Concord City Councilors Scolded

A long-time Concord city councilor verbally chastised some of his colleagues at the end of the Monday’s meeting for missing a recent non-public meeting dealing with property acquisition and the .

Ward 6 Councilor said on June 11, councilors were scheduled to meet at 6:15 p.m. for the meeting. Only seven of the 15 elected officials (14 councilors and the mayor) showed up for the meeting, meaning that there wasn’t a quorum. Councilors “sat around for 45 minutes waiting,” Bennett said. Later that night, Bennett spoke with two of the councilors who showed up late and asked if they realized they were supposed to be at the 6:15 p.m. meeting. Both reportedly stated that they didn’t know there was meeting.

Bennett then held up a printed copy of the agenda from June 11, and said, “At the top, every month, it tells us what is going on … all I want to say is that if you don’t know that now, you’ve been forewarned and if you’re expecting (the city clerk) to be your babysitter, I think that you ought to find another place to hang your hat.”

Bennett, who has been on the council for nine years, said he has always understood that the agenda “is the Bible,” unless someone calls or emails to say that something has changed. He said previously, the council was in agreement that it was better to schedule meetings before a scheduled than after, since meetings often run late into the night.

“I didn’t really appreciate sitting around for 45 minutes waiting for a quorum to be here to do this meeting,” he said, not naming the two councilors. “If you don’t read your agenda, don’t come in here and look at me, straight in the face and say, ‘I didn’t know we were supposed to meet tonight,’ because you should have known.”

A few seconds of silence hung over the body with some councilors a bit shocked by Bennett’s comments while others seemed sympathetic to the comments.

Mayor broke the silence saying, “OK … anyone else?,” to a few laughs.

The only councilor to comment on Bennett’s verbal reprimand was Ward 2 Councilor , who was elected in November, and further lightened the moment by stating, “I just want to note that Councilor Bennett was looking at me and I was the newbie and I was here.”