City resident Linda Eggleston Nowakowski addressed the New Carlisle City Council at their January 7 meeting and expressed concern about “the number of problems we’ve had that somehow revolve around members of council not understanding the Charter.”
She cited an instance in which a member of council directed a city employee to perform a task.
Nowakowski then referenced the section of the City Charter which states that no council member shall give orders to any city employee except for the City Manager. She also cited the section that states that council members doing so should be removed from council.
There was no action to remove that council member.
She also referenced the motion by council to hold hearings to remove two members for misconduct.
“We had one person on council who said, ‘I will not vote against these men’ and he didn’t even bother to read the Charter to say that it’s not whether you support them. It’s whether they committed the violations and they both stood in front of this room and said they did what they were accused of doing.”
The motion to remove council members was withdrawn.
There was no response to Nowakowski’s statement by any member of council.
Council also passed a resolution authorizing the Clark County Board of Elections to hold an election fill the vacant council seat created by the resignation of Aaron Leighty last June.
Neither the City Council nor the Mayor were able to appoint a replacement member within the time frame allotted by the City Charter, creating the need for a special election.
Council also had before them a resolution revising the Rules of Council for 2019.
Council member Bill Cook expressed concern about the section stating that “all Ordinances or Resolutions must be made available to all Council Members.” He said that he wanted to have “all contracts” included in that section.
“The reason for this, if we come forth with either an ordinance or a resolution that references a contract and we have not read that contract, then we are not being very diligent in voting,” said Cook. He said that at the last meeting council had before them an ordinance to approve an insurance contract, but the contract was not attached.
“Mr. Lindsey made a motion or asked about the insurance contract and he was told that we had to pass it before we could find out what was in it,” he said.
Council decided to table the resolution so that it could be amended.
They also unanimously approved Paul Molla, Jr. to the Tax Review Board, Steve Fields to the Planning Board, Janet Addeo to the Board of Zoning Appeals, Karen Clark to the Planning Board, Sharon High to the Board of Zoning Appeals and Sally Raiteri to the Planning Board.
City Public Works Director Howard Kitko, who was speaking for City Manager Randy Bridge who was out with the flu, said that there are several board openings, and that the city is seeking citizens to fill those seats.
Available are one opening in the Parks and Recreation Board, one opening in the Board of Zoning Appeals and two openings for the Tax Review Board. Interested city residents should contact the city at 845-9492.
The next meeting of the New Carlisle City Council will be held on Monday, January 21 at 7:00 p.m. at the Smith Park Shelter House. The public is welcomed.
