Former mayor addresses Hannibal City Council

Tuesday’s meeting of the Hannibal City Council included a visit from former Mayor John Lyng, who has filed several lawsuits against the city related to the open meetings/open records statute of the state of Missouri.

Lyng has been on the winning end of at least one of the suits with others still pending. He used his time in front of council to lecture members on how the open meetings statute is supposed to work and how he believes the city council has been abusing it for several years. 

Lyng noted that in a judgment handed down on December 31, the court ruled the city cannot discuss going from free market trash collection to socialized trash collection in a closed meeting for contract negotiations. Lyng said the next lawsuit he has against the city will go to trial on March 17. He said that suit asks whether or not raising taxes is part of contract negotiations. The tax he is referring to is a city tax on Board of Public Works bills. The suit seeks to void the tax hike and to reduce the current tax until taxpayers are refunded what they have paid as a result of the closed meeting. 

Lyng said he would be happy to meet with anyone to discuss ways to resolve the issue but his goal is to stop the city council from “casually and routinely” closing meetings. 

Lyng said the next case he intends to file would call into question every closed meeting held by the city council in the calendar year 2021. He said nearly every meeting council has had in the last three years has “been at least suspect.” Lyng said he will ask the court to order the city council to abide by the city charter which requires all meetings of the city council to be open to the general public. Lyng said while he was mayor any negotiations were done by him and someone else then the contract would be brought back to the council for approval or changes. 

The State of Missouri has adopted open meetings legislation, but Lyng said he believes that legislation should not affect the city charter. He said Hannibal is a constitutional charter city not a statutory city.  

No action was taken by the city council on that issue Tuesday night. 

A couple of other items were addressed. One dealt with the route for the proposed Shamrock Shuffle 5K run/walk scheduled for March 19. The event is a fund raiser for the YMCA which wants the city to close a portion of Harrison Hill so runners can safely cross the road and head into Riverview Park. After considerable discussion among the council members, police and Jeff Landrum, co-chair of the event. In the end, it was decided that the event coordinators should meet with the police and the city Director of Central Services to determine an alternative to closing the street. The Y will bring that plan to the city council on March first.