ALTON - There was an elephant in the room of the last Alton Committee of the Whole meeting - in fact, there’s been one since May 24, when Alderwoman Betsy Allen proposed several items to be added to the agenda which were never added. Expressing her frustration with the committee seeming unwilling to discuss any of her proposed items, committee members tried to clear up the confusion Monday night before deciding to discuss the items in future meetings.
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Allen, her fellow aldermen, Mayor David Goins, and the city attorney attempted to clarify a miscommunication that occurred while the city attorney was away. Someone had asked her whether Allen’s proposed items needed to be added to the agenda. The consensus at the time was that they didn’t need to be added because they were items to be discussed, not voted on.
However, Allen specifically stated in her initial letter about the items: “To begin discussion, I am requesting these items be placed on the agenda at the next Committee of the Whole Meeting on Monday, June 12, 2023.” The June 12 meeting agenda did not include any of her items.
In her letter, Allen described the items as “administrative enhancements” which would “strengthen the organizational structure of the City of Alton.” The full list is as follows: “We don’t want to talk about any of those items - or do we?” Allen asked at the meeting. “Do we mind that we don’t have a Finance Committee? I mean, there are some legitimate things on here that I don’t think cause any harm. Does anybody have any thoughts on that?”
Alderman Raymond Strebel said that while he thought Allen brought good ideas to the table, he didn’t feel he had the authority to ask the mayor to execute any of them. Mayor David Goins then cited the alleged miscommunication, which City Attorney Tonya Genovese said led to the items being excluded from the agenda. Genovese said she didn’t intend to stop the items from being discussed, she just didn’t think they needed to be included since the Open Meetings Act only calls for items being voted on to be listed on agendas.
“I spent a lot of time thoughtfully writing it out and specifically asking those to be placed on the agenda. I’m just at a loss,” Allen said. “I feel like this administration doesn’t really want to collaborate, you don’t want any interference - that’s what I feel like I’m doing all the time, is interfering.”
After some more discussion, Alderman Nate Keener suggested the committee start discussing the actual items Allen proposed.
“I’m just going to point out that for the second committee meeting in a row, we’re burning daylight talking about not talking about the thing, when we could just talk about it right now,” he said.
When asked if she wanted to start discussing the items, Allen said she did not, and the committee decided to discuss these items and more in future meetings.
A full recording of the June 27 meeting can be watched at the top of this story or on the Riverbender.com Facebook page.
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