| Duman
in, then back out as mayor
A combination of city codes and state statutes appears to have cost the City of Cottonwood their mayor. Mayor Denis Duman submitted his resignation at the December meeting of the Cottonwood City Council when he received a building on the airport ground in a building swap with Nick Seubert of Seubert Enterprises. Duman’s former building had been adjacent to the airport ground. Once he had a building on the airport, Duman was required by the city’s airport ordinance to get a lease for the ground. According to state statutes elected officials cannot lease property from the entity they serve. Duman probably could have kept quiet on the swap and ensuing lease requirement but as he had done throughout his two terms as mayor and time as a city councilor he wanted to be aboveboard and open. When the council convened Monday, January 11 it appeared a loophole may have been found to allow Duman to serve in the office he had been re-elected to in November. The agenda was amended to bring the subject of Seubert Enterprises’ lease to the top of the agenda. They had requested cancellation of their leases for lot 4 and lot 7. A motion was made and accepted to accept the cancellation. That left Duman with his building on lot 4 without a lease. At that point Duman turned in a letter to the council relinquishing his right as mayor-elect to be sworn in as mayor, effective immediately. At that point he was a private citizen. He then requested a lease for hanger 4 which was approved by the council. After the December meeting’s minutes and the bills were approved the council moved on to appointment of a mayor. Shelli Schumacher made a motion to appoint Denis Duman as mayor and Pat Holthaus seconded the motion. The idea being that he would be an appointed official and not an elected one Lengthy discussion followed as council president Ron Grant asked city attorney Joe Wright if that would be legal. Wright said he could not give a definitive answer but his advice would be against doing it. There could be potential civil or criminal penalties if it got challenged. The whole point of the state statute is to promote public confidence in what the elected officials do. Duman stated that he is trying to sell the hanger he received in the swap but had not yet been able to do so. Once the question was called on the motion Schumacher and Holthaus both voted yes. Grant voted no and Jack Duman abstained. At that point Duman was sworn in as mayor by city clerk Carol Altman. He then swore in re-elected council members Jack Duman and Schumacher. During the reports Pat Holthaus reported the city had a water loss of 26% during the month. They pumped 2.8 million gallons and sold just over 2 million. Roy Uhlenkott said there’s a water leak in the northern part of town with water coming into the sewer line but with the frozen ground they haven’t been able to pinpoint it. Tests all came back good. Jack Duman reported they would find out in March about a grant application. Snowplowing of streets is going well. He asked that the city send a thank you letter to the Idaho Transportation Dept. for removing the berm on Main St. Duman also reported sledding has been great on Madison St. and thanked the city crew for putting up the street closure signs. Before Schumacher could give the land and buildings report, Wright interjected that Duman’s appointment may be illegal due to the state’s nepotism statute. He had been researching the state statutes regarding appointments when he came across that one. Since Jack Duman, brother to Denis Duman, was on the council it would be illegal to appoint Denis as mayor. Since the appointment was illegal, everything acted upon after Denis Duman was appointed as mayor basically didn’t happen. Since the lease questions and the approval of the minutes and bills were approved before the appointment was made those would stand. At that point Schumacher said that takes them back to square one and maybe they should call it a night and restart the meeting at a later date. After some discussion of possible dates it was decided to table the meeting to Wednesday, January 20 at 7 p.m. The council adjourned at 8:30 p.m. |
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