Excused absences from city council members made for an extremely short agenda at a McCleary City Council meeting Wednesday, but residents took the opportunity to air grievances.

Many of their complaints were to do with the conduct of Mayor Chris Miller, and controversies surrounding things like the city’s security camera policy and an incident the other week where all city staff were sent home for safety reasons.

“Why is the mayor not here again? How can we hold him accountable?” said Lisa Saila during the public comment period. “It’s consistent. It’s predictable.”

Saila asserted that Miller had demonstrated a pattern of absences from city council meetings in times of adversarial controversy.

“It’s unfortunate, that we can’t have, again, the mayor here, for the I don’t know how many times,” said Monica Reeves. “He doesn’t want to show up and do his job.”

Reeves wasn’t alone in expressing unhappiness with how the investigation into the incident, or ongoing controversy, with the city’s government.

“How in the hell do you have an incident when the whole city gets shut down because someone is afraid of the mayor and the investigation is dropped?” Reeves said. “He has found a way to circumvent … having any type of ramifications for any of his decisions.”

Reeves said she hoped that policies in place, such as the security camera policy the city council was working on, would curtail the power of the mayor’s position in McCleary to do things residents found dismaying.

“Let’s get this done so this dickhead can’t do this stuff anymore,” Reeves said.

City Attorney Chris Coker attempted to answer questions residents had, while clearly delineating what his role was and wasn’t.

“In this city, the mayor is the administrative head. The mayor cannot vote on contracts without the consent of the council,” Coker said. “I don’t run the city. And I’m not gonna run the city. You have elected people that are in place.”

Coker declined to offer opinions on events in response to questions from residents.

“My opinion does not matter. My job is trying to keep this out of litigation as best I can,” Coker said. “Do I think it’s agreeable the way certain things are done? That’s not my role to say.”

Security cameras

Council members vented frustration during their closing comments with Miller’s failure to produce the use logs for the city’s security cameras.

“It’s insane that we cannot get these records,” said Councilor Andrea Dahl. “It’s insane that the entire reason we are requesting these is his activity and he is the one that decides.”

The use or misuse of the city’s security cameras has been a sore issue, with concerns that Miller has been abusing access, city councilors have said in previous meetings. The city council has sought to both cut Miller’s access to the cameras and to pull the use logs.

“In theory we’ve already pulled his access,” said Councilor Jacob Simmons. “We don’t know because we don’t have login data.”

Councilor Keith Klimek urged any residents with concerns to get in touch with him or other councilors.

“The reason why I wanted this position as a councilmember is to give the city more transparency. I want to serve you guys. I don’t serve anybody else,” Klimek said. “I want you to feel that you can come to any one of the council that we’re open. We’re here to talk.”

Contact Senior Reporter Michael S. Lockett at 757-621-1197 or michael.lockett@thedailyworld.com.