In a pre-pandemic photo, Danny Basil speaks to former councilperson Brad Groce during a meeting of the Glasgow City Council.
(BRENNAN CRAIN/WCLU NEWS)
GLASGOW, Ky. – An attempt to adopt Robert’s Rules of Order at Monday’s Glasgow City Council meeting failed.
The Council discussed adopting Robert’s Rules of Order, which is a manual of parliamentary procedure. The item was placed on the agenda after a council member cited the rules at a previous meeting when they weren’t actually in effect.
Danny Basil, Glasgow attorney, described the plethora of information contained in the procedural manual.
“I feel that an adoption of this is a compelling requirement that we follow these rules,” Basil said. “These rules may not let you do everything you’d to do unless you know exactly how you need to go about doing it.”
Basil indicated to the council that they would be expected to follow many more rules than in previous meetings. Those stipulations would also apply to committees, he said.
Most of the council disagreed with the adoption.
“In my opinion, undue burdens will be placed upon us by this format of Robert’s Rules of Order,” said Terry Bunnell. “By not adopting, and again I want to say by not adopting the Robert’s Rules of Order, we are not hindering the business of the City of Glasgow.”
Bunnell reasoned the adoption of the rules would prevent the legislative body from carrying out its necessary duties.
Councilperson Wendell Honeycutt cited a point of order from the manual at a previous meeting, but there was no basis for the citation since the Glasgow Council never adopted the rules. He spoke in favor of adopting the rules at Monday’s meeting.
“If we had not had such lively discussions about the Electric Plant Board, I would completely agree with Terry,” said Wendell Honeycutt. “But I think if we’d had this in place the discussions would have been a lot more professional than they ended up being.”
He requested the motion be amended so that committees could not be impacted by the procedural rules. The amendment failed, and the motion did too. The rules were not adopted.
Honeycutt and Marlin Witcher voted in favor of the rules.
In other news:
MacLean Lessenberry, executive director of the Barren County Tourism Commission, gave a brief presentation on the commission’s rebranding efforts. A new website is expected to be unveiled next week.
The Council approved on first reading that committee composition be reduced from five to four members. Committees cannot comprise a majority of members, and the Council’s reduced composition of nine members means five members on a committee is a majority. It passed unanimously.
The Council passed on first reading an ordinance that enables a portion of Hilltopper Way to be rezoned. The area is 15.231 acres where Sitel was located.
SpanTech, a local conveyor belt producer, bought the property. The ordinance seeks to rezone the area to an industrial specification. It passed unanimously.
The Council is expected to complete an ethics recertification class on March 1. The class is administered via the Kentucky League of Cities virtually, and it begins at 6 p.m. All members must complete the class, according to City Clerk Mona Simmons.