Monday, December 10, 2007

New Council

This entry was originally posted on December 3rd. It is re-posted to provide context for the comments that follow.

The majority of the Ruston council seats were unexpectedly handed to new people tonight. Council members Mary Joyce and Del Brewer resigned their seats a month before their terms expired at the end of December. Council member Bob Pudlo also resigned his seat. He had said previously that the stress of dealing with some of the council members was impacting his health. Those council members (Wayne Stebner and Bob Everding) are the only two members to retain their seats after tonight’s meeting.

Recent election winners, Bradley Huson and Jim Hedrick, were appointed to fill the vacancies left by senior council members Joyce and Brewer. For Pudlo’s seat, past practice for the council would have been to take applications for the vacancy and invite the public to provide input prior to making their decision. Instead, they choose to install Dan Alberston, who lost a close race to Jim Hedrick. There was no consideration of Lyle Hardin, who also lost a fairly close race to Bradley Huson. It is unclear how long Albertson will hold his seat – probably until fall 2008, perhaps until the end of 2009.

Please listen, watch and give your input to our elected leaders. And share your opinion here. Your voice is important!
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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Weelll, there they go again (heard with the Reagan voice) the cliches can run amuck endlessly: "people get the government they deserve" etc....Another sham was executed on our little hamlet last evening when former mayor and councilmember Pudlo's still warm but vacated seat was filled by Albertson on a 3 to 1 vote by the new/old council lead by the ever shameless Everding. I do not doubt that Dan Albertson may be the best person in Ruston for the job, after all he lost the election by a very slim margin and has a resume that may well qualify him. WHAT I DO OBJECT TO IS THE DENIAL OF PROCESS that has been the standard here in Ruston and elsewhere which opens the vacancy to any and all residents that want to apply for the position and follow a review, interview, etc. method.

And now the 'good' news, Ruston now has another lawyer on board.........now maybe we can save a few hundred thousand dollars of our precious nest egg...unless of course he is not able to give us 'legal advice' due to rules set up by far to many American families having allowed (and even encouraged) their children to go to law school!!

Signed, you'll never guess

December 4, 2007 at 10:07 AM
Anonymous said...

Having attended last nights meeting left me with a feeling of who's next. For the council to not follow the format that has been there in the past for filling in a vacancy, showed their lack of concern for the town. I applaud Jim for speaking up as he did and did not appreciate Jane's put down of Jim. Council meetings are their for the residents to voice their concerns and feelings. This will be an interesting month as they strive to complete the task of completing the budget in time. Hopefully the new year will start out better than this year is ending. If I don't write again before the holidays, I hope you all have a wonderful season and happy and safe new year.

Bev

December 4, 2007 at 3:25 PM
Anonymous said...

It is no surprise to me. I too hope that Dan can help with the log jam in council since his position as a councilman narrows his direction from that of citizen at large.

Anyone else notice that the Ruston Connection voided their accounts? One simply cannot disagree with the RC after all.

December 4, 2007 at 4:32 PM
Anonymous said...

Is there any written policy or procedure regarding replacing council members or has the way it was been done in the past just been accepted by all.

December 4, 2007 at 5:32 PM
Ruston Home said...

Interesting question... I will ask at Town Hall. I don't think there is a formal ordinance adopted, but I could be wrong. I will leave the information in a comment here in the next few days. I can only recall one time, in 1986 or so, when someone was appointed to the council to fill a vacant seat for 3 months where there was no application sought and advance notice given so residents could provide input. My memory is not fact by any means ~ but having an open process has very much been the norm for the last10 years or so.

KP – blog editor

December 4, 2007 at 5:41 PM
Ruston Home said...

A follow up to the previous question. There does not appear to be any written requirement for the council to follow their normal procedure, which as been to 1) notify citizens about council vacancies, 2) ask for applications, 3) interview candidates in a public meeting and 4) allow the public to give input.

But then again, this is a new council with new ways of doing business. Ironically, many of these new council members complained during a previous controversial condo development that elected officials had not been open to public input.

December 6, 2007 at 11:41 AM

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