The Huntsville City Council held its regular meeting on January 25, 2024, at 5:30 PM in the City Council Chambers. The meeting featured a procedural dispute over the withdrawal of an ordinance to create a Huntsville Sustainability Commission, unanimous approval of multiple rezoning ordinances, a presentation on the Community Free Dental Clinic, and councilmember comments on the city's response to a severe ice storm. All five councilmembers were present: David Little (President), Jennie Robinson, Bill Kling, Devyn Keith, and John Meredith.
Good evening, everybody. The time is 5 30. It's January 25th, 2024, and we are meeting in the city council chambers of Huntsville, Alabama, and all council members are present. We welcome all of you that are here and those that are also watching online. And we are convening this session in the Huntsville City Council Chambers, and the meeting will be called to order. And we'll begin with a moment of silence, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, which will be led by Evan Hill, who's a uh Boy Scout with Troop T 43. So after the moment of silence, I'll point to you. So right, so please stand as you are able for the moment of silence. And thank you. Please join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Evan. Council members, you have the agenda before you for this regular meeting of the city council for January 25th, 2024. Please note that item 19A has been withdrawn by the sponsor. I object. Okay. The sponsor is the administration. The administration cannot at this point withdraw the item. Well, uh, let's see here. Do we want to do that? Look, according according to Mr. Riley's own statement at the I think it was the January 11th special session, that he said he had considered how to handle that issue without the city count without the council members um coming to the meeting, and basically he had determined that it had been the determination he had made was that he as a city attorney did not have the right or power to make any sort of movement whatsoever on it, that it was a public hearing that had been set by the council at a previous meeting. So in his judgment, the only entity or the only body that can make the motion or make a decision to continue on the hearing would be the city council. And that the only way the council acted was in concert. In other words, we had to all be together. So while he was specifically talking about a hearing, the fact that it was uh had been acted upon by the body of this council meant that he couldn't, as a representative of the administration, arbitrarily take it and and and do something with it. The body of this city council are the only people after the motion to to for approval on this issue was made and duly seconded. Only the body, only the city council can then take action on it. So the fact the administration wants to remove it, they can't do it. And it's not John Meredith sitting here saying that that's the case. Out of personal expense, time and resources, I have conferred with three different legal offices on this issue. And all three of them came to the same conclusion. So this body is going to have to be the mechanism by which this issue is dealt with. Well, Mr. Meredith, may I have an opportunity to respond? It would have been uh nice, I guess, if you had concerns, if you might have called me and shared your legal opinions, but what comes to mind now is this new theory that you have presented in support of your position is that uh we have two different scenarios. The scenario to which you are referring is one in which the decision of whether or not a meeting could be continued, uh, that I could just make that by myself. And I did make that decision that because you uh had set the meeting that I, as the city attorney, could not just do that uh on my own volition, that you had to make that decision as a body. And that's still a good decision and a good opinion to make. This is an entirely different situation, and it is one which is covered by our rules. And I hesitate to go back through this again. Uh, and I'm sure that your three esteemed legal counsel uh made excellent consideration uh based on only the things that you told them. I shared everything that you were on public record with. All right. Uh but you know, let's review again what we said. The procedural rules of the council, rule seven, which stated except as provided in this division, the council shall adhere to the procedural rules in the latest edition of Roberts Rules of Order. Notice the first phrase, except as provided in this division. In other words, the council rules. 114352 of the Code of Alabama states that the council is to determine the rules of their own proceedings. That in fact you have done as a council when you committed, when you uh uh uh created and voted on and set into place the rules.