Staff Report

A special meeting of the Stanley Common Council was cancelled by Mayor Al Haas after an objection from the Stanley Republican that the meeting was not property posted.

At 8:14 a.m. Thursday morning, the city sent out a meeting notice for a special common council meeting at 5:00 p.m. that evening. The main agenda item was “Approve/Disapprove for bid award for Stanley Police Addition as recommended by Cedar Corp.”

The notice said that the agenda had been available Wednesday on the city website.

“The city website offers notifications for each agenda and notice posted, all you have to do is subscribe!” the email stated.

Republican Publisher John McLoone emailed that the meeting notice does not meet requirements of State Statutes.

“By state law, notice has to be given to the official newspaper 24 hours in advance of the meeting, so that requirement was not met,” McLoone wrote. “The statute reads that posting on the website can be done as an alternative second form of posting if the city has adopted that into ordinance, and I don’t believe the city has done that. If it has, it has met part of its statutory requirement for a legal meeting.”

“I would like to make sure my formal objection to this meeting is on the record. It certainly doesn’t meet the statutory requirement of any kind of an emergency meeting, and spending this amount of money, the public deserves to have adequate notice,” McLoone wrote. “I’m all for the police facility, yet it’s been too many times recently that the city council has acted afoul of state law. A body that passes ordinances should be vigilant in following the law itself.” At a recent meeting, the council ran afoul of closed session provisions by bringing the party it is considering selling land to into the closed door meeting, which is a violation of the Open Meetings Law.

“Many things usually tasked to city council committees seem to be done behind closed doors now,” said McLoone. “No personnel committees were held as traditionally has happend when the new city administrator was recently hired, and if they were held, those meetings were never legally posted. With major projects and land sales that affect all city residents, the city council needs to do a better job making sure its actions are transparent.”

At 1:21 p.m. Thursday, that evening’s meeting was cancelled.

“8/6/20 5:00p.m. Special Council Meeting is canceled,” an email stated.