Dillingham City Council's special meeting last week ended before it began when two council members, Kaleb Westfall, and Kevin McCambly, objected to its legitimacy and refused to participate. Without a quorum of four members, the meeting was dismissed.
The special meeting was meant to make up for the city’s regularly scheduled February meeting, which was canceled after unauthorized activity was detected in the city’s computer system, according to the city. But when Council Member Kaleb Westfall’s name was called during roll call, he stood and raised a point of order, arguing the meeting violated Dillingham municipal code.
“In my opinion, this meeting is not to our code, It's not to our standard, it's not to our oath of office that we swore in 2.09.080,” said Westfall. “In my opinion, if we continue in this meeting, we are subverting the will of the electorate, the voters, and we're not holding ourselves to this book here, Dillingham municipal code.”
Westfall objected to the cancellation of the original meeting, saying council members had not been consulted. He also said the special meeting notice he received did not have the specificity required for special meetings in the municipal code. He argued the agenda items were not urgent and could wait until the next regularly scheduled meeting in March.
Dillingham’s municipal code requires at least 24 hours’ notice for special meetings. McCambly, the second council member to object, said he didn’t receive his agenda packet until he arrived that evening.
“Further it [the code] mentions ‘notice should be served personally on each member of the council, or left at the members usual business or residence by the clerk or the clerk's designee,’” said McCambly. “I just received my packet. So at what point was this 24-hour clock supposed to start in regard to this special meeting.”
McCambly also raised concerns about the city’s handling of meetings, including a December meeting that was relocated. By code, meetings are allowed to be relocated, but there are procedural requirements, which McCambly says were not met.
“There are allowances for moving a meeting but we still have to call an order, we have to verify what the reason is, why the chambers are unfit, we have to recess and reconvene,” said McCambly. “I'm bringing three points together here and saying that we are going down a pattern here of not following code, of not giving proper notice, of not following what we swore an oath to uphold when we took office.”
In a statement to KDLG on Monday(2/17), Dillingham’s Mayor, Alice Ruby, defended the decision to hold the special meeting on February 13th.
“It was either carry everything over to March or get a special meeting,” said Mayor Ruby.
She said before the meeting, she and the acting city manager consulted Sam Severin, the city attorney, to confirm it was appropriate to call a special meeting.
“Part of what we have to do is depend heavily on our legal counsel," said Mayor Ruby.
During the meeting, Severin said the meeting complied with the municipal code as long as council members received at least 24 hours' notice. He said the code does not require the agenda items to be time-sensitive to qualify for a special meeting.
“Under 2.09.020, ‘Special meetings are those called by the mayor or any two members of the council for a time different than those fixed for the regular council meeting. So that's what this would be,” said Severin. “I think we need to look at 2.09.020 B, mostly, and just see if those boxes are checked around notice. Was there an agenda? Was it circulated? Did everyone know at least 24 hours in advance? I think that's really the question.”
Other council members pushed back against Westfall and McCambly’s objections, saying they were personal interpretations not supported by municipal code or Robert’s Rules of Order, which the council also follows.
As tensions ran high, Mayor Ruby redirected the council to the agenda. The meeting’s agenda included votes on awarding contracts for septic and water services, approving a Capital Improvement Project, or CIP, and accepting a county jail contract. Acting City Manager Dan Decker said two of those items were time sensitive.
The state's due date for the CIP is the end of February, and Decker said the Department of Corrections needs the jail contract before March.
“The jail contract is important. We need that passed now as opposed to March,” said Decker. “I could reach out to the department of corrections and determine whether or not they will wait till March.”
Looking forward, Mayor Ruby says she is hopeful the council can get the agenda back on track.
“My thought and my hope is that we do come together in the next meeting and move forward in a positive way and get things done that the citizens need,” said Mayor Ruby.
The next regular city council meeting is scheduled for March 6th, when the council will pick back up February’s agenda items and more.
