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Granite Shoals City Hall -
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Smith
Granite Shoals City Councilman Phil Ort aired a grievance with Assistant City Manager Peggy Smith over what he believes to be a withholding of information from an elected official.
The issue was placed as an item to be held in executive session on the regular council meeting agenda for Tuesday, June 22 to discuss personnel matters. However, Smith requested that the discussion be held in open session – per her rights under the Open Meetings Act.
Ort presented emails shared between he and Smith in which he requested a “list” of streets that Smith named during her management report at a previous regular council meeting.
“A list of streets were read that were to be paved,” Ort explained. “An additional list was read that was not part of our packet. I asked for that additional list on June 2 via email.”
He said the refusal to provide the list caused a “transparency” issue.
“I think we should be a little more open,” Ort said. “The assistant city manager should be able to, in a timely manner, provide council with the information requested, especially if that information was read at the city council meeting. “I don’t believe it should be within the assistant city manager’s right to refuse information for any reason whatsoever,” he added.
Smith contended that she can not provide a list that was never created.
“On June 3, I provided a response to Mr. Ort that says … other streets discussed were dependent upon future drainage work,” she said. “It was a timely response, and we did not have a list of other streets. We did mention several streets, but we also mentioned those streets at the previous council meeting.
“The fact that the member is not satisfied with the response he received, I can not be responsible for.”
Councilwoman Samantha Ortis asked Ort if he has listened to the audio recording of the meeting to get the information he’s seeking. Ort responded that the audio that was provided to him was insufficient.
“The recording was very, very poor,” he said. “It sounds like an electric razor with people whispering in the background.
“However, I should not have to resort to listening. I should be able to get the information from the staff, who works for the city and the city council.”
Ort explained his motivation for asking for the information is that he is “researching” potential conflict of interests in the selection process of streets for paving.
“Some things just seem kind of fishy as to which streets are chosen to be paved,” he said. “One of the streets, from the list that Mrs. Smith read, just happens to be the street that (City Manager) Mr. (Jeff) Looney lives on – one of the streets that was not included in the packet.”
Looney denied his street even being mentioned.
“I don’t believe that was ever part of the list,” he said. “I think Forest was; Airport was.”
Ort said the conversation was “going nowhere” and held further comment.
“Perhaps it was just all my mistake then,” he said. “It’s OK. I rest my case; I’m obviously wrong.”
Mayor Will Skinner assured Ort that no streets can be paved without the consent of the council.
“This has to go through us before it gets approved,” he said. “They can’t just say ‘we’re going to do this street because I live on it.’ They can’t do that.”
Looney said the system the staff uses attempts to avoid the appearance of favoritism.
“We try to categorize the streets to take the bias out of those decisions,” Looney said. “We don’t want those kind of perceptions out there.”
Skinner said that the topic of how streets are prioritized for paving will be added to the next agenda.
The next regular council meeting is scheduled for July 13 at 6 p.m. at city hall, 2221 N. Phillips Ranch Road.