By GAGE WILSON
Glasgow News 1
The Cave City City Council had a special-called meeting Monday, Oct. 16, after the regularly scheduled meeting date had to be changed due to medical reasons. The meeting’s agenda was light, but matters discussed were not. Some council members questioned City Attorney Bobby Richardson’s advice in regard to keeping last month’s meeting open to the public.
Councilman Brandon Wright was at the head of questioning Richardson’s reading of KRS 61.810 , which allows public entities to enter closed session when discussing sensitive matters, such as personnel actions. Richardson advised against going into closed session to discuss allegations brought during that meeting against a city employee who was later identified as city manager Robert Smith.
“I think that a lot of the council and the KLC’s attorneys read the KRS differently,” said Wright. “What I would like to do is have the city council contract with our own attorney.” He said a judge will ultimately have to tell the council what reading is correct.
Richardson said, “I’m confident in what I’ve said, and you can do whatever you think you have to do.”
Richardson said council members are free to consult with attorneys in regard to city business. To officially hire outside legal advice paid for by tax dollars, the council would need to agree to appropriate funds to cover the cost of that attorney.
“To be frank, I think it is a wasteful spending of money, but that is up to the council,” the city attorney said.
Councilwoman Beverly Ford said, “I think the biggest issue we have here, whether it’s about a closed session or whatever, is how partial the information is.” Ford said the legal advice given by Richardson is filtered through how positively or negatively it paints the office of mayor.
“I do not work for the mayor,” Richardson said. “My responsibility is to the city.”
Councilman Denny Doyle asked if the disagreement continues, would the council members be willing to pursue legal action all the way to the state Supreme Court, which would “break the city” financially.
The council tabled the matter without resolution.
The next item for the council was the replacement of Ashlyn Hudson. Hudson’s seat was vacated using KRS 83A.040 when allegations of her living outside of Cave City limits came to the council’s attention at its June meeting, from which Hudson was absent. The council pursued the matter to oust Hudson taking matters to the Barren County Circuit Court. According to the court documents, Hudson was served process on Aug. 14 and after more than 20 days with no response filed, the court ruled on Oct. 9 in favor of the council.
The council now faces a challenge with only 30 days to replace the vacant seat. In the event that the council is unable to fill the seat within the time limit the matter is then handed off to the governor’s office.
The council discussed another special-called meeting ahead the Nov. 9 deadline. The council approved Wednesday, Nov. 1 at 5 p.m.
Once the date was set, no further actions were taken, and the council agreed to adjourn.
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