WATERTOWN — City Council members are quarreling about decorum at council meetings almost as much as they are dealing with city business.
They spent only about half of Monday’s two-hour and 13-minute meeting discussing and approving 17 resolutions, talking about staff reports and listening to residents.
In recent months, council meetings have turned into heated arguments, mainly about the purchase of the former Watertown Golf Club for $3.4 million.
On Monday night, Mayor Jeffrey M. Smith said he wanted to remind council members about the rules of council in the City Code and how they are supposed to act during meetings, so he went through them one by one.
By the end of meeting, however, another argument ensued, this time between Councilman Cliff G. Olney III, Mayor Jeffrey M. Smith and interim City Attorney H. Todd Bullard, with all three of them interrupting and talking over each other.
On Monday night, Councilman Olney became agitated that he couldn’t finish what he had to say during his time during the new business portion of the meeting.
Mr. Bullard clashed with the councilman.
“So I do know that you do like to attack people. But sir, I don’t appreciate it,” he told Councilman Olney. “I think it’s unbecoming of your position. I think it’s a disservice to the city.”
His comments were met by applause from several people in the audience.
At one point, Mr. Bullard called the councilman “a narcissist.” During another exchange, Mr. Bullard made his point by showing his copy of Roberts Rules of Order that he had with him.
At the end of his portion of new business, Mayor Smith accused Councilman Olney of “a constant barrage of misinformation, disinformation” and “outright lies.”
“It’s not good for government,” the mayor said. “It’s disheartening.”
The mayor was most recently upset that Councilman Olney accused him and Councilwoman Sarah V. Compo Pierce of colluding with city staff “to sandbag” the Flynn pool project at North Elementary School.
On Monday night, Mayor Smith, Councilwoman Compo Pierce and City Manager Kenneth A. Mix denied the accusation. The councilwoman asked for proof.
City staff made a decision to delay the bid opening for two weeks because several vendors expressed confusion over the bid documents.
During recent council meetings, Mr. Bullard has said he hoped that council members would act with “decorum” when dealing with each other.
During the other parts of the meeting, council members had little to say about the resolutions they passed.
They instructed the Parks and Recreation Department to make a plan to allow cash payments at the Thompson Park Golf Course. Only credit and debit card payments are accepted now.
They unanimously agreed to set fees for a new Parks and Recreation program to offer pickle ball courts in the Watertown Municipal Arena this summer.
They also agreed to support construction of a roof over the bandstand in Thompson Park to honor former Mayor T. Urling Walker, who died in January.
They authorized applying for a grant through a U.S. Department of Agriculture forestry program for funding for a series of city tree projects.
They passed 11 resolutions to buy chemicals for the city’s water pollution control plant.
It took about 45 minutes to approve all of the resolutions and go through public participation.
And the rest of the time to argue.
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(1) comment
Regularly, and in their entirety, I watch the city council meetings live thanks to Steve Weed Productions.
The presence of Attorney H. Todd Bullard in the city council chamber for the last few meetings has exacerbated the ongoing decorum issue. His grandstanding, self-aggrandizement, moral showboating, verbosity, and partiality to Mayor Smith (1) contribute to polarization among the council members, (2) add more distasteful dimensions to be outraged at, intensifying decorum exhaustion, (3) are distractions that lead spectators to mistake posturing for progress, and (4) boost his brand rather than advancing dialogue.
Is Attorney Bullard aware that psychology correlates HIS behaviors with a narcissistic personality?
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