CLINTON – A proposal to increase the number of citizens serving on the city’s Finance Committee on Tuesday night led to a lengthy Clinton City Council discussion peppered with questions about whether the committee is even needed and should be dissolved.
In the end, Ward 2 Councilman Cody Seeley, who is chairman of the Finance Committee and sought the expansion, expressed his disappointment about the direction the discussion took, pulled the item from the agenda and shut down further talk.
The discussion, which was the last item on the council’s Committee of the Whole agenda, started off with Seeley saying he wanted to add more citizen engagement to the Finance Committee.
Currently, that committee is composed of three councilmembers and two community members. In an effort to obtain more citizen input and feedback, Seeley wanted to increase membership to add two more community members. The number of councilmembers would remain at three.
“I would like more public input,” Seeley said of his reason for making the proposal, adding that having more citizen members would ensure the community is consistently represented, because citizens serving on the committee are sometimes unable to attend.
“People get busy so then we have members who can’t show up and then it just ends up being three council members,” he said.
That’s when Ward 1 Councilman Bill Schemers said some residents had reached out to him to say that three councilmembers on the committee are too many and questioned him as to whether the committee needs to exist. Cities of comparable size in Iowa do not have a Finance Committee and instead have that work carried out by the entire council in a Committee of the Whole session, he said.
City Administrator Matt Brooke confirmed that the work could be done through Committee of the Whole sessions.
“Let’s dissolve it then,” Seeley said.
Clinton Finance Director Anita Dalton then gave some background about the creation of the Finance Committee, which was established in 2015. A new councilman at that time felt it imperative to have a Finance Committee. She said it is difficult at times to meet, especially when budget sessions are underway. One of the Finance Committee’s main goals is to review the audit report so members can answer audit questions from other council members. The committee also looks at bank reconciliations and provides a layer of protection for the city’s Finance Department.
“Do you think there is a need for the committee, Anita,” Seeley asked Dalton.
“I think it is poor form for me as a finance director to stand here and say that we don’t need a finance committee,” she said.
At-large Councilman Gregg Obren, who was the city’s parks and recreation department director in 2015, said the committee was formed out of a “political nature.” He said nothing was done wrong, but there was a feeling the city needed to be more open and more citizen input was needed.
Dalton said she started with the city in 2013; four new councilmembers were seated in January 2014, with one feeling that the committee was needed.
Seeley was one of its first members when the Finance Committee was formed. He said it has filled a lot of varying roles over the years, makes recommendations to the council and looks at banking statements.
“These committees play a vital role,” said Seeley, who said committees can bring more people into the public forum who may later run for City Council, just as he did.
Obren started to make a motion to have seven members but open discussion took over, and the motion wasn’t completed.
City Attorney Pat O’Connell cautioned the council to not have too many citizen members because if council members are in the minority, recommendations would be made by people who were not elected to do that work. He supported the idea of three councilmembers and three citizens serving on the committee to maintain balance.
“I don’t want to get away from our statutory duty,” O’Connell said.
Ward 3 Councilman Ron Mussmann wanted to wait a year before anything was changed. He said a meeting schedule should be created and committee efficiency tracked. He said the council could revisit the issue in a year to see if the committee should be expanded or dissolved.
Seeley didn’t agree, saying he only wanted more citizen input.
“If this is the route we’re going to go, which is pretty disappointing for me, that’s fine. Let’s just leave it be,” Seeley said. “We’ll call the meetings once a year.”
Dalton said she would send out a save-the-date reminder for committee members to meet monthly. If there are no agenda items, the committee won’t meet.
Schemers then suggested citizen alternates could be called in to fill out the meetings to get to the citizen quorum.
Seeley said he never expected the discussion to take the turn that it did.
“Can I retract my discussion item,” Seeley asked. “I’m done talking about this. I have nothing I would like to put forward at this point.”
