Dacono residents seek local government reforms with their votes

DACONO — Voters in Dacono Tuesday completed a cleanup of their local government that began in February when four members of the council summarily fired the city manager without discussion.

Upset that the firing seemed to have occurred as a result of a secret meeting, city residents recalled two members of the council. One of the others, Danny Long, who had voted to fire the manager, could not be recalled because he had recently been elected, and the fourth, mayor pro-tem Kathryn Wittman, was up for re-election this November but chose not to run.

Voters were asked to select from among five candidates to fill two seats. As of 10 p.m. Tuesday, incumbent Doris Crespo had a commanding lead with 475 votes. Next closest candidate was Rick Gerk with 300 votes. 

An investigation of circumstances surrounding the manager’s termination determined that open meeting law and other violations of the city charter likely occurred. The council in August voted to censure Long and Wittman based upon that investigation. Both denied any violations of the law.

Nonetheless, the council advanced city charter changes to clarify open meeting provisions and other procedures to avoid surprise actions in the future.

One charter provision would require that city managers and department heads could be appointed or removed only by resolution, which requires notice to other members of the council and to the public followed by public and council discussion. Results at 10 p.m. showed this provision was winning, 685-245.

Another provision would ramp up the city’s open meetings policies to require training of members of the council, use of agendas and discussion only on agenda items, except in emergencies. This also was seeing support with a 728-204 vote count as of 10 p.m.

A third provision would require that newly elected council members be seated at the first meeting following certification of election results, require that the mayor pro-tem be appointed after every election and that the mayor pro-tem could be replaced by a vote of four council members. While still gaining voter support, the margin at 10 p.m. was narrower at 619 in favor and 297 opposed.

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