An ordinance that describes the official duties of common council members was adopted during Thursday night’s Knox City Council meeting.
The ordinance establishes policies about attendance and sufficient constituent representation. It also specifies that the rules set forth in the ordinance are retroactive to the start of a term.
Mayor Dennis Estok has been consulting with Indianapolis attorney John Molitor on this matter. Molitor informed the members why a local ordinance had to be passed in order to address concerns about absenteeism.
“We have a state law {I.C. 36-4-6-6} that says that the council has power to expel a member or to declare a member’s seat vacant when the member basically doesn’t participate in meetings,” He went on, “but the home rule law says if you don’t have a procedure spelled out in the state law then you need to pass some sort of local ordinance to put a procedure in place.”
The city council started this discussion back in February after members acknowledged that the Councilman for District 4, Tim Manns, has consistently missed multiple meetings during his term. The councilman has since verbally indicated that he plans to voluntarily resign but hasn’t taken any official actions to do so.
Regardless of what happens with the ongoing issue, Molitor said that he believes an official duties ordinance is something valuable for all municipalities.
He explained, “I do think it’s something that every city ought to have in place. Whether or not they will ever need it, it’s something that will be in place in case a situation arises.”
Members passed the ordinance on first reading and then passed a motion to suspend the rules to hold the second and final readings. The motion to adopt the ordinance on final reading was approved by all members in attendance.
The next step in this process will be for City Attorney Leslie Baker to draw up a bill of impeachment. The bill will alert the councilman for District 4 that he’s in violation and it will outline the rules that have been broken, referencing the consecutive absences as proof that he isn’t performing his official duties.
Molitor said he would be available to assist Baker with the creation of the bill. He added that once the bill is issued, the council member in question has an opportunity to appear before the city council to defend themselves. In order for an expulsion to pass, two-thirds of the members would need to vote in favor of it.
