Ryan Horne Appointed Place 5 Alderman
Cumby City Council accepted the resignations from Place 5 alderman and the city secretary during a special meeting Thursday evening.
Cumby City Council Place 5 Alderman Julie Morris and City Secretary Codi Reynolds both submitted their resignations sometime after the Jan. 12 council meeting and 4 p.m. Monday, Jan. 25, when notice of the special meeting was posted. No additional information regarding the resignations was heard during the Jan. 28 meeting, which was limited to 10 in-person attendees at the city building, and streamed on Zoom for community members to view or call in and listen to.
The Cumby City Council accepted both resignations, then nominated three candidates to fill the Place 5 seat: Audri Mayo, Ryan Horne and Wayne Mobley.
All three have in the past two years sought a seat on the City Council. Horne was edged out by Doug Simmerman, 81-68, in November 2019 for mayor. Wayne Mobley finished 12 votes behind Sheryl Lackey for Place 1 on the City Council in November 2020. Audri Mayo lost her bid in November 2020 for Place 2 on the City Council to Amber Hardy, who nominated Mayo Jan. 28 for the Place 5 seat.
When the council voted Thursday night, Jan. 28, 2021, however, Horne received 3 votes and Mayor 1, so the seat went to Horne. The new Place 5 Alderman was then sworn in and took his seat on the council.
Several items for official record keeping purposes were also addressed during the special City Council meeting Jan. 28.
Julie Morris and Codi Reynolds’ names were removed from any bank account signatories, any other city accounts of access privileges afforded them in their former positions with the city.
The City Council also approved a resolution amending Ordinance 2020-12-01 designating who can be a signatory for the city. The Cumby city leaders opted to list the positions rather than the names of individuals in those positions, to make the transfer process a little easier in the future. The mayor, mayor pro tem and city secretary (payroll person). However, because the city is currently without a secretary and the next in line will soon be out on maternity leave, and because cross training has been discussed among city office employees, the decision was made to also authorize the municipal court clerk and water clerk ad signatory designees.
The City Council had designated Reynolds at the Jan. 12 meeting to attend Public Funds Investment Act training, as the city’s public funds or investments officer. The Council then voted to remove Reynolds from the Investment Policy and all security accounts. Mayor Doug Simmerman volunteered and was approved to serve in that capacity.
The council agreed approved a packet establishing a job description to be posted for the open city secretary’s position and to advertise the opening outside TML using best practices in an effort to recruit additional applicants for the city secretary job.
Paul Robertson’s name is to be removed from the police seizure account, which Simmerman noted is a holding account not a spending account, as well as any and all accounts in which the city police chief is listed, and replaced with that of Jeff Hundley. The change reflects the City Council’s decision on Jan. 12 to promote officer Jeff Hundley to Cumby Police Chief for the next six month and to move Robertson back to a lieutenant’s position.
