Erin Hartwell, a candidate for police position, used the council’s public-comment period to say she had filed a formal notice with the city secretary alleging the city’s meeting postings were not sufficiently prominent and therefore hinder public access.

Hartwell told the council she posted on Facebook about what she believed were irregularities in how a scoring committee and a separate workshop were posted. She said she retracted an earlier claim that the workshop itself was not posted and “I did and do apologize for that misunderstanding.” She told the board that she could not initially locate the workshop notice on the city website and that it was “buried in the more news section,” which she said “obfuscates the information in a place I would normally not search under.” She added, “This denies the clear communication, which is due process under the Open Meetings Act.”

Hartwell accused councilman Carrie Schwartz of posting on social media in a way she described as “false and slanderous” about Hartwell’s previous post; Hartwell said the disagreement will be decided by voters on Nov. 4 and urged transparency. Hartwell also said she had offered the city secretary a seven-day remedy in her formal notice to improve website posting clarity.

The remarks were part of the public-comment period; the council did not take an immediate formal action in response at the meeting. Hartwell’s comments referenced the Open Meetings Act generally; the transcript does not include a response from Councilman Carrie Schwartz during the public-comment period.