Belleville City Council: Department heads must go through city manager

By Rosemary K. Otzman
Independent Editor
At its 17-minute meeting July 1, the Belleville City Council unanimously passed a Resolution directing all actions requiring city council approval for the administration of city business to go through the city manager.
Mayor Kerreen Conley said the purpose of the resolution is to make sure the administration has the opportunity to review requests coming before the city council and to make a recommendation to the council.
She said this is an attempt to redirect things through the city manager.
“We’ve seen things come in from the sidelines and I think it would be better to have them go through the city manager,” Mayor Conley said.
Mayor Pro-Tem Jack Loria made the motion to pass the 11-paragraph Resolution and Councilman Tom Smith supported the motion. Voting yes were Conley, Loria, Smith, and Councilwoman Kim Tindall. Absent was Councilman Brian Blackburn.
The Resolution points out that “on numerous occasions requests have been brought forward to the Council without a recommendation from the City Manager and the City Manager has the responsibility to review requests, make administrative decisions and run the day-to-day operations of the city, and the City Manager cannot most efficiently administer the duties of his/her position when requests are forwarded to the City Council before the review of the City Manager…”
Unless it is an emergency, the City Council will no longer address issues that have not come through the appropriate process.
The last paragraph of the resolution reads: “Finally, that no department head or employee shall be authorized (unless acting in the capacity of Acting City Manager) to bring forward issues or actions to the City Council that have not been reviewed and accompanied by a recommendation of the City Manager unless otherwise provided by in the City Charter or by law.”
The department directors in the City of Belleville are: Keith Boc, public services; Lisa Long, clerk/treasurer; Gene Taylor, police; and Brian Loranger, fire.
Boc also serves as acting city manager.
Diana Kollmeyer is city manager, but her name was never mentioned by the council, only her position.
Councilman Blackburn is a volunteer fire fighter and Councilwoman Tindall is a promoter of the fire department and the fire auxiliary, so the Resolution may have been aimed at fire department issues.
In other business at the July 1 meeting, the council approved changes to the request for the Lake and Land Show set for July 20 at Horizon Park.
The time for the event has been cut back to noon to 5 p.m., but there is a vendor who wants to set up two to four pontoon boats for display, plus other assorted accessories and tubes, beginning at 8 a.m. July 20. There were questions as to whether High Street should be closed beginning at 8 a.m.
Belleville Central Business Community president Bill Wolters explained the situation to the council.
The council approved closing High Street from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., with the street re-opening sooner if everything is cleared away. City Manager Kollmeyer can make adjustments to details if they pop up.
Wolters said the event will set aside ten spaces for people who want to sell their boats, but the boats must be first approved by the CBC so it doesn’t turn into a “flea market.”
Organizations holding raffles or supporting their clubs will be located under a canopy, Wolters said.