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BURKET – Burket Town Council heard complaints Thursday about an incident regarding a town employee and about ordinance enforcement.
Resident Marvin McClone brought up an incident with Street Superintendent Brad Bibler where he showed up at resident Vicki Scott’s house at some point after February’s town council meeting. During February’s meeting, Scott brought up concerns about unlicensed cars at two properties, with one property being owned by Council President Bill Rayburn and another property where Bibler lives.
Rayburn said Thursday they were not going to discuss the incident during the meeting because it was a civil matter and didn’t have anything to do with town business. McClone disagreed because Bibler brought up what was talked about at the meeting. Rayburn said just because someone is a town employee, doesn’t mean the town sanctioned that employee and any possible argument they have a resident. He said it’s between those two people and any possible law enforcement authorities. Rayburn said he believed law enforcement was called, and due to that, it was a civil matter.
Rayburn brought up an issue brought up at January’s meeting between Councilwoman Lena Ball and another resident. At that time, town attorney Austin Rovenstine said the council president wouldn’t have the authority to prevent any private actions of any council members, and Rayburn said that applied to town employees as well.
Scott said she reported the incident with Bibler to Clerk-Treasurer Katina Webb.
McClone asked if the council was aware of the incident. Rayburn said the council has heard about it and he and Bibler talked about it.
After McClone spoke, Scott brought up unplated cars in town and ordinance enforcement regarding them. She mentioned0 two properties on Broadway Street, one of them owned by Rayburn. Scott said there are plenty of properties that have unplated cars as well, however, the town has only talked about a few properties in town. She questioned why the other properties in town with unplated cars have not received violation letters.
Rayburn said he is trying to understand if the council has the authority to tag and tow unplated cars without exposing the town to any possible legal liability. He said he has not contacted Rovenstine about looking into the situation, but both Rayburn and Rovenstine have to look into state code about it.
“I will ... am planning to ask a question of him. There is enough in the (town) procedures that I know we can’t” handle it. Rayburn said the ordinance talks about the town having a place to store the vehicles.
There was some back and forth between council and Scott and McClone about who can and should be writing ordinance violation letters, how long ordinance violation issues have been going on and how to go about enforcing ordinances.
In other business, the council:
• Heard Kevin McSherry has retired as the Burket fire chief. The new fire chief is Bryce Good.
• Heard about some furniture lying out near the street on one of the streets in town.
• Talked about sending another newsletter out.
