Williston City Council President Justin Head clarifies what happened during a summer meeting with a prospective city industrial park company.

By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

            Williston City Council President Justin Head Tuesday said he wanted to clear the air surrounding a meeting he and the mayor attended at the city airport in the summer that was inaccurately portrayed as a “secret meeting.”

            The meeting, which Head said wasn’t secret, was never announced publicly at the request of a prospective industrial park tenant who wanted to discuss relocating to Williston in private, according to Head.

            “I feel very comfortable with that meeting. I was at that meeting. I was asked by then City Manager (Scott) Lippmann who was about to leave, to attend the meeting in his absence,” Head said. “I asked him about Council President Goodman going instead of me, but he asked me to attend based on my business background and some things that were going on, so I was at the meeting, the mayor was at the meeting, which is perfectly fine within the Sunshine Law.”

            Lippmann resigned in the middle of May this year. The Sunshine Law requires meetings of elected bodies and most advisory committees to be held in a public setting, but this meeting didn’t fall into either category. The informal gathering of private and public officials was intended for discussion purposes. Mayor Jerry Robinson isn’t a voting member of the city council and can legally discuss city business with individual council members as long as he doesn’t use his position to pass information between council members to influence a vote.

            Former Council President Charles Goodman complained about being excluded from the meeting and blamed Robinson for keeping him in the dark about what was happening, a charge the mayor denied. Goodman resigned citing conflicts with Robinson he could no longer tolerate.

            Head said the eight or nine people at the meeting included county officials, City Airport Manager Brett Stegall and a private consultant. The prospective company made a presentation to relocate to the city industrial park at the airport.

            “It was basically an informal meeting to discuss how we would address this. It was a very sincere request from the business owner that wanted to relocate and to remain private at that time,” Head said. “What bothered me most was the term secret meeting, backdoor meeting, whatever you want to call it. Mr. Goodman was not there. I can assure you this was not a secret meeting by any means. We had eight or nine people there and it was in the conference room at the airport. We did close the door because general staff at the airport was not privy to the information. The airport manager was there along with other folks.”

            During the meeting, the group talked about the need for an environmental study at the airport and designating a piece of ground that could be considered for the relocation, according to Head. There was another discussion about getting the county to help the city pay for the environmental study. Grant funding was discussed. Ultimately the city council voted to approve the environmental study and fund it at city expense without grant funding. Head said that’s his understanding of how the study was funded.

            “I just wanted to clear that up. Sometimes when we remain quiet I feel like it’s an admission of guilt and it’s not at all. I wanted to clarify and let the public understand that we were acting in the best interests of the city. I was invited to be there by the city manager at the time. I felt it was appropriate. That’s my statement of that. I appreciate you understanding the sensitivity of the matter when it comes to a business that may want to relocate here,” Head said.

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City of Williston Regular Meeting November 17, 2020; Posted November 19, 2020