Knox City Council members received a draft of an ordinance that will establish official duties of council members after their meeting last Tuesday.
Knox Mayor Dennis Estok has been coordinating with Indianapolis attorney John Molitor to construct an ordinance that lays out official council duties. The draft ordinance addresses things such as meeting attendance, consequences for multiple misses and adequate constituent representation.
The need for such an ordinance arose after Councilman Jeff Berg noted that the councilman for District 4, Tim Manns, missed multiple meetings in 2016 and 2017 and has consecutively missed every meeting held in 2018 so far.
Councilman Berg stated that Manns was only present at 4 out of the 24 meetings held in 2017. According to the Employee Compensation Report publically available through the Indiana Gateway for Governmental Units, Manns received approximately $4,000 for being a Knox City Council member last year, making about $166 per meeting.
Mayor Estok informed Berg and his fellow council members that since Manns is an elected official and attendance is not listed as an official duty there is nothing to keep him from receiving a paycheck for every meeting despite his absences.
The councilman has since spoken with the mayor and verbally indicated that he plans to resign due to scheduling conflicts with work and family obligations. However, in order to get some rules set so that similar issues don’t come up in the future, members decided to carry on with establishing official duties for city council members.
Even if they end up passing the ordinance, they will still have to take additional steps to vacate the seat if Manns does not follow through with the voluntary resignation. As of last Tuesday, no official resignation had been submitted.
Members are expected to review the draft and suggest any changes to the mayor. Estok mentioned that if no major amendments are necessary, the council members will likely vote on the official duties ordinance during their first meeting in May.
