At the Indianola Board of Aldermen meeting last Monday night, another issue was flushed out during the discussion about increases in the water bill, possible estimations instead of actual readings and the lateness of the bills.
Alderman Marvin Elder insinuated that the new City Clerk, Lashanda Moore, is not being given the respect due her position.
He maintains that some of the clerks and other city employees are sidestepping the chain of command and taking issues to the mayor and thereby circumventing Moore.
Addressing those gathered, he added that if a clerk or any worker goes around Moore to Mayor Steve Rosenthal, then Rosenthal should send them back to Moore to address the issue because that would be the proper protocol.
“Ms. Moore needs to be the boss of every last one of those clerks there. If we hired Miss Lashanda Moore as a city clerk—Mayor, we should have not one clerk bypassing this clerk coming to your office and nobody else, if they feel that they cannot go through Ms. Moore the same thing applies,” said Elder (he was referencing an earlier statement that implied that a worker should tender a letter of resignation if they didn’t want to do the work).
Elder said, “Hit that clock and do whatever you feel like you want to do, but you need to leave the City Hall, because that is the clerk that this board voted unanimously to put in position.”
In addition, Elder said people in the community are telling him that when they have an issue, Moore is not finding out about certain things until they reach the point where no one else can handle the matter.
“She’s the last to find out,” he said.
Elder said that anyone connected with the city, including the aldermen must respect Moore’s position.
“The city clerk of any municipality is the backbone of the board, we learned that in training. If you bypass your city clerk, we're doomed to fail.” He then addressed City Attorney Gary Austin for affirmation and Austin agreed.
Afterwards, Moore commented that as the city clerk she needs to be in the loop so she will know what’s going on.
She said so far no legal issues have surfaced, but there was the potential for one that could have proven unfavorable if it had developed into a legal matter.
Moore said she understands that the previous lack of a city clerk has left workers proned to take things to the mayor first, but she is there now.
It is her assertion to the public that she is “in the building” and if they need assistance that goes beyond what the clerks can help with, they should ask for her or the mayor if she is unavailable.
She offered further assurance that the bills will be sent out on time and the citizens will get the service they need inside of City Hall. Moore said she is working to get all issues resolved.
In other business,
The Aldermen also voted in favor of hiring a website-design company to setup a new website to replace the city’s outdated site, plus setup and manage a new Facebook page.
The aldermen also discussed the need to change the wording on the items listed on the agenda after Alderman Sam Brock inquired whether “Approval to discuss” limited them to only being able to discuss items, but not vote on anything.
They asked Moore to investigate to determine if the wording needed to be changed.
Alderman Gary Fratesi added that under the previous administration, with former Mayor Arthur Marble, “If it said ‘approval to discuss’ we couldn’t vote on it,” said Fratesi.
