The Jefferson County Council has adopted a revised rules of procedure document – the template for how the council conducts its business under the county’s charter.
County Council members voted 4-1 Dec. 27 with an abstention to approve the new document. Councilman Phil Hendrickson (District 3, Arnold), who for years has been pushing for modifications to the rules of procedure, saw its approval at his last council meeting.
On Jan. 9, Hendrickson, who just concluded his fifth year on the council, will be succeeded by Shannon Otto, who won the Republican Party’s primary in August, then ran unopposed in November.
“I was very adamant about getting some of these changes in place for the new council,” Hendrickson said. “While it’s been amended, the last time it was updated was 2017. It was a mess. I wanted the new council to have a clean version of the rules.”
The Jan. 9 meeting also will be the first for Bob Tullock, who defeated current District 7 council member Vicky James and two others in the Republican primary, and also ran unopposed in November.
A third relative newcomer, District 5’s Scott Seek, was sworn in after he won the August primary and also faced no opponent in the November election. He replaced Tracey Perry, who resigned in April 2022 amid questions about her residency.
One of the new council’s first orders of business will be to appoint a replacement for Renee Reuter (District 2, Imperial), the longest-tenured member who was sworn in Wednesday (Jan. 4) as the 112th District representative in the state House of Representatives.
Hendrickson said the procedure to replace Reuter was what he was most concerned about.
“That was the one change I wanted to have in place,” he said. “We needed a fair, consistent way to replace members.”
Reuter will be the fifth council member who will be replaced mid-term since the first council was seated after the county charter was adopted in 2011, and for the previous four, different procedures were used each time, with the council most recently deciding to let the voters choose Perry’s successor.
“When we first started meeting about the rules with an ad-hoc committee about three years ago, the procedure to replace council members didn’t come up,” Hendrickson said. “It didn’t seem necessary. And then the debacle happened.”
After Jim Terry resigned his District 7 seat in mid-2021, the council interviewed eight applicants and were asked to rank each one. In an apparent effort to distort the vote, two council members failed to rank each candidate.
“I think because of that, Vicky James, who was chosen, has kind of been under a cloud, through no fault of her own,” Hendrickson said.
To fix that system, once the council chair gets notice that a seat will be vacated, he or she will call for applicants. All eligible applicants will be interviewed by the council at a special, open meeting, then the council will enter a closed session to discuss and then vote for a favorite.
If the council deadlocks at 3-3 in two successive votes, members will then be asked to rank the candidates.
“If someone isn’t approved on a straight-up vote, they’ll go to a ranking system, but all ballots must be complete,” Hendrickson said. “If any ballot is incomplete, it will be thrown out and that council member will not have another opportunity to vote.”
Hendrickson said he believes the council deliberating on who might be the best candidate in closed, rather than open session, would be beneficial to the process.
“I think the council members will be able to be more open about their thoughts if they’re not having to express them in front of the applicants,” Hendrickson said. “I don’t think it’s fair to those who are seeking a seat to have a discussion in front of them.”
Perry was elected chair of the council and Hendrickson the vice chair in January, but after Perry resigned, what happened to the leadership was not clear.
The current rules did not cover such a circumstance, so Hendrickson remained as vice chair and performed the chair’s duties.
Another change will clarify that. From now on, if the chair leaves the council, the vice chair will move up and a replacement vice chairperson will be elected.
“I don’t think anyone anticipated this happening, but it’s been kind of clumsy this year,” he said. “This will rectify that problem.”
The third major change the public will notice is that each item on the consent agenda will no longer be read by title and then voted on collectively. Instead, the council will simply be asked to vote on the consent agenda.
At the Dec. 27 meeting, which was fairly typical, 16 items were on the consent agenda, and reading what amounts to a short paragraph for each one took up the bulk of the hour-long meeting.
“I’ve been on several boards and commissions over 27 years, and no one has ever read off all the items on a consent agenda,” Hendrickson said. “I’ve checked with five different rules of order, and all of them were very consistent on this point. If a council member has an issue with an item on the consent agenda, they can ask for it to be pulled off and then discussed and be voted on separately. We’ve always had that option.”
Hendrickson said consent agenda items usually are non-controversial items that help the county run day-to-day.
“The county can’t run its operations without them, but no one needs to hear about the county buying paper and ink, or having the AC on a county building fixed. The spending items on a consent agenda were all budgeted items. The council is just allowing the county to spend money on something that we already approved,” he said.
“This is something I’ve wanted to change from Day 1, but I’m not going to benefit from it. This should expedite meetings, especially if there are 50 or 60 people in the audience there to oppose something and they have to sit through reading a list of 15, 20 or maybe even 25 routine items. It’s tedious at best.”
Councilman Brian Haskins (District 1, High Ridge) voted against the modified rules, while Reuter abstained.
“We’ve never had four people come on to the council at once,” Haskins said. “I don’t think it’s right to put new rules on them, especially if you’re going to pass them on the last meeting of the last month of the last year. I believe the new council should be able to set its own rules.”
Reuter essentially agreed.
“Why should I make changes walking out the door?” she said. “It’s not fair for the people coming behind me.”
Reuter officially handed in her council resignation at the end of the Dec. 27 meeting and her resignation takes effect at the end of the day on Jan. 2. Those wishing to serve the last two years of her four-year term may apply through the county’s website, jeffcomo.org.
Under the charter, because Reuter is a Republican, her replacement also must be.
Those who apply also must be at least 24 years old, be a registered voter in the county, be a U.S. citizen for at least 12 months and a resident of District 2 for the same time period.
Applicants must not be past due paying their state income taxes, personal property or real estate taxes or municipal taxes.
People who have been guilty of a felony or misdemeanor of a federal crime or a felony under state law also are prohibited, as are registered sex offenders. Background checks will be completed for all applicants.