WILMINGTON — Hostilities arising from a debate over the Wilmington City Council’s rules of order last spring were dredged up at Tuesday’s night council meeting.
READ MORE: City council member ‘feels targeted’ regarding updated rules of order, calls fellow member ‘racist’
The council was presented with two new rules of order at this week’s meeting; one would change the hiring process for council-appointed positions. The other would solidify a time for closed sessions, which are reserved for reviewing legal or personnel matters.
Per the proposed rule changes, closed sessions would be scheduled to occur after agenda briefings on Monday mornings. Council member Kevin Spears spoke against this provision, harkening back to last spring’s changes to the rules of order.
“We said we would conduct closed sessions after the council meetings [on Tuesday]; we’ve maybe done it once,” Spears said. “So if we’re going to move back, we’re going to have to reimplement the remote piece.”
In March 2022, the city council voted 5-2 to approve rule changes. At first council considered barring remote participation altogether but reached a compromise with a motion put forth by council member Luke Waddell. He proposed the new rules prohibit remote participation for regular meetings and closed sessions, but allowable for other meetings, unless exceptional needs necessitate it.
Spears often calls in virtually for Monday morning agenda briefings, and before the rule change during closed sessions, as he has to be present at his job as a legal assistant. When the rules were amended last spring, Spears claimed the measure was an attempt to bar him from meetings. Spears and fellow council member Clifford Barnett voted against it after a heated exchange where Spears accused multiple council members of being racist.
On Tuesday, Spears again pointed out the new rules would put him at a disadvantage. He said if closed sessions were moved to succeed agenda briefings, he would not be able to attend per the rule against remote participation.
Currently, closed sessions are not mandated to occur at any specific time, but council has committed to having them after its Tuesday night meeting, when everyone is present in-person. According to Spears, that has only happened once, and because of that, Spears said he has not been able to attend a closed session.
Port City Daily asked the city how many closed sessions it had since March and when they were held; no response was given by press.
City manager Tony Caudle explained the rationale for the new rule change was to ensure city council was fresh in their decision-making during closed sessions, since council meetings can run several hours long.
However, the suggestion to move the closed session came from the now defunct governance committee; its membership consisted of Charlie Rivenbark and former council members Margaret Haynes and Neil Anderson.
New council members David Joyner and Salette Andrews took their oath in December.
“Two of the members who were on this committee are no longer on this body, so again, I think we need to get direction from this body as to where we want to go with our rules of procedure,” Andrews said Tuesday.
Andrews joined Spears in his disagreement with the proposed closed session rule.
“It seems like we’re closing the noose and saying that the closed sessions are going to only be held when councilmember Spears can’t be here,” Andrews said.
She went on to say the rule would not just affect Spears, but any future council candidate that can’t make a commitment to attend in-person meetings on Monday mornings. Spears pointed out the rule would affect Joyner, an assistant district attorney who could be in court on Monday mornings.
“I think it sends a bad message to the people who have to work for a living,” Andrews said. “I’m self-employed, so I have a very understanding boss, but not everybody is that lucky.”
Waddell has always had concerns about closed sessions being remote due to a greater chance of people — such as someone being in the same room — overhearing protected information or breaking into video software.
“But I do believe that we need to have … as a standard of practice, to maintain the integrity of those conversations, have them in person,” Waddell said.
The word “integrity” was a buzzword of last spring’s debate, and Spears again took Waddell’s comments to refer to the integrity of his fellow council members. Spears stated his integrity has never come into question once, but Waddell clarified he was not questioning his character, but rather the integrity of the meeting as a whole.
As an example, Waddell said the integrity of a closed session would be compromised if a council member tuned in from a coffee shop where people could see his screen.
“That’s not integrity Luke, that’s stupidity,” Spears said.
Rivenbark chimed in on in-person participation as well, noting when someone signs up to run for city council, he should understand the commitment is more than two meetings a month. Rivenbark works in real estate, which Spears was quick to point out allows Rivenbark a flexible schedule.
“But have you not heard the citizens complain about the elected officials that are involved in real estate?” Spears asked.
Spears said he didn’t want to start off the year with the tense remarks, to which Rivenbark cut in with “you started it.” The two have been known to spar during council meetings.
”You probably started it a hundred years ago,” Spears replied before telling Rivenbark he might need anger management.
Ultimately, the council decided to host a work session to hash it out further.
Council members also were not happy with the proposed language for hiring practices. The new rule change would mandate city council appointments (city clerk, attorney or manager) or positions requiring council approval (police and fire chief) would need to be advertised publicly, even if an internal candidate has been identified.
The council did not oppose that provision but rather the process that would seemingly give the human resources team more authority over these hires. HR would be tasked with making a recommendation and choosing the method for the search process, namely whether to hire an outside search firm or handle the hiring internally. Council members were in agreement they should be given a decision.
Caudle said staff needed 30 days to gather best practices based on other municipalities and develop language more to the council’s liking.
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com.
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