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Residents accuse city of poor transparency; council says staff fixed an email issue
Summary
Speakers raised concerns about contracts, consultant payments and open-records handling — including claims that a consultant (Shannon Kettering) was paid roughly $137,000 without clear council approval — and the mayor said an email routing issue affecting records requests was fixed.
Renee Prince (speaker 18) told the council she had serious concerns about the city's use of a consultant identified as Shannon Kettering for zoning work and alleged two contracts — one she said totaled nearly $60,000 and another $77,000 signed July 24, 2023 — were paid without council approval.
"There is no written statement of work for her services, no council approval, but still an open checkbook showing that she has been paid almost $60,000... Iassume this is the 2nd Kettering contract for an additional $77,000 signed by the city manager on 07/24/2023... That's roughly $137,000," Prince said.
Stephan Prince (speaker 19) raised open-records concerns, describing instances where requested emails or documents appeared missing from the city's open-records responses and asking why staff or contractors were being asked to do their own searches. He said the public expects better transparency.
In mayor and council comments, the chair (speaker 1) responded to a named resident's access complaint by describing an email-routing problem: "I called Robbie. Robbie called the IT people, and they fixed it. In no way was I trying to avoid you." The mayor said the issue was resolved and encouraged residents to call or text if they do not get a prompt response.
Council members promised to take process-improvement suggestions from the moratorium review and to revisit open-records procedures; staff and council committed to follow up on process reforms.
