City staff put nothing on council agenda, council cancels meeting

• Story Highlights
• On July 23 & Sept. 10, staff placed no business on council agendas,
• Suggestions arose to cancel those sessions, most councilors agreed,
• Councilors get paid to be available to interact with constituents,
• Yelm has pressing business that keeps getting deferred,
• Canceling meetings twice within 2 months is not in public’s interest,
• Where is the transparency this city’s leaders tout they support?
• On short public notice, council’s cancellation sent Sept. 10, 9:54am.

• Councilor Joe DePinto informed the public via his Facebook page:

“‘Majority of Council Members showed interest in cancelling tonight’s Council Meeting due to no old business or new business’ was the reason we got this morning. I abstained from this “vote” since it seemed most council members wanted to cancel and there was not new business. I dont (sic) set the agenda for city council meetings though, the executive branch does.”

• Yelm blogger Steve Klein responded:

“While I appreciate you ‘abstained,’ Joe, you stated last time this occurred, ‘While I’m disappointed this [July 23rd’s meeting] was canceled with less than 24 hours notice, I am only one of 7 council members and the decision isnt mine alone.’ What gives with this council canceling on short notice now twice? What about being available to have a public comment period and council reports for our citizens. I acknowledge you are always the only one in front of city hall to let folks know, even tonight shuttling between the old and new venue so I heard, however there is plenty of council business: like the $15m-$24m required for Public Works upgrades, the motion the mayor was to present to council for the splash park cost overruns, explaining to citizens about the intent to vet and fill the Finance Director position permanently? Oh, and the 640 acres and associated debt the city may end up owning Dec. 29th? I hope the entire council sees this!”

• Councilor DePinto explained:

“The council recieved (sic) the agenda on Friday (4 days prior to the meeting) and that same day a councilmember (sic) suggested that they would be fine with cancelling the meeting and another councilmember (sic) echoed that sentiment stating that if we got notice that Friday it would be enough notice to inform the public. The council got an email from the city on Monday asking if we wanted to cancel. It was officially canceled on Tuesday morning. I would love for the agendas to be posted at least a week prior to any of our scheduled meetings but that is not the norm currently. I do agree that it is an important forum for folks to give public testimony on the record and that’s why I do show up even if the meeting is canceled to take that public comment unofficially.”

Read more of a story that should have been on the council’s public agenda!