Mayor derails vote

Tonight's Woodstock City Council meeting was a whopper. Of importance to the majority of the standing-room only crowd was the expected demolition permit requested by Woodstock Christian Life Services (WCLS), so it could tear down Grace Hall.

Because there was a SRO crowd, the Mayor mentioned that one Councilman is the Fire Chief and that he would be monitoring the size of the crowd. Okay, Ralph, you know the capacity of Council Chambers. Why didn't you direct that a certain number needed to leave the room, if the capacity was exceeded tonight? (I meant to look at the Occupancy sign near the door before I left; there were about 20 standing, and I saw only one open seat.)

One of the first upsets of the evening was when Mayor Sager wanted to table the recommendation of the Woodstock Historic Preservation Commission (HPC), which was placed on the Agenda as the first item to be discussed under the general heading of the "Grace Hall" issue. And six loyal City Council persons nodded their heads. Who knows if this will ever come up in the future???

The HPC had sent its recommendation to the City Council with the 30-day period required under the City Code, which meant the City Manager received it at least by early December. In the four months just past, the City Council has refused to consider it. And then tonight it refused to consider it.

Attorney Mark Gummerson spoke eloquently on behalf of his client, WCLS. He spoke directly into the microphone and could be heard by all. And Mayor Sager spoke into his microphone, as did Rich Flood when he spoke. At times some of the others on the Council spoke into their microphones. And some of them never did.

I won't try to summarize all that was said; I'd be typing until 6:00AM. WCLS attempted to establish that it had met the conditions in Ordinance 08-O-62 and so was entitled to receive the permit. Dan Lemanski made a long prepared statement and had almost finished, when Mayor Sager began to call "Time" on him. Dan raised the issue of how the Ordinance had been expanded after the vote by the City Council in open meeting.

City Attorney Rich Flood said he had prepared the Ordinance on the day following the October 7 City Council meeting, based on his understanding of the comments and intent of the Council. He was more than a little creative and inserted language in the Ordinance that was never discussed by the Council. The Mayor then signed the Ordinance as prepared by Mr. Flood, and the City Clerk attested to the Mayor's signature. The Mayor had to notice that the Ordinance had been greatly expanded upon by City Attorney Flood, but he signed it and, by doing so, imposed harsh, impossible-to-meet conditions on two Woodstock residents by name.

Allen Stebbins, Chairman of the HPC, addressed the Council and suggested that WCLS had not met at least one of the two conditions that were imposed by the City Council in Ordinance 08-O-62.

At the microphone I expressed my disappointment in the Council's tabling the landmark issue and was quickly cut off by Mayor Sager, because that topic was no longer on the table. "Okay, then, I am very disappointed that (Item 2 (the demolition of Grace Hall) in D-2) was taken up first" (or words to that effect).

Woodstock residents should pay very carefully attention to future ordinances passed by the City Council and read the final copy as soon as the Mayor signs it. Never again should an Ordinance be changed substantially after approved in an open meeting by the Council, and then signed into law by the Mayor. And the six members of the City Council ought to be reading every Ordinance as soon as it is signed and published, to make absolutely certain, on behalf of the People they are elected to represent, that what happened with Ordinance 08-O-62 never, ever, happens again!

But the biggest upset occurred after at least five of the seven Council members indicated that they intended to vote against WCLS. What did the Mayor do? He asked WCLS if it wanted the Council not to vote today!!! In many years of attending City Council meetings here and in other communities, I have never heard a Mayor offer the losing party if it needs some breathing room. Talk about an abrogation of process!

Just imagine going to a Bears game. When the Bears are behind in the 4th Quarter with 1 minute left to play, what if the head referee asked the Bears coach if he wanted the ref to stop the game and have both teams come back in a few weeks to finish the game? Well, that's what happened tonight!

Maybe a little more public participation is needed in our too-quiet City Council meetings. Maybe about 10-15-20 people should have stood up and booed the Mayor and demanded that the City Council vote on the item that was on the Agenda.

The Council, including the Mayor, is against demolition. They urged WCLS to make a more serious effort at finding a use for Grace Hall. Terry Egan said tonight's meeting didn't go the way he expected. He mentioned "win/win", but I think he meant "I win." Right at the end of the meeting Mark Gummerson stated that WCLS is moving its employees out of Grace Hall.

WCLS can "win". It can find a reasonable, beneficial, profitable use for Grace Hall. At tonight's meeting they mentioned several times how Grace Hall could be designed into two living units. Huh? Two? Only two? How about four? Or maybe five or six?

Tonight the City Council should have landmarked Grace Hall and turned down the demolition permit. WCLS should get serious about adaptive re-use of Grace Hall. It is not going to let the building fall into disrepair. The City and the People of Woodstock will not tolerate that.