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Council reappoints all city officials after secret sessions

Staff reporter

The annual appointments of Marion city officials were made after a series of executive sessions — partly to bring new Marion City Councilman Steven Smith up to speed and partly because some of the council members wanted to discuss their options.

In the end, there were no surprises with David Mayfield being re-appointed as city administrator; Angela Lange, city clerk; Becky Makovec, city treasurer/assistant city clerk; Josh Whitwell, police chief; Dan Baldwin, city attorney; Mike Regnier, fire chief; and Bryson Mills, municipal judge.

The re-appointments of Mills and Regnier were conducted with no executive sessions.

After those were made, councilman Gene Winkler made a motion to re-appoint Mayfield, Lange, Whitwell, Makovec, and Baldwin. Stacey Collett seconded the motion. Bill Holdeman asked for a secret ballot. Mayor Mary Olson commented that the newest member of the council, Steven Smith, was at a disadvantage, not being fully informed about the appointments.

Smith said he recognized that he was at a disadvantage and appreciated the opportunity to learn more through the executive sessions.

When the vote was cast to move forward with the appointments without executive sessions, the motion died 2-3, with Holdeman, Olson, and Smith voting against the rubber-stamp process.

Holdeman again called for a secret ballot on all appointments. Baldwin said secret ballots were not allowed.

Olson then made a motion to go into a 15-minute executive session to discuss personnel; Holdeman seconded, and the motion passed 3-2 with Winkler and Collett voting against.

Mayfield asked Olson if any accusations were made toward any employees during the executive session, would those employees have opportunities to address those accusations? No audible comment was made.

When the meeting reconvened, Winkler made the motion to re-appoint Mayfield with Collett seconding. The motion passed 4-1 with Holdeman voting against.

Another 15-minute executive session was called for personnel with Lange in the meeting for part of the session. When the meeting reconvened, the council re-appointed Lange as city clerk and city treasurer.

After a 10-minute secret session to discuss the re-appointment of Whitwell, the meeting reconvened with a 5-0 decision to reappoint him.

A five-minute session was called to discuss the appointment of the city treasurer/assistant city clerk. That session was extended 15 minutes. When the meeting reconvened, the council rescinded its previous motion and re-appointed Lange only as city clerk and Makovec as city treasurer/assistant city clerk.

The next 10-minute executive session was to discuss the re-appointment of Baldwin. When the meeting reconvened, Olson made a motion to table any decision until the next meeting. The motion died for a lack of a second. Holdeman then made a motion to re-appoint Baldwin with Winkler seconding the motion. The motion passed 4-1 with Olson opposing.

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