Residents of New Bern’s Ward 6 will not receive direct mailings with information about the vacant alderman seat, according to Alderman Rick Prill.
The New Bern Board of Aldermen talked about the process of choosing someone to fill the vacant seat for alderman of Ward 6 during the Aug. 2, 2024 meeting in downtown New Bern, NC.
The next steps were unclear as no one made a motion on how staff should proceed.
Alderman Barbara Best and Rick Prill told NewBernNow.com that the board voted 3-3 on sending direct mailings to Ward 6 residents about the vacancy on Aug. 3. The private vote took place after yesterday’s special meeting.
Until recent months, the Board of Aldermen has followed rules and procedure and has used Robert’s Rules of Order to accomplish their work.
Yesterday, the motion to adjourn was the only motion that was made. Today, we find out the board voted privately.
NC general statute says, “it is the public policy of North Carolina that the hearings, deliberations, and actions of these (public) bodies be conducted openly.”
The city charter says the city is structured as a council-manager system of government.
The charter says, “The government and management of the city shall be vested in the council” and the mayor is the presiding officer. It also says the mayor is the head of the city for ceremonial purposes.
The city manager is “the chief administrator of the city,” according to NC general statute.
In February, the city attorney told the board, “The mayor, by statute is the chairman of the meeting and as chairman is not to engage in any robust discussion.”
Davis said, “Technically, if the mayor is going to actively engage in debating an issue, then the mayor would turn over the gavel to the mayor pro tem and then engage robustly in some discussion. So, the public policy is that we don’t want the mayor to effectively be in charge.”
Mayor Jeffrey Odham has debated on countless issues, but has never turned over the gavel, even after the board recused him from voting on issues that presented a conflict of interest.
In April, the board adopted rules of procedure. The mayor has disregarded rules, and no one has questioned his actions. This has resulted in a power shift from aldermen making decisions as a whole to the mayor controlling the board and directing staff.
Yesterday, Alderman Johnnie Ray Kinsey told the mayor, “I’ll follow your lead.”
In June, Odham directed Charles Bauschard, the director of public utilities, to “get us to 16 cents per kilowatt hours” after saying he wanted the city to match Duke Energy’s rates and recommending a 6% rate increase.
Meeting recap
Scott Davis, the city attorney, started things off by reviewing the board’s options in filling the vacant seat.
He said it would take the majority of the board to appoint someone to fill the seat and they could take several months to make the decision.
“The sooner the better,” Davis said.
He said, “Sometimes there are multiple candidates and there are public officials who want to promote a particular person who’s expressed an interest to them.”
“If that’s the case, I suggest a written ballot,” Davis said.
Kinsey asked, “Why don’t we do what you just said?”
He continued, “Get a list of names of people, therefore we can narrow it down to the person that we’re going to select, therefore, no one can say that, hey I wanted to do it, but nobody chose me. So, I think that’s the direction to go in.”
Prill said, “I think we need to do everything that we can through social media, through word of mouth and possibly even a direct mailing to the residents in Ward six letting them know what the process would be.”
Odham said the direct mailing wasn’t in the budget.
Prill said there is a cost to direct mailing but didn’t expect it to be more than a few hundred dollars.
After a brief discussion, Odham said, “Alderman Prill, would you be okay with social media and word of mouth if we weren’t able to do direct mail?”
Prill said, “Direct mail is not a difficult thing” and recommended generating a simple mailing list.
Aster brought up the possibility of sending out a phone call to everybody in Ward 6.
Odham said, “How about staff can research this topic and then get back up with the board on some options for direct mail, reverse 911 and any other options to get the message out?”
“I would like to see us encourage anybody in Ward six, who may have an interest, to express that interest to the city, to us, so that we can then establish a procedure to possibly sit down with each of those individuals and talk about before a final decision and vote is taken,” Prill said.
Alderman Best said she concurred with Prill and Kinsey.
She said she thought citizens should be allowed to apply.
Best said she wanted to “fill this seat as soon as possible, but I do think we need to take the proper time.”
Alderman Hazel Royal, also mayor pro tem, said, “I concur with all.”
She said she didn’t want the board to rush the decision.
Alderman Bobby Aster said he thought that people should submit a letter to the city clerk if they’re interested.
Odham asked if the board wanted to conduct the interview process during a public meeting or “take it to small groups?”
“I would like to see this board have a public meeting and invite those interested parties to come in as a group, one at a time and yes, it’s going to be an open meeting, but if somebody is interested in being a member of this board, they need to be comfortable talking about themselves in an open public session. That would just give us a chance to talk with them, get to know them a little bit better and once we get through that process then I think we’re in a better position to start position,” Prill said.
Odham asked if anyone was not satisfied with that process.
“I don’t have a problem with that process, but you don’t know how many candidates that’s going to come forward,” Best said.
She said, “We don’t have that process in place for our other boards. We don’t have a period where we interview them and talk to them and get to know them. They just go through the process of submitting information in and then we take that information decipher it and read it and come up with the candidate that we feel is the most qualified.”
Aster said he agreed.
Kinsey said, “Second.”
It’s unclear what he seconded as no one made a motion.
Odham said, “Okay, two don’t necessarily want to have an interview process and asked Alderman Royal for her thoughts.
“As I spoke earlier, we have a process in place with all of our boards so I would like to follow that process,” Royal said.
Kinsey looked at Odham and said, “I’ll follow your lead.”
“Alderman Prill, it sounds like the interview in a public session is not necessarily the will the majority of board,” Odham said.
Odham debated whether or not to pay for direct mailings because it wasn’t in the budget.
He also talked about how long he thought the process should take.
“I just hope that we can come up with a candidate list of Ward six that’s going to not require us spending so much money trying to get this information compiled and put out there to the residents of Ward six,” Best said.
Best asked Assistant City Manager Marvin Williams, “Please restate what we’re asking you to do?”
“With the guidance that you’ve given us, we’ll come back with the options that you all have requested for us to look into by next week sometime and that you all can make a decision how you all want to proceed.”
He added, “And we’ll give you all the options for the social media as well.”
It didn’t appear as if the board voted on anything or gave staff any direction so NewBernNow.com asked the Board of Aldermen and the mayor for clarification.
Best said, “The Board all stated what their interest/options were during the meeting.”
We asked, “What was the direction?”
She replied, “The Mayor asked staff to research all options and follow back up to the Board, no Alderman disagreed with that direction.”
NewBernNow.com asked, “What was the outcome?”
Best said, “Only one option has been finalized with the Board to my knowledge so far, a 3-3 vote to direct mailing.”
Alderman Prill told NBN that “Alderman Best clarified with staff that staff would work up a cost estimate for such a mailing and that this would be communicated to the Board for consideration.”
He said, “Later in the day the City Clerk notified the Board that such a mailing would cost approximately $900, and asked each Board member if they would be in favor of having staff proceed with preparing the mailing.”
Prill said, “Three members of the Board (myself, Alderman Best and Alderman Royal) were in favor of moving forward with the mailing and Alderman Kinsey, Alderman Aster and Mayor Odham indicated they were not in favor of moving forward. Given that there was not a majority in favor of moving forward, no mailing will take place.”
Alderman Aster, Kinsey, Royal and Mayor Odham have not responded to our request for comment.
By Wendy Card, Editor. Send an email with questions or comments.
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