Mayor Bobby Tyler who was absent without excuse from the Nov 14 Holbrook City Council meeting and who has missed five of the last 10 meetings for various reasons, was criticized by several council members for his lack of notification regarding an upcoming mayors summit to be hosted by the city.
City Manager Randy Sullivan told the council of concerns he had regarding a Mayor’s Summit that the city was to host on Dec. 5. He explained that Mayor Bobby Tyler, who was absent from the meeting for unknown reasons, had not informed administration or the council of the event and had allotted funds to cover the cost that were not budgeted.
According to City Clerk Cher Reyes, the invitation list includes 120 dignitaries from all the border cities from Bernalillo, N.M., to west of Flagstaff. She said she was first notified of the event last April when someone contacted her and informed her that Mayor Tyler had committed to Holbrook hosting the summit while he was at last years’ Mayors Summit in Flagstaff.
Reyes heard nothing more on the matter until September when a policy analyst with the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission who was to speak at the summit came and met with her. “Then for two months nothing happened because he and Bobby were not communicating. So I thought it was going to be a no-go because he (the man with the Human Rights Commission) kept saying we can’t move ahead.”
Reyes said she then received an email from Tyler on Oct. 26 telling her that the summit would be held on Dec. 5 and that she needed to send out invitations and plan the lunch, with Navajo County providing the breakfast and the venue in the public works building at the south end of town. She also expressed a concern that the venue may not be large enough as it noted it would hold 50 guests.
Sullivan told the council that the reason he brought the matter before them was that the cost would be upwards of $1,200 or more for lunch and that he wanted the council to ratify it. “I kind of have a little bit of heartburn over it because I don’t see how this summit is benefitting the City of Holbrook,” said Sullivan.
Councilman CJ Wischmann stated that he felt showcasing Holbrook to that many mayors was an inexpensive way to advertise Holbrook and give out pamphlets. Councilman Tim Dixon agreed stating, “Things like this that put us on the map are important. You can’t really calculate the cost versus the benefit of people coming to Holbrook to spend money here and then tell other people.”
Councilman Richard Peterson disagreed, saying he didn’t like how this was being handled and that he didn’t know that the council would have ever been notified of the event if the staff hadn’t placed it on the agenda. “When did he plan to inform us that he obligated the city to host this and pay for it? We don’t have a mayor’s discretionary fund but in this particular instance he’s acting like he has money on his own without coming to the city council.
“If you look at the agenda its basically our mayor and two members of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission who are going to deliver content. What the mayor is going to deliver is content on economic development and I’m not sure what his expertise is,” said Peterson, noting some of the larger city representatives such as those from Albuquerque that would be invited to the event. He then asked if anyone on the council had been invited to attend the summit, to which Wischmann stated that he had but no one else responded.
“I don’t’ think this is well organized and I’m not sure what the theme is. We have hate crimes and economic development,” noted Peterson. “I don’t think this is the way to showcase the city because it doesn’t look like a good agenda. I think when people leave they won’t have been provided much except for lunch paid for by our taxpayers.”
Councilwoman Francie Payne then spoke and asked Sullivan how much money was in the council’s fund. He stated that $1,500 for the year was budgeted for travel and that the council had already spent $1,445, leaving $55 for the rest of the fiscal year. Sullivan said that he could take the cost out of the administration budget and list it as public relations.
Councilman Earl Kester said he felt Tyler had “overstepped his boundaries,” noting that the matter should have been brought to the council last year before the Mayors Summit to be voted on before obligating the city to this year’s event.
Payne said that she didn’t have a problem with the summit but noted that the matter did need to come before the council to be approved. “He doesn’t have the power to spend that money without council approval. If he promised it last year he could have mentioned it at some time and we could have approved it. It has to be made clear that none of us up here has the power to spend city money without approval,” she said.
“We have an elephant in the room and I’m going to bring it up right now. Randy does not communicate with the mayor and the mayor does not communicate with Randy and that’s a problem,” stated Vice Mayor Carlisle. “I don’t care what the issues are, the mayor is an elected official, he’s elected by the public, by the people so you have to talk to him,” he said, pointing towards Sullivan.
“The second thing is, the mayor does not bring clear information when he brings it to Randy and Cher. I’ve heard it myself.” Carlisle said that at one time the council had strict rules that they adhered to and that has slipped. “We need to do that for ourselves, especially to help out the mayor because he’s coming into a council and he’s never done that. He doesn’t know what that’s like and all of you guys have served in public bodies and seen what goes on and what the protocol is and I don’t think Bobby ever has. We need to be more professional again,” he said, adding that he would make that an agenda item for the next meeting.
Payne then made the motion to approve the cost of the event in an amount not to exceed $1,500, with Wischmann seconding the motion followed by the support of Kester, Dixon and Carlisle, with Peterson voting in opposition.
