Mayor Lou Maieron maintains the reason he walked out of a June 25 council meeting had less to do with the person Erin council chose as its new CAO than the process through which she was chosen.
During the meeting last week, town council appointed Kathryn Ironmonger as Erin’s new CAO/town manager.
Ironmonger served as acting CAO for the town following the retirement of Lisa Hass until the hiring of Frank Miele, and then again following Miele’s departure from the municipality in May.
To explain his reason for walking out of the meeting – a very unusual step for any municipal councillor – Maieron quoted Polonius from Hamlet when he said, “To thine own self be true.”
Maieron also voiced concern that the press had not been advised the June 25 had switched from a council/staff working meeting to a regular council meeting – and that there was insufficient notice of the change provided for the public.
Though the agenda posted on the town website indicated the change in meeting type, the meeting list itself stated it was a working meeting.
Maieron said the intent of staff/council working meetings is not to make decisions, but to allow staff and council to “have discussions and tweak items moving forward” to give staff an idea of the political side, and council an idea of the legislative and staff perspective.
For a time, Maieron said the purpose of those meetings was lost, but then returned. And then, the June 25 meeting “got morphed into a regular council meeting,” he said.
“There was no discussion with the mayor to make this change, which surprised me,” Maieron said,
He told the Advertiser he as unaware council intended to conduct business items at that meeting and he questioned how notice was given.
“Perhaps the most compelling point to me is that there was an item for discussion on the agenda to look at the process council would use to select a new CAO,” Maieron said.
He admits he missed a council meeting because of his recent trip to China, but he had seen nothing in the minutes of that meeting to indicate council was choosing a new CAO in the short term.
He said when Hass retired, there was an extensive process to find a replacement. That included hiring a consultant, posting the position and sifting through 40 to 45 applications to narrow the field down to a smaller number for interviews.
“It was a lengthy process,” he said.
He agreed any discussion about individuals should be held during a closed session of council – but a discussion on the process should be open.
“I didn’t see anything in the minutes, so I thought it would be good to have that sort of discussion,” he said.
Maieron noted the mayor is the head of council and chairs the meetings and has the right to discuss/slash or approve agendas before they go public.
“I’ve been trying to reduce the amount of circus that happens at the council table,” he said.
Maieron explained there was some agreement at last week’s meeting that it was not the clerk’s right to approve the agenda.
However, he noted that at the end of the day, council has the right to approve, amend or defeat an agenda.
“To be told as a mayor, that I can come at 4:30 and see the agenda on a Friday afternoon after it has been posted – is a little too late [to change],” Maieron said.
“[The appointment of a CAO] is a big thing and the press was not even invited.”
Maieron said there were very few people in the chambers for the meeting, and of those, he suggested over half were there because he’d bumped into them on the street and suggested they attend.
“At the end of the day, in my mind, it doesn’t appear the proper process was followed to merge this meeting or add a new meeting.”
Maieron said he saw no urgency in any of the matters before councillors that night.
He said he suggested that it might be in the best interest of everyone to have the discussion on the process and hold off on a decision until the next scheduled council meeting in mid-July.
“I made a motion to defer and nobody seconded it,” said Maieron.
He then asked for some items to be moved forward to the start of the meeting.
“Having said out loud that I did not like the process in which the meeting was called, and in my mind the notice bylaw was not adhered to, and the item I duly put forward was not allowed to proceed.
“I’m not going to say I overreacted [by leaving the meeting. To thine own self be true. If you believe things are not being done properly, do you continue with the meeting?”
Maieron did not suggest whether or not the meeting was legal, “but it was improperly called, improperly notified, and my request to have the issue discussed was declined.”
“And then just look at the outcome, look at the person who made the decisions, if it was by themselves.”
When asked whether Ironmonger was one of the finalists in the process prior to the hiring of Frank Miele, Maieron said “for now I’m going to take the fifth on that.”
However, he also said that was one of the reasons he wanted an open discussion on the process. Considering how things were done before hiring Miele, Maieron questioned why it was not done that way this time around.
“In my mind, it seemed the proper thing to do.”
He stressed that having the discussion on the process did not mean following the same course, but that various options would have been looked at. He also questioned what process was used to choose the new CAO.
“I go back to where’s the fire [the urgency to make a decision]? We had an acting CAO appointed.”
Maieron suggested “in retrospect, having that discussion would have been in the best interests of everyone.” He again stated that if the meeting format is going to change, there is a process involved.
“There is a point where you have to act according to your conscience,” Maieron said of his decision to leave the meeting.
“If you think things are improper, you have to act. If you fall on your sword, so be it.”
Councillor John Brennan offered another explanation of last week’s meeting.
“Lou felt that the meeting was proceeding illegally, and offered some reasons for that,” said Brennan.
“Based on that belief, he felt he couldn’t stay. Obviously council did not agree with him because the meeting carried on.”
It was during that meeting that Ironmonger was appointed as CAO. Brennan said the decision followed a closed session discussion. He said council had engaged in the process to pick a new CAO.
“What we did was go back to the process we undertook not that long ago [in 2012] and review those candidates – to see if there was a suitable candidate the majority of council could agree upon,” Brennan said.
He added, “Obviously we would save the money of going out to hire a consultant and do a search all over again.”
A suitable candidate was found and an agreement was drawn up, he explained.
“That agreement was passed through the hands of our human resources legal firm to ensure it was a good agreement.”
On June 25, the offer was accepted and Ironmonger was named CAO.
Brennan said Ironmonger was on the candidate list from the last round of discussions.
“It was only last summer we went through this,” he noted.
“Last time we hired a headhunter and went through a whole raft of interviews.”
He said council believed if a review of the previous candidates resulted in someone who would meet the needs of the municipality, that it would save both time and money.
Brennan also noted that at the June 18 meeting, copies of the agreement were passed to council members – and the mayor designated both himself and Brennan to receive comments and suggestions.
“We went through that process,” Brennan said.
