By MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
for Glasgow News 1
With all nine members of the Glasgow Common Council present at its regular meeting Monday, they unanimously agreed to a handful of appointments to the Glasgow Historic Preservation Committee and to authorizing a grant application.
A majority of six of them, however, voted to table a vote on a resolution approving a revised agreement with the county government regarding animal control after Councilman Terry Bunnell raised multiple questions about the wording of the document.
At first, Councilman Joe Trigg asked whether, before the second reading of the document, they could include a dollar figure for the city’s contribution to animal control efforts, but City Attorney Rich Alexander reminded him that with resolutions, only approval of one reading is required, unlike with ordinances.
The drafted joint resolution between the city and Barren County Fiscal Court states that on Sept. 11, 1995, the two governmental entities entered into an interlocal agreement for countywide animal control and establishing a county animal shelter board. Representatives of the governments have met and discussed amending the original agreement, the resolution states.
Mayor Henry Royse said after Trigg’s query about the dollar amount that, based on the year-end audit, the county reimburses the city for 50 percent of what it spent on animal control that year, and that would not change.
The fiscal court had already approved the joint resolution adopting a new version of the agreement at its meeting last week, and that was the first thing with which Bunnell took issue.
He said at that point he didn’t necessarily want to “muddy the water” regarding this agreement in this regard and wanted the mayor to keep it in mind for future similar situations, but he felt that the members of the council should have had the opportunity to see and discuss the agreement before either party took action on it.
“Now, I feel like we’re ratifying their action,” he said.
He said he would expect the city to do the same for the county government leaders before the council took action.Bunnell said he felt there was some wording that could have been added to the document.
Royse said Bunnell’s point was well taken, and he explained that he and the city attorney had produced a draft and provided it to the county attorney and county judge-executive for their perusal to see whether it was close to what they wanted.
“We actually had not heard back if they were finished looking it over, and all of a sudden, it was on the agenda for fiscal court. So we had never heard back from them that they liked it or didn’t like it, they just took it straight to the court,” the mayor said.
He had earlier said that he and Guy Howie, chief of the Glasgow Police Department, through which animal control operations are handled, attended the fiscal court meeting to represent the city.
“That one just really happened in a hurry,” Royse said.
Councilman Max Marion asked whether they could vote on it at the next meeting, and Alexander said that would require a motion to postpone it until then.
Councilwoman Marna Kirkpatrick asked whether, if they wanted changes, it would then have to go back to the fiscal court for approval of those, and the mayor told her it would.
Councilwoman Chasity Lowery asked Bunnell whether there were particular concerns he had that they could discuss.
Bunnell named several including:
– He felt it should be specified as to who supervises the animal control officers (the police chief).
– He was concerned that the animal control board the agreement establishes sets its budget, potentially before council approves for the funds to be spent.
“I think there’s some language there that could be cleaned up, because you can’t give that board authority over finances that they are not responsible for,” Bunnell said.
– He said that where the document says “end of the year,” it should specify whether it’s a calendar year or fiscal year and when it ends, as the city and county both operate on fiscal years that end June 30.
– He felt that an animal control officer should not be a voting member of that board, but rather be in an executive capacity, especially as the chief of police would also be on it and the latter supervises the former, so pressure, tensions and/or awkward positions could result from that.
– The final item was that he was concerned about liability issues that could arise with an animal control officer that takes actions that leads to a court action while outside the city limits.
Councilman Patrick Gaunce said everything Bunnell said was very logical and made sense to him, but if the city attorney was comfortable with it, he would be as well.
“Whatever you say, that’s probably the way I’m going to vote; nothing against Terry,” Gaunce said.
Alexander said he believed the issues were sufficiently addressed, and the mayor said that if they wanted to postpone it to look at further tweaking it, someone needed to make a motion to that effect, so Bunnell did.
Ultimately, council members Gaunce, Freddie Norris and James “Happy” Neal voted against the postponement, so the motion to pause a decision by the city succeeded.
The mayor said it would go back through the proper channels to get cleaned up and perhaps a meeting could be arranged to hear concerns from anyone who had them.
Regarding the other business mentioned earlier:
– Rhonda Trautman, Becky Barrick and Beth Wagner were reappointments to the preservation committee, and Mike Darnell is a new appointment, apparently replacing Jeff Jobe, whose term expires at the end of this month along with those of the three being reappointed. Trautman’s and Wagner’s terms are for two years, while Barrick’s and Darnell’s are three years.
– The $15,000 grant being sought would be from the Kentucky Pride Fund and would be used for the city’s annual household hazardous waste collection event, and the city would be responsible for a match of 20 percent of the total cost of the project, which would be in-kind with the provision of labor and such.
In addition, the city’s annual cleanup week started Monday, with extra trash and larger items being picked up on residents’ regular trash pickup day. More information on what is or isn’t accepted for pickup is available at this link.
The next regular council meeting begins at 6 a.m. April 8 in Council Chambers on Floor 2 of Glasgow City Hall, 126 E. Public Square.
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