After Louderman and Azotea spar again, Hannibal City Council reforms public speaking policy

HANNIBAL, Mo. — Less than two months remain of Barry Louderman’s mayoral tenure in Hannibal, after which either former 1st Ward councilmember Darrell McCoy or current 4th Ward councilmember Charles Phillips will become the next head of the council.

It’s a role that runs the risk of becoming April Azotea’s next sparring partner — or her colleague.

Azotea is one of three candidates — Tammy Riley and Earl Hughes are the others — running for a seat on the council to represent the 2nd Ward. The winner will replace longtime councilman Mike Dobson, who will soon be moving outside of the ward and said that it was time for somebody “younger” and with “more enthusiasm” to take over.

If Azotea’s comments from the last two City Council meetings are any indication of what could be coming if she were to win the seat, the job performance of city manager — a position now occupied by Lisa Peck — is likely to be a hot button topic.

“I absolutely know what (Azotea’s) agenda is and who’s behind it. If she were to win — to be the 2nd Ward councilman — then she has all the power in the world to further her agenda, OK?” Louderman said after the Hannibal City Council meeting Tuesday night. “But she’s not going to campaign, and she’s not going to bring that agenda to my council meeting. It’s as simple as that.”

Louderman declined to go into further detail about Azotea’s “agenda.”

Azotea continued her pursuit of clarification on the city manager’s duties Tuesday night. She repeatedly asked why the city manager does not have to answer questions from citizens and if the council is OK with the city manager not answering questions from citizens.

“Well, her job is to be in her office to answer questions. Have you ever called?” Louderman asked.

Azotea did not answer. She said she was specifically seeking clarification on Peck’s responsibility to answer citizens’ questions at City Council meetings.

Hannibal municipal code says the city manager is obligated to attend city council meetings, where they have “the right to take part in the discussion” but are not required to. The city’s website outlines the responsibilities of the role to be multiple administrative tasks, policy and budget research and development, hiring staff and serving as a comprehensive advisor and source of support to the council and all municipal departments.

The website states the city manager’s office “responds to resident, business and employee concerns.” The municipal code states the city manager must “submit to the council” and annually publish “a complete report of the finances and administrative activities of the city.” However, both fall short of claiming the city manager is obligated to respond to pointed questions directly from citizens during council meetings. 

Constituents vote in councilmembers. The city manager is an appointed position and not an elected one, so the role is technically beholden to the council. 

“I think there’s an appropriate time that she answers the questions, and I don’t know that that’s always the case here in the meeting, especially if she’s being thrown questions that she’s not ready to answer,” 6th Ward councilmember Nathan Munger said. “As far as I’m concerned, every time I’ve ever had any questions, she’s never had any problems answering me, any problems, any complaints.”

Azotea asked if and why the council found her questioning inappropriate. Louderman said she should make an appointment with Peck to address her concerns with her directly. Azotea expressed uncertainty for how effective that approach would be. 

“If you want to talk to council people without me or without (Peck), that’s fine. You have that right to call your council person,” Louderman said. 

“I’m well aware of that, I’m just saying —” Azotea said before she was cut off.

“So why would you not do that but choose to come here? Instead of going through that channel and then come here?” Louderman said.

“Is this not the public comment section?” Azotea asked.

“It is, and your three minutes are up,” Louderman said roughly four minutes after the timer went off. “Thank you.”

Azotea returned to her seat while the council moved onto another matter, but she soon returned to the podium to discuss another topic she’d requested to speak about ahead of time: the budget.

Azotea first asked budget-related questions regarding a closed session meeting held by the council Feb. 6 to discuss potential solutions for the Hannibal Fire Department’s retention issues. Louderman said he could not comment on anything that happened during the closed session but that she could request the minutes via the Sunshine Law, Missouri’s state law that establishes the right of citizens to request information from state and local governmental bodies.

Azotea said she was aware of attempts by others to get the records, but they’d been told the information wasn’t yet available. City Clerk Melissa Cogdal provided the roll call information from the Feb. 6 closed meeting in response to a previously filed records request for the meeting minutes by Muddy River News, but the minutes were unavailable.

“The minutes have been reviewed. Several of the items in the closed session are still ongoing — either litigation or contracting or things like that — so they’re not eligible for open yet until all of that is finalized,” Cogdal explained.

Missouri state statute says minutes from closed meetings are to eventually “be made public upon final disposition of the matter voted upon or upon the signing by the parties of the settlement agreement.”

The same statute was invoked after Tuesday night’s meeting when the council went into another closed session. The subsections of the statute referenced in the council’s meeting agenda to give grounds for the closed session indicate the meeting likely involved discussions regarding:

• The “hiring, firing, disciplining or promoting of particular employees by a public governmental body” involving an employee’s personal information.
• “Sealed bids and related documents.”
• “Individually identifiable personnel records, performance ratings or records pertaining to employees or applicants for employment” and
• “Legal actions, causes of action or litigation” involving the city.

Louderman asked if Azotea wished to discuss anything else involving the budget, since he couldn’t go into the details of the Feb. 6 closed session. She then asked how the city’s short-term fix for the fire department would affect the city’s budget, especially if the highly anticipated passing of HB 866 through the Missouri legislature — which would grant the city the authority to put a public safety tax on the ballot for Hannibal voters that would directly fund the fire and police departments if approved — fails to pass.

“Hypothetically speaking, if the tax doesn’t pass, wouldn’t that put us back in the hole even more?” Azotea asked.

“It would indeed put us in a bigger hole,” Louderman said. “At the moment, the raise is worth it to keep the people we have, to give them a little bit of stability.”

“Even though there’s a possibility that —” Azotea said.

“Even though there’s a possibility there could be a downside to it,” Louderman said.

Azotea asked if negotiations were still ongoing with the fire department.

“We already came to an agreement,” Louderman said.

Azotea then asked if documents still needed to be signed by the relevant parties.

“It’s already been voted on. It’s in place,” Louderman said.

“So it’s not negotiating still?” she asked.

“No, it’s already been put in place,” Louderman said.

“Gotcha, OK. That’s all my questions,” Azotea said before returning to her seat.

Munger then put the ever-elusive topic of “public comment” on the table for discussion and offered a handful of suggested modifications.

Actionable requests or suggestions of the council, along with the approval of a council member from any ward or the mayor, will be required for a public comment request to appear on the meeting’s voting agenda. Public comment that does not meet the aforementioned criteria will still be allowed but will not appear on the voting agenda. The council voted unanimously to implement the modifications and specifications to the public comment guidelines. 

“It’s not attempting to keep people out. We wanted to make sure that even if somebody didn’t feel comfortable talking to a council member or if they just didn’t get it done, they would still be able to timely bring their issue up,” city attorney James Lemon said. 

All speakers will be given five minutes to address the council with the possibility to extend at the council’s discretion. Anyone who wishes to speak at the council meetings can request to do so up to five minutes before the meeting starts.

“I think Councilman Munger’s goal, and I think it’s a good idea, is to get some rules so everybody understands what they can and cannot do and make sure that everybody has a right to speak,” Lemon said.