm aware of how this is supposed to go, and that's it. We're not supposed to have no discussions about no agenda or nothing like that."
"If in our town charter it has that we have this 'acquainting with procedures' for the swearing-in...then if it's in the charter, we need to follow the charter,” Williams spoke up. “I'm in agreeance with postponing the regular council meeting because we have not been informed."
Brown then asked if the council had been presented with any procedures. Gamsby chimed in to say that they had been provided a manual, and to his understanding, Jean-Bart wanted to review the manual with them.
"This is not the time for that,” Brown responded. “Listen, I already know what it's supposed to say, okay? This is not my first rodeo on this; I never did this. We never discuss anything when you are sworn in and elected. So all we can do right now is table everything and come back in May and discuss what she has on the agenda."
McCall then spoke up, saying, "We already all have this booklet, so what is there to discuss if she already gave it to us, right?"
Gamsby then asked the attorney, "She's just going to explain it,” Gamsby said before turning to Jean-Bart. “There's no action items in this, correct?"
"Correct, it's just to make sure that the citizens know what you guys have been provided with so that they are made fully aware of where we stand and what's going on. That's all," Jean-Bart replied.
Brown stayed strong in her stance, however, saying she wasn't opposed to doing that during the May meeting, but she wanted everything tabled until then This was followed by some internal discussion on how motions work and how they die. First, the council tabled the agenda for the special called council meeting scheduled for after the organizational meeting. The agenda was to be brought back up at the regularly scheduled meeting in May.
"Councilmembers, I want to let you all know that the madam attorney or the town manager does not make special meetings for us,” Brown said. “We make our own special meetings; they don't do it for us."
The council then moved on to the procedures item due to the motion to table it failing. However, Brown voiced her opposition to the item once more, and McCall seconded the opposition. Once more, the council became confused about the matter. Brown continued arguing that the item should not be on the agenda, while Williams claimed that its in the charter so it should not be ignored. The motion passed, with only Gamsby voting against tabling the item. The meeting was then adjourned without a vote or public comment.
Then, on Thursday, May 1, the White Springs Town Council held an emergency meeting to discuss three different items.
The first item on the agenda was to discuss the signature authority for town financials. Mayor Brown opened the conversation by stating she had gone to the bank to discuss the signature cards for town financials. The bank had told her that, in order to remove the previous signees and put new ones on, the town had to have a council meeting with minutes clarifying that the council had chosen to do that. Brown wanted to remove Anita Rivers, Jacqueline Williams and Ray Vaughn as the signees and add herself, Nicole Williams and another council member. Gamsby asked why the council would remove Vaughn, to which Brown responded that she had spoken to CPA Richard Powell, who had told her that Vaughn should not be using it and only council members should be signees. She also clarified that the council could choose to put Vaughn back on as a signee if they decided to do so later. After some more discussion, the council elected to remove Vaugha, Rivers and Jacqueline and add Gamsby, Brown and Nicole.
The second item on the agenda was a discussion regarding the town attorney. Brown started by saying she had talked to the Florida League of Cities, and the group was willing to help out the town, as Attorney Jean-Bart had put in her resignation. Her last day would be Tuesday, June 24. The council asked if Jean-Bart would stay on until they could find an attorney, and she responded in the affirmative.
The final item up for discussion was discussion regarding the Town Clerk position, as the previous Town Clerk had resigned her position. Nicole started by recommending that the town temporarily promote Cynethia Williams, the current utility clerk, to the position. Jean-Bart clarified that, per the town charter, the town manager is supposed to hire the town clerk; however, in an emergency such as the one the town is currently in, they can offer an interim position to someone. Some public comments pointed out that the Florida League of Cities would most likely offer interim town clerks and town managers. Eventually, after more discussion, the council decided to table the item until the next regular meeting. The meeting was then adjourned. The following White Springs Town Council meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 13, at 6:30 p.m. The location is yet to be announced.