GARFIELD -- No formal action was taken Tuesday night by Garfield city officials after they met for two hours in a specially-called meeting then convened into executive session.
Three of four City Council members attended the special meeting called by Mayor Gary Blackburn, who said the meeting was called to "discipline an employee."
In a memo to recorder-treasurer Keeli Ketcher dated Oct. 20,the mayor wrote: "In accordance with the provisions of Garfield Ordinance 151 Section 1A, This is a notice of a Special Meeting, scheduled for Tuesday October 24,2017 at 6 Pm. The purpose of the meeting is, an executive session, to discuss a disciplinary matter I request that you notify each alderman and ask them to attend...."
Mayor Blackburn called the meeting to order at 6 p.m. and asked recorder-treasurer Keeli Ketcher to call the roll. Council member Barry Kitterman, appointed recently to fill the vacancy left by Susie Morrison, was absent.
"This is a special called meeting by myself and it's called for the purpose of an executive session... for the purpose of considering discipline of an employee," the mayor said.
Council member Terry Warren made the motion to go into executive session and Jim Teeselink seconded the motion. Council member Katherine Shook asked who the meeting was about and the mayor said she would know after the group retired into executive session. She voted against going into executive session.
The city has three employees -- a park employee, a water systems operator and a general clerk. City recorder treasurer Ketcher is an elected official.
Members of Ketcher's family were present in the audience to support her.
At 6:59 p.m., Shook walked out of the executive session and the council meeting saying it was about an elected official and that an attorney with the Municipal League had advised her that the council could not go into executive session about an elected official.
At 7:44 p.m. the mayor, Warren and Teeselink reconvened into open session and asked for a motion to adjourn. Warren made the motion.
Philip Elmore, an attorney with Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull PLLC of Little Rock and Springdale, said an executive session may be permitted for any public officer and that elected officials have been determined to fall within the statutory definition of "public officer or employee." He said the mayor may be present and any action taken against the public official must be taken in public.
The legal opinion expressed by Elmore is that the City Council is the supervisory authority over an elected recorder treasurer.
He opined that the official being discussed may be present in the executive session if requested by the council conducting the executive session.
"If the executive session's disciplinary discussion also included any form of statutory evidentiary hearing, then the hearing was required to take place in public," Elmore wrote, adding: "The Court held that a governing body may enter into executive sessions after such hearings to deliberate and reach a personnel decision, and must subsequently reassemble in public to vote formally on the matter."
General News on 11/01/2017