Recap: Special Council Meeting, 4/22/21

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A transcript of the meeting can be found at yourferguson.org/council-transcript-20210422/.
The list of boards and commissions referred to in this article can be viewed here.

Was this an innocuous session, or was it the sleeper we only realize later was important? Time may tell. Either way, the open session items were not reason for a special session, and the closed session was postponed because the City Attorney, Apollo Carey, could not attend.

What did happen:

Boards and Commissions were discussed in terms of which council person was responsible for which assignments. Mayor Jones did suggest that members should switch things up. Heather Robinett spoke on how precedent had simply passed assignments from one retiring council member to his/her successor. Members stated where there interests were.

The existing delays and neglect in appointing long running vacancies on boards and commissions, nor the unexplained delay in not standing the Economic Development Commission were not addressed in terms of actions. Expect more information on this from the Observer, but in the interim you can view the list the council started with tonight here.

Asst. Fire Chief Jeremy Corcoran gave a presentation on possibilities for the Fire Department’s future. More information on those prospects will be covered in a later article by Nick Kasoff. I will say this seems poor timing to have the presentation. It is both ahead of any budget discussion for the coming fiscal year to give it context or possible justification, and the special session as a whole continues to distract Mayor Jones from the reality of her need to come clean and provide the information on what her Task Force has been claiming to do for months. Despite previous requests and the council’s request, there has been no release of information that always belonged to the public’s access.