Mayor Beatrice Roberts removed Councilman Berlon Weeks from office on the morning of Sept. 16 and informed him of what she had done in a letter from Town Attorney Steven Warm to Weeks.
By Terry Witt -Spotlight Senior Reporter
Bronson Town Council members were undecided Monday on whether to appoint someone to replace Councilman Berlon Weeks, who they removed from office on Sept. 23, or hold an election for his seat.
Councilman Robert Partin suggested the council take time to look at the “legal aspects” of their action before making a decision on how to proceed. He won unanimous support for his motion to table the matter.
“I’m not saying to kick it down the road any further than what it is, but I would like to find out the legal aspects,” Partin said.
Earlier in the meeting, Councilman Aaron Edmondson suggested holding an election to replace Weeks. He said if the council appointed someone to Weeks’ seat it could stir trouble.
“It may cost a little bit of money, but if we go that way we don’t have any controversy. Let the people elect,” Edmondson said.
Councilman Jason Hunt suggested the city advertise the open position and take applications from town residents as it has in the past. The council would appoint the best applicant.
Hunt later made a motion to let the council appoint someone. He withdrew the motion when Partin suggested taking time to study the legalities of the matter.
The board will meet again Monday for its first regular monthly session in October. The agenda won’t be released until later this week.
No Written Resignation
Weeks submitted no written resignation. He told Town Attorney Steven Warm in an email on Sept. 16 that the words he spoke at a council meeting the night before were not intended to be a resignation and shouldn’t be interpreted as such.
The council went ahead and removed him in a Sept. 23 special council meeting arranged by email. Partin, Mayor Beatrice Roberts, and Edmondson voted to recognize his words in the Sept. 15 meeting as a resignation and remove him from office. Hunt was opposed.
Roberts had taken action on the morning of Sept. 16 to remove Weeks from office. Roberts instructed Warm to write a letter to Weeks telling him she was recognizing his resignation as being valid and he had been removed from the council. Warm’s email to Weeks said he had lost all his powers as an elected official. Weeks responded that he hadn’t resigned and Roberts had no authority to make such a determination. But Warm wanted the full council to take a vote on removing Weeks from office, resulting in the Sept. 23 special meeting.
The council’s decision raises a potentially thorny legal question in the minds of some. Did the board have legal authority to remove a duly elected councilman like Weeks without a formal written resignation from Weeks stating his intent to leave office?
Clerk Withdraws Resignation
The legal issues surrounding the board’s decision to remove Weeks grew more complex on Monday when the board accepted a request by Interim Clerk Melisa Thompson to withdraw her resignation. The board will allow Thompson to continue working in her dual roles as interim clerk and deputy clerk. The vote was 3-1 with Partin, Roberts and Edmondson voting to accept the resignation and Hunt opposed.
Spotlight Founder Linda Cooper said the council treated Weeks unfairly and was guilty of a double standard by accepting a letter from Thompson withdrawing her letter of resignation while forcing Weeks out of office by interpreting his words in the Sept. 15 meeting as meaning he was resigning.
She said Weeks was verbally attacked by Edmondson in the Sept 15 meeting. She said the mayor allowed the attack to continue and didn’t restore order, allowing Edmondson to continue berating Weeks, and Weeks to continue responding in his own defense. Weeks walked out of the meeting saying he would hand in his resignation.
Weeks made one continuous statement before leaving the Sept. 15 meeting, saying at first he was resigning and they could appoint his replacement, but then changing course in the heat of battle to say he wouldn’t run for re-election at the end of this term, and finally stating as he walked out that he would hand in his resignation. He never handed in his resignation. The council used his first and third statements about resigning as evidence he had resigned.
“I think it is very wrong of you to recall an election that the citizens of this town voted for Berlon to be in that seat,” Cooper said. “Miss Thompson (said) she was going to stay, she was not going to stay, she was going to stay and you allow it. What kind of chaos and message are you sending to the Town of Bronson?”
Thompson pointed out that she resigned and withdrew her resignation.
Roberts said Weeks was just as loud as Edmondson in the Sept. 15 meeting and she allowed them to continue talking loudly in hopes it would settle down. After things went quiet, she said Weeks got upset again and walked out of the board meeting. She added that there is a difference between Weeks resigning and a town employee resigning.
“As council members, we take an oath of ethics; Mr. Weeks got up and resigned. That’s not the first time Mr. Weeks resigned,” she said. “With Melisa we never discussed it with her because all of the council members were trying to talk her into staying. All of us were trying to keep her from going and she was straddling the fence.”
Roberts said when Thompson changed her mind about resigning she sent the council a letter saying she wanted to keep her job in Town Hall. She said Thompson is essential to the operation of the town as deputy clerk and now interim clerk.
“To make the town work, we’d be crazy not to keep her because if she left tomorrow you might as well close the door until we got someone in there, but she stayed and it’s going to help the town tremendously because she’s actually doing the work of the clerk and she is actually working as the deputy clerk,” Roberts said.
Spotlight attempted to ask Warm during Monday’s council meeting if there were any ethics rules governing public employees. Warm wasn’t physically present for the meeting and didn’t appear to have heard the question. He started to compare the council members to employees. His response by speakerphone was largely inaudible, a continuing problem in all council meetings. Warm’s words of legal advice are often inaudible or partially inaudible in meetings as he talks through the speakerphone standing on the council desk. The council hasn’t seen fit to provide a better way for Warm to communicate to the council. The words of the council members are also sometimes inaudible because the microphones on the council desk aren’t set up to broadcast their voices to the audience. The microphones are intended to create an audio record of the meeting along with a video camera at the back of the room. Thompson also records the voices of council members on a laptop hooked to their microphones.
Replace Attorney?
Cooper said Warm needed to be physically present at town council meetings or the council should turn his duties over to someone who can be physically present. She felt things wouldn’t have spun out of control at the Sept. 15 meeting if the town attorney had been present to see what was happening. Warm didn’t realize Weeks had walked out of the meeting until after the meeting. Edmondson responded to Cooper by pointing out that Warm is old and has to stay at home. Warm began staying home and communicating through the feeble council speakerphone when the COVID-19 outbreak began.
Resident Elijah Williams agreed with Cooper. He said Warm should be present for council meetings.
“I think the lawyer should be present. If a thing’s old and isn’t working like it used to, trade it in and get something new,” Williams said.
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Town of Bronson September 28, Meeting; Posted September 30, 2020
