Councilman Berlon Weeks won approval for his motion for the minutes of the April 7 meeting to more accurately reflect what was discussed.

By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

                Bronson Councilman Berlon Weeks on Monday won approval of his motion for the town clerk to provide a more complete set of minutes from the April 7 meeting where he was accused of harassing female employees.

            “There was a lot of things from the meeting claiming that I was a serial harasser and I put in a statement debunking that and I would like to see that in the April 7 minutes. I think that’s only fair,” Weeks said.

            Weeks said the minutes were whitewashed and didn’t fairly portray all that happened in the meeting when Clerk Shirley Miller submitted a bitter complaint accusing Weeks of bullying and harassing her on March 19 in Town Hall.

            In the meeting, she didn’t read her formal written complaint about the incident but gave an emotional statement in which she said she was often caught between council members who disagreed with one another.

            Weeks wrote a letter of apology soon after the incident saying he was sorry for how he behaved and was sorrowful for treating her in such a harsh manner and making her feel bad.

             Deputy Clerk Melisa Cook and Utility Clerk Nikki Rae filed written statements supporting Miller’s version of how she was mistreated by the council member on March 19.

            Weeks said the minutes Miller prepared for the April 7 meeting left out relevant information about what he said in verbal exchanges with Mayor Beatrice Roberts and what Miller said in the meeting as well as how he rebutted the allegations.

            He said he wants a verbatim – word for word – set of minutes of when he and Roberts were talking and when Miller was talking as it related to him. He also wants all the documents that were part of the discussion including the application for a state road grant that ultimately led to the council meeting.

            Miller argued that the minutes of meetings aren’t supposed to be verbatim transcripts but rather summaries of what was said, but Weeks disagreed, saying there have been exceptions in the past. He cited a council meeting before Miller became clerk when Weeks raised questions about trips taken by former Mayor Franklin Schuler at taxpayer expense. Weeks said a verbatim set of minutes was made regarding that discussion.

            Roberts asked one favor of Weeks. She asked Weeks to listen to a video recording of the April 7 meeting and take out the portions that he believes should be reduced to a verbatim transcript.  Weeks said he would listen to the recording.

            One part of the recording was impossible to decipher. It was late in the meeting when the council discussed whether it had ever agreed to use asphalt millings from the Picnic Street resurfacing project to pave Pine Street, Pine Drive and Pine Terrace, three roads that connect to form a single street.

            Weeks said the discussion wasn’t relevant to what he was talking about — the statements made about harassment allegations and his responses. He was focused on obtaining verbatim minutes of those discussions to create a more accurate permanent record of the meeting.

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Town of Bronson Regular Meeting May 18, 2020; Posted May 18, 2020