Council debates

Recently, several citizens of Sidney have alleged that three councilmen are acting in concert to fire Gary Person as City Manager and/or economic development director. The reasons cited, included a desire to manipulate the various departments and employees directly as was done under the old mayoral form of government years ago or to set up some employee (some have named this writer) as a new head of the city management or a PR person for the city who "assisted" the group in their objectives.


Julie Young, on her blog, indicates that a violation of the open meetings act was admitted to when Councilman Bob Van Vleet said that the ordinance that controls the dual role status for Person was discussed in a closed session in May of 2009. It would seem to be a potential violation if it were the discussion of any other ordinance, but the one in question affects the employment of a person.  Personnel matters may be discussed in closed session and the ordinance would affect the City Manager job description and might be considered personnel matters.

According to Person, who was present for a portion of the meeting, council members first went into the meeting and he was subsequently called in. According to Person, "In regards to the issues discussed in that May 26 closed meeting, no council member contacted me again about the issue discussed that night almost eight months ago.  Some of those issues are again being discussed now as a result of councilman Van Vleet requesting the Jan. 12, 2010 council agenda item."

In trying to ascertain the nature of the meeting (1/10/2009), Person added, "Since no supporting documentation was provided for the council packets (Jan 10th, 2009 meeting), it was only speculation what the discussion would be based on, because of the wording of the agenda item. "


When asked whether he thought specific events would have been a violation of the open meetings act statutes, Person said, "These are very technical / opinion questions considerably after the fact." He further stated the basic premise of the closed session to be, "exactly that," along with the time lapse,  Person refused to say whether any specific item(s) that might have been discussed would have violated the statutes.

The time that has since transpired may also be a problem. Person noted in his statement that eight months after the fact, he could not remember every detail of the conversations he was party two, "nor would probably any of the council members." The sessions were not recorded and neither the recording city clerk and city attorney were not present during the two meetings in May, 2009, according to Person.

A group of people has coalesced around the belief that statements made by councilmen Van Vleet, Wiederspon, and Filsinger indicate a pattern of willingness to violate the open meetings act statutes in an effort to fire Person, who hold both City Manager and Economic Development Director roles. When Asked by Dave Collins (KSID Radio) about their reasons for wanting to separate the two roles, each councilman gave a different answer.

Councilman Filsinger stated that his concern was based on the effects of the economic down turn and how it affected a major employer in town. driving around the town and seeing the number of vacant commercial buildings and homes for sale and developed lots as creating a need to, "Cut him (Person) loose full time" on economic development.

Mayor Wiederspon wanted to have greater transparency between the roles, noting that much of the,"horsetrading" is done behind the scenes. "When you have the positions combined, there is not as much openness as there would be if they were separate," he said.


A follow up question was asked of Filsinger in reference to cuts. Tammy Nelsen, from the SidneyStageCoach.com wanted to know if by cuts, did Filsinger mean jobs or expenditures. Several times in his answer, Filsinger noted that the cuts would be expenditures, not positions.

Audience members were animated an unidentified woman asked about how a jobs package, with benefits and so forth in the face of the current shortfall.

Filsinger said he thought someone could be found within. That comment illicited  responses from the audience with accusations that the councilman had a plan. Filsinger replied that as a councilman he sat and thought about things, noting that it might be possible that someone internally could serve as interim City Manager, asking the audience, "Is that wrong." One person could be heard to say no, when several others said yes.

The woman said "How are your going to come up with he salary and benifits package when you are already short? are you going to let go of other city employees in order to make it up"

"I would hope not," said Filsinger

When the same question was posed to Van Vleet, he replied, "I don't think we would have to."

Ibs Young said the rumor around town was that council had Rod Horn standing by to be the the City Manager. She noted that the council had not been fair to Gary.


Jim Lodes, a former councilman added, "And if it aint broke, why fix it."

Councilman Gaston added to the discussion, "I think its working just fine."

"I can tell you if I was a person in Kearney, Nebraska and heard there was a controversy in Sidney and Gary might be available, I'd be after him 100%. Were lucky," said Gaston.

The conversation will continue both around town and in council chambers as the talks between Gary Person and the Mayor continue. If the result of those talks lead to proposals, those proposals will be brought forward to open council and debated, with the public's input.