The Brentwood Board of Aldermen discussed the city changing over to the East Central Dispatch Center (ECDC) in a closed meeting Monday evening at the Brentwood Community Center.
The meeting began in open session with two readings of a bill to approve a Missouri Highway Safety Program on Highway 64/40.
The closed session that followed included legal, personnel and contract negotiation; all three relating to Brentwood dispatch, according to City Administrator Bola Akande in the meeting.
When the motion to go into closed session was made, Ward 1 Alderwoman Maureen Saunders wanted to separate out contract negotiation from the other items, but Mayor Pat Kelly said it couldn’t be done.
“If part of it comes to contract negotiation within the personnel issues, how are you going to separate that in the meeting, so we need to encompass it all so we can have a full discussion,” Kelly said.
Aldermen Anthony Harper, Cindy Manestar and Maureen Saunders voted against going into a closed session. All the others voted for a closed meeting. All were present.
When the board went into the closed meeting, Fire Chief Ted Jury and retired, though still on staff, chief of police, Steve Disbennett went in also, as well as acting police chief, Dan Fitzgerald. ECDC manager Mark Daugherty was in the room at the beginning.
The closed meeting lasted about an hour and 45 minutes, and just before they adjourned, a round of applause seemed to be coming from the room, though Akande said after the meeting that she heard no applause.
No vote was taken, but Deputy City Clerk Octavia Pittman said after the meeting that a vote will be on the March 3 meeting agenda.
Karen, there are only three persons on the BOA who are listening to the citizens of Brentwood. Business is the same as usual. I almost feel as if the City is being run by the SS. I am sorry that I have been staying away from the BOA meetings. I just can not stand there and speak to the BOA and only three are listening, the rest are hearing, which means they could care less to what I have to say or what the citizens have to say. Another step towards socialism, don’t do as I do, do as I say. Sometimes do you wish we were back at Mc Donnell-Douglas when Sandy Mc Donnell led the company. Why did Mayor Jim Shelton have to leave us so soon. Karen, is there a conflict of interest if the City has money in the Bank where the Mayor happens to work?
Thanks for attending Karen. The fact that you were not notified about anything is indicative of how this administration performs its functions: in secret and without resident input. I believe the “big picture” press is to eventually merge the City and County. That would account for the contracting away our critical independent functions, our sense of being part of a residential community–and especially a feeling of being safe in our neighborhoods. We’re only as good as our neighborhoods–and because of the tight association between the people and our First Responders–this has NEVER been an issue. But I predict the dispatchers will be outsourced to a glut-call center. Opportunistic, problematic incidences will rise.
I was in the room at the Rec. Center where the BOA opened the meeting. They never came back into the room to close the meeting. After waiting the 1 hour and 45 minutes to learn the results of the closed session, one would not have known that the meeting was over if the city attorney and Doug Miner hadn’t left their coats in the room and came back in after the close session to retrieve them.
Interesting