Choice or lack of options?

With only one meeting remaining in 2020, it would appear that the Saratoga Town Council will move into the New Year without someone in the mayor’s seat despite solicited input from council members-elect Creed James and Ben Spaulding. While the two provided their opinion on the vacancy, two different motions to appoint to the seat died due to lack of a second.

Though the mayoral vacancy has been discussed repeatedly since the initial resignation of Mayor John Zeiger on August 18, the long-awaited discussion did not appear on the agenda of the December 1 meeting. In fact, it wasn’t until the nearly three hour meeting neared its end that Councilmember Jon Nelson asked Mayor Pro-Tem Bob Keel if the governing body was going to hear from James and Spaulding.

“My understanding is, appointing the mayor was important,” said James. “You’ve been very, very vocal about that so I guess I’m a little shocked it wasn’t on the agenda tonight.”

Keel yielded the floor to the two council members-elect to give their input on who they believed should be appointed. After nearly 15 minutes had elapsed, however, it seemed to be a decision that the mayor pro-tem would regret as neither James nor Spaulding were in favor of Keel serving as mayor.

James cited discussions with members of both the Saratoga Planning Commission and Saratoga Recreation Commission as contributing factors to his decision, stating “they said it was a little tough to deal with you sometimes”. James would also cite previous comments by Keel in regards to considering resigning from the council.

Spaulding, meanwhile, brought up his own conflicts with Keel in with both the Saratoga Recreation Commission and Platte Valley Little League. 

When James addressed the council, he began by bringing up the fact that only two of the council members were elected, Keel and Nelson, while the other two had been appointed to their position, Councilmember D’Ron Campbell and Councilmember Judy Welton. Additionally, of the four members, both Nelson and Welton had stated they weren’t interested in serving as mayor while Campbell and Keel were.

“So, we’re left with an elected official and an appointed official that is willing to step up and be mayor,” James said. “If you follow the line of ‘it has to be an elected official’, it’s not a choice, it’s a lack of options is how I look at it.”

James also raised concerns over time commitment to the mayoral position and what he saw as signs of leadership. He stated that while Keel was currently making the time commitment to the mayoral position as mayor pro-tem, Campbell had also stated she could make a time commitment to the position.

“If you guys were to ask me my recommendation after talking with all of you, I feel D’Ron would be the best choice from this council to lead the town as mayor for the next two years. I understand she’s not elected, I understand she’s never ran for office, but when things were toughest in this town—when this council was most divided, when people didn’t want to come and sit in town hall and listen to these council meetings—D’Ron was the one that did step up,” said James. “She is the one that submitted her letter and to me that shows a lot of great leadership.”

Spaulding informed the council that he was in agreement with much of what James had said. In addition to raising previous encounters between himself and Keel, Spaulding also raised concerns over the absence of Keel at meetings of the commissions he had previously served on.

“The commitments that I’ve seen with you, Bob—I’ve talked with you about this in our discussion—is anytime that something kind of gets a little dicey … you’re no longer on that committee,” said Spaulding. “So I guess my big thing is, if you’re going to stand up for this and want to be mayor, if things get tough are you going to stick through it? I don’t see that happening.”

Following Spaulding’s comments, Welton made apparent her support for Keel as she brought up that he had gone through the process of being elected to his position while Campbell had not. While Welton herself was appointed to this term, she had previously run for the office.

“I just think if you haven’t put in all that time and that effort and to sweat out the voting, then you can’t do it,” said Welton. “So it’s probably going to come up to you guys on the next terms to appoint someone because I don’t think this council will ever agree.”

James replied to Welton, stating that Zieger himself had been elected to the position of mayor prior to resigning and brought up previous statements made by Keel about considering resigning. While James stated that Keel had made such a comment during a little league function, he had also commented on his consideration during the August 18 meeting of the Saratoga Town Council.

Nelson also replied to Welton, stating that while he had initially been concerned about appointing someone to the mayor’s seat after being appointed to the council, he was more concerned about “our ability as a group of five to work together, take the time in the right direction and make the decisions about what we need to be doing and what our priorities should be.”

As discussion was about to continue, Keel showed his apparent displeasure with the recommendations from James and Spaulding. The mayor pro-tem criticized James’ comment that there was a lack of options and Spaulding’s distrust of Keel. Additionally, Keel responded to the comments about his consideration of resigning, stating that, while he had been considering it, he ultimately decided to “tough it through”

“I think it’s funny that you talk about D’Ron coming in and standing up and really picking us up and carrying us through,” said Keel. “Well, who the hell has been doing the mayor through that whole time? Who the hell’s been coming in every single day to town hall to try and make things work?”

Keel further stated that the council chambers was “a wonderful platform for all four of us to sit here and say ‘Yeah, Bob, you’re a piece of s--t and you can just go to the wayside and let’s move forward’.” 

“I just think that’s pretty low of both of you,” Keel said.

“You asked our opinion, mayor pro-tem, you asked our opinion and we’re giving you our opinion,” replied Spaulding.

A motion by Nelson to appoint Campbell as mayor died due to lack of a second. A subsequent motion by Welton to appoint Keel as mayor also died due to lack of a second. A motion to adjourn, however, was unanimous.

The next meeting of the Saratoga Town Council will be at 7 p.m. on December 15 at the Saratoga Town Hall.