PDF: Resolution 2181
At tonight’s East Ridge City Council meeting, councilmen will reopen debate on a resolution that would require residents at public meetings to submit all questions about “operational statements, finances, budgets or otherwise” in writing.
Resolution 2181 would give the city manager two weeks to provide a response to such questions. It encourages “proper decorum and civility,” reminding residents to “promptly return to their seat” after they finish speaking.
The resolution generated controversy when the council last discussed it on Dec. 9. At the time, then-Mayor Mike Steele said the resolution’s purpose was to “make sure our information is accurate.”
But his remark came a day after he told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that he had suggested the resolution partly “to prevent what happened this year,” referring to “a few citizens who enjoy making the city manager and council look silly.”
Last year, some residents criticized the council for overlooking a six-figure budget deficit and being unable to identify a $265,000 expenditure known as “Special Project 3” when a mayoral candidate asked what it was.
“I’m not sure what the intent of the resolution is,” said Elisha Hodge, an attorney for the Tennessee Office of Open Records.
State law maintains that public record requests must be acknowledged within seven business days of the request, not two weeks, she said.
“You have this resolution, but you also have what the law says. They should be very well aware of that,” Hodge said.
Hodge stopped short of recommending a clarifying clause in the resolution that would distinguish between public records requests and run-of-the-mill financial questions for the council, but “what is clear to me might not be clear to a citizen,” she said.
Mayor Brent Lambert has said he would ask council to delete the resolution’s civility-related language, but not much else.
Councilman Jim Bethune said he would go further.
“The response time should be 72 hours,” Bethune said. “That’s enough time for anybody to get a response.”