Mayor Garrett read her interpretation of the law, stating that if an item is added to the agenda with less than 24 hours’ notice, the addition must be clearly justified in the minutes to meet the requirements of an emergency meeting.
McDermott countered that his interpretation did not mention emergencies.
Mayor Garrett reiterated that if the council voted to add the item, she would not sign it and warned of a potential fine.
Despite this, the council voted on adding the amendment, which failed 4-3. However, all seven council members supported committing $2.5 million to the project. The Council then voted on the original agenda item by a unanimous vote, expressing their intent to continue its partnership with the YMCA, Vision Atlantic, the Laken Foundation, and with numerous other donor’s within the community, all to make this project not just a current reality, but something to which future generations will reap the most reward and benefit from. The letter of intent went on to say, among other possible funding sources, the City intends to take additional action establishing the City’s local option sales tax revenue streams so that they may begin to annually reserve and escrow the precise funds necessary to service the expected future debt of $2.5 million, specifically for the Nishna Valley YMCA Renovation Project, with a vote on or about April 16.
Later, Councilman Dana Halder requested a special meeting be scheduled before the regular meeting on April 16 to formally allocate the funds from the Local Option Sales Tax for the YMCA expansion project.
