Another Brighton City Council member resigns

BRIGHTON — Two weeks after voters elected a replacement for a Brighton City Council member who resigned in December, a second member of the city’s decision-making body declared he was stepping down April 15.

Outgoing Council Member David Pratt, a truck driver elected in November, said he couldn’t be in town for meetings as often as he’d hoped when he ran for the office. Of the eight council meetings held between the start of his term and his resignation, Pratt attended half, according to minutes posted in public notices.

In his resignation letter, Pratt endorsed former Council Member Cathy Rich to take his place

“She knows how the books are ran, and all the bookkeeping side of the city council,” Pratt said in an interview after the meeting. “I figured, if she already knows all that stuff, she’d be a pretty good candidate to stay on there.”

Council Member Rose Jaynes made a motion — after Pratt’s resignation letter was read aloud — to begin preparations for a vacancy-filling appointment. Her motion did not specify who would be appointed, only that the council would hold a meeting to make such a choice.

It died for lack of a second.

Chuck Emry and Scott Hughes, the other two council members present for the meeting — from which Council Member Dick Green was absent — said they’d prefer to hold an election for the role instead. While neither offered a motion to that effect, state law requires that the city default to an election if the council seat sits vacant for 60 days.

"I believe it’s the citizens’ right, that’s why we have elections,“ Emry said. ”It sucks that it costs money, that’s the way it is.“

Mayor Melvin Rich was critical of the move.

He said the city’s most recent special election, which put Hughes in office, had cost $1,100.

Additionally, Washington County officials say the next date they could schedule an election for the city is in July, with state law requiring a 32-day notice before polls open, but barring special elections within four weeks of the June 4 statewide primary.

That timeline would leave the council one member short for several months. April 15’s meeting offered a glimpse of the impact that could have: running on a quorum of three, most agenda items were met with long, awkward pauses between council members making and seconding motions.

The smaller group would make it harder to routinely meet quorum requirements, and leave a tight margin for decisions in a city recently plagued by divisive funding disputes: two council members out of five can’t torpedo a municipal resolution.

"It’ll be September before you have anybody seated, if you have an election,“ Melvin Rich said. ”Cathy’s done more for this town than the last three or four councils put together, on the finances. I know some of you don’t believe it, but if you look at the numbers, it’s there.“

Cathy Rich’s willingness to take the job is somewhat complicated.

The businessperson and former council member of four years has worked through city budgets before, and attended training sessions to do so. She’s garnered a reputation for extensive question-asking when it comes to city budget decisions, and is praised by some city officials as an essential in checkbook balancer amid recent state-mandated tax cuts.

She’s also been harshly criticized by leadership at the Brighton Volunteer Fire Department, who blame her for a series of funding disputes over the emergency service, which left firefighters butting heads with other city officials several times in the last few years.

Cathy Rich said she was open to an appointment to the council, but was unlikely to put her name on the ballot if it comes to another election. She said the harsh criticism she faced from the fire department in the last special election on March 30 had been frustrating.

“I think some of the other council members, that are coming back to the council, don’t realize how things are changing … so I would be interested, for the good of the taxpayers,” she said. “It is very difficult to run for a position, and to have people … criticize the work that you’ve done.”

Brighton Fire Chief Bill Farmer did not respond to a text or voicemail requesting comments.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com