Quorum issue causes dilemma at Council meeting
The Glencoe City Council ran into a dilemma Monday night over a grant request to the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) concerning the Armstrong Avenue reconstruction work scheduled for 2016.
The dilemma occurred because newly seated Council Member Allen Robeck, who owns property along Armstrong Avenue, said he would abstain from the vote because of a conflict of interest.
But with the City Council already two members short due to illness and vacation, that left just two Council members to vote, one shy of a quorum.
Mayor Randy Wilson suggested delaying the vote for another two weeks.
But City Attorney Jody Winters, citing “Roberts Rules of Order,” said the vote can be taken with Robeck’s abstention counting as a no vote. The vote passed 2-1.
The request is for a 75 percent MnDOT grant for $1.4 million of the street work, excluding underground utilities and the design work. That amounts to asking for $750,000, City Administrator Mark Larson said, and it could lower some of the local assessments for the project.
For more, see the Jan. 7 print edition of The Chronicle.