By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
This month’s regular Park Hills council meeting didn’t get very far into the agenda, bogging down in the approval of last month’s minutes.
It was not unexpected, however, because of the controversy at the September 29 meeting where council member Sarah Froelich walked out of the meeting just as the roll was being called for a vote on whether or not to send a zone change to PDS.
At that meeting, there were only four council members present, two were absent, but four members does constitute a quorum and business can be accomplished.
Council member Froelich did not want to approve the legislation at that meeting, and she said that she thought she was using parliamentary procedure to make a statement about the legislation when she left the meeting and exited the building. Froelich knew that of the other three council members present, she would be out voted to defeat the legislation, so she decided to leave the meeting so there was not a quorum and the issue couldn’t be voted on.
There was a paragraph in the minutes that indicated that she was in fact still in the room when the vote was taken. Each council member who was present at the September 29 meeting, Greg Claypole, Steve Elkins, and Pam Spoor, gave their recollection that they thought Froelich was still at the back of the room because the vote occurred immediately after she left the table.
Froelich adamantly maintains she was out of the building. However, the steps that have to be navigated to get down to the first floor are steep and difficult to manage quickly. There were other people in the audience who reacted loudly to Froelich’s exit, and that helped to create a chaotic atmosphere.
A complaint was officially made by a resident, Gretchen Stephenson, to the Kentucky Attorney General’s office, and a response was officially made by City Attorney Daniel Braun. Nothing has been determined yet, although Spoor said the Attorney General does not rule on minutes, he will rule on the complaint that there was a violation of the meeting order.
Council member Spoor said she received veiled threats about the vote, and wondered aloud if this is what the city has descended to — ”if you don’t like the vote, you threaten the people who oppose you.”
“I don’t understand what the big deal is here,” she told Froelich. “If you don’t like the project, it’s okay, we can disagree on things.”
Mayor Kathy Zembrodt brought the arguing to a stop and said they were going to vote on whether to accept the minutes as they stood.
“I cannot state more strongly that this paragraph is incorrect,” Froelich stated. “I have spent a lot of time and effort trying to show that I was not here. I have time stamps.”
She has gone on social media to state that she was not in the building, and has sworn out an affidavit to that effect. She acknowledged that the vote took less than a minute, but she said she exited in seconds.
She said she can’t believe all of the other members thought she was still in the room when she was not.
“The video is unclear, I was giving you my recollection,” said Spoor. “If I had known you were going to pull a stunt like that, maybe I would have been more attentive to your every action. I actually thought we were acting in good faith, engaging as a council.”
The vote was taken and three council members, Spoor, Elkins and Claypole, voted to accept the minutes with the paragraph and one council member, Froelich, voted no. Two council members abstained, Emily Sayers and Laura Cardosi because they were not present.
The next issue on the agenda was an ordinance to establish rules and regulation as to how to behave in the meeting and how the meetings should proceed, so they can avoid the chaos that meetings were evolving into.
Council member Froelich immediately wanted to move the issue to the caucus meeting to discuss it further. A vote was taken, and with a 3-3 tie, the motion failed, and Attorney Braun proceeded with a reading, although he explained that he reworked a section of the ordinance to make it like the standard that is used in most cities. Mayor Zembrodt added that it contains a clarification of what constitutes a quorum, so that no one will be confused about it.
“I didn’t just pull this out of thin air, people have been asking me for years to clarify the rules,” she said. “We only have had one person in here about a year ago who had terrible behavior, but now it is starting all over again. I just think we need some rules set down. There is just a lot of yelling and hollering. The last meeting was totally out of line—out of line.”
Council member Spoor said the rules need to facilitate respectful focused public debate. The process, she said, can be weaponized. She said the items in the ordinance are very standard, and are utilized in almost every city.
“A good process helps you accomplish things on behalf of your city,” Spoor stated. “That’s what we are trying to do here.”
Mayor Zembrodt said that she sent everyone a simplified version of Robert’s Rules of Order so things can be clearer. Attorney Braun wondered why people would not utilize those rules for the city’s meetings. He said every city he has ever covered uses these rules.
Council member Froelich objected, asking which version of Robert’s Rules they were referring to. It was determined that they would use the latest version of Robert’s Rules, and then Froehlich asked if all council members would be given that version and given training on those rules. Attorney Braun said the wording of the ordinance is a synopsis, or simplification of the 12th edition of Robert’s Rules, which reflects the rules that most cities use to maintain order.