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Mayor squabbles with council members

The heart of the spat centers on seating arrangements and the debut of the new City Hall.

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published February 13, 2005

SEMINOLE - A tiff over seating arrangements ended with Mayor Dottie Reeder's rebuking a council member for accusing her of ordering staff members around, in violation of the city charter.

Seminole council member Bob Matthews said he understood Reeder had decided the new City Hall should not open until after the official ribbon cutting last Monday afternoon.

That request, he said, had resulted in extra work and expenses as city employees worked over the weekend to make sure everything was ready for the ceremony and public tour.

Matthews said the city charter requires orders to be given to the city manager by the council as a whole, not one member acting alone.

"We're not a strong mayor here," Matthews said, referring to Seminole's council-manager form of government.

Reeder responded that she had nothing to do with the decision to hold the ribbon cutting before City Hall opened for business.

"I have no idea where you got that information, but it is totally untrue," Reeder said. The city administration was 100 percent in charge of the ceremony, she said.

"They even wrote the script for me," Reeder said. "I can't imagine why you would bring hearsay to a formal meeting to cause this kind of spectacle."

The spat began Tuesday when Pete Bengston brought up the seating lineup for the council's new digs. The council cannot move until all the technology in the new chambers is ready to go, sometime in March.

Currently, at the Recreation Center, all council members sit at the front of the room. City Manager Frank Edmunds and city attorney John Elias sit to the audience's left, and city clerk Beverly Brown, to the right.

In the new chambers, they will all sit at the curved dais at the front of the room. Plans were to put Edmunds and Elias on either side of Reeder. Three council members would sit to the outside of Edmunds. The other three would sit to the outside of Elias.

Bengston objected to Edmunds' and Elias' splitting the council off from Reeder.

"I think it will make the council look better if they are all grouped," Bengston said.

Reeder said she had spoken to other municipalities that seated the city manager and attorney on either side of the mayor, and "everybody told me they wouldn't have it any other way."

Bengston wanted the council to vote on the seating arrangements.

Matthews said he, too, objected, and suggested that the city manager and attorney sit at one end of the council table. The council members, he said, should be grouped around Reeder, with four on one side and two on the other so Edmunds and Elias could sit together.

Council member Jimmy Johnson said he likes to be able to see people when he talks to them. About 70 percent of communication is by body language, he said. Putting Edmunds and Elias at the head of the table would make it difficult to see them and evaluate their comments, he said.

"I would like to see the expression on your face, the hand movements when I talk to you," Johnson said.

Matthews said the seating issue is not the first time decisions have been made that affect the council without the members' being consulted.

"It needs to come to a stop," Matthews said.

Reeder asked if the council wanted to take the issue to a workshop. The others gave a resounding no, saying that was just a way to postpone the vote.

The council voted to go with Matthews' seating proposal. The council will sit clustered around Reeder. Elias and Edmunds will sit at one end of the dais.

After the spat, Seminole resident Linda Cole came forward to ask the council to consider passing a property tax exemption to help senior citizens.

"I have to say that's a tough act to follow," Cole said.

She was accompanied by about 25 senior residents of Seminole Gardens Apartments, who applauded when the council agreed to hold a one-hour workshop at 6 p.m. Feb. 22 to discuss the tax break.

[Last modified February 13, 2005, 01:07:16]