No smoke, no fire

Fear and Loathing in Waynesboro column by Chris Graham
[email protected]

How many of you are going to be surprised when you hear that I checked into today’s called and then canceled closed meeting to interview prospective candidates for the vacant city-attorney position to see if there was anything funny going on?

I hope none, by this point.

I made a couple of calls, and nope, nothing untoward, just business.

But that e-mail from the council clerk had my attention. Hoo boy.

“Please be advised that the Interim City Manager, Interim City Attorney, and Clerk of Council have determined that this morning’s notice fails to meet the requirements for notice of meetings under the City Code. Accordingly, the Council will not meet tonight and will reschedule the meeting and provide proper notice under the City Code.”

This came about an hour and a half after the first note about a called city-council meeting that would have had council members meet briefly in open session later today for the purpose of going into closed session to interview prospective appointees. That notice had indicated that no announcement was expected after the closed meeting, code for “we’re not expecting to be telling you that we’re going to be hiring somebody today.”

I’m told that the meeting fell through as much because of extenuating circumstances as the stated issue with meeting-notice requirements under the city code. One council member, Nancy Dowdy, is out of town and wouldn’t be able to make the interview session, and then one of the interview subjects had to cancel at the last minute.

That said, I was pleased to learn that the folks in City Hall took the time to dot the i’s and cross the t’s on the meeting-requirements issue.

Good to see somebody minding the store.