Arnold Mayor Wants Special Work Session with Council

Mayor Ron Counts plans to have a specialist work with councilmen in an additional work session called for July or August at .

“The council and the city have a lot of divisions,” Counts said during the council’s work session on July 12. “But we can accomplish a lot more and move the city forward, if we (as individuals) work together.”

The mayor’s words came after the normally civil discussion about city issues became a yelling exchange between Ward 1 Councilman Doris Borgelt and Ward 3 Councilman Phil Amato.

“I’m getting calls about jobs, jobs, jobs, and now we’re sitting here (during a work session) talking about stupid stuff having to deal with the Christmas dinner,” Amato said prior to Borgelt’s interruption.

“I have the floor, I have the floor,” Amato said forcefully as Borgelt interrupted Amato’s comments.

“It doesn’t matter,” Borgelt said.

“I’m going to call the councilman out of order,” she said to Mayor Ron Counts.

Counts interrupted the exchange, restored order to the meeting and asked the two councilmen to refrain from further statements towards each other.

Borgelt said, in an email to ArnoldPatch, that she interrupted Amato’s speech because there was no place for personal attacks during city council meeting.

“We are there to discuss issues, not personalities,” Borgelt said in the email. 

Borgelt cited city ordinances that limited councilmen’s criticisms to the issues.

“A member can condemn the nature or likely consequences of the proposed measure in strong terms, but he must avoid personalities, and under no circumstance can he attack or question the motives of another member. The measure, not the member is the subject of debate,” Borgelt wrote in her email to ArnoldPatch.

The council meets three times each month. The councilmen meet in the first and third Thursdays of each month to vote on ordinances affecting municipal operations. And they meet in the second Thursday of each month in a work session to publicly listen to specialists and debate possible city ordinances.