Hale, Town attorney, has word battle with citizen on agenda terminology as it relates to land contract
Regarding the June BOMA letter of intent vote, citizen Mike Mitchell asked Town attorney Tom Hale what was missing.
“What was voted on was the letter of intent and there was also a portion of the motion, which I suggested,” Hale answered. “Every time I come back to the Board with a contract I have drafted, nobody ever changes the contract.
“The letter of intent involved here was a very detailed letter of intent because the were some very unusual provisions related to the road and related to the descriptions on the use of the donated tract,” he added. “Dennis Ragsdale, the attorney for the seller, and myself drafted very detailed provisions for the letter of intent.
“There was absolutely no reason to go back to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to have them rubber-stamp a contract that I and the other attorney were in agreement with. So the point is that (contract) was what was voted on.
“There is another sentence in the agenda packet that’s not there,” Mitchell interjected. “It was not in the summary agenda.”
“There are a lot of things, Mike, that are in the packet that are not on the agenda,” Hale said. “There are tons of information in the packet, which is on the Internet, which anybody in the world can access and see the exact language of the letter of intent and was available for everybody to look at.
“It said in the packet that part of the motion was to approve Mr. Smoak and I to negotiate the terms of the agreement, which would be consistent with the letter of intent, and allow the mayor to sign the agreement,” he added
“And he did so on Sept. 1, and I wonder if anybody knows that,” Mitchell said. “The new Open Meetings Act was modified this year, signed into law by Gov. (Bill) Lee, and it says you cannot cryptically caption agenda items.
“This was not read into the record,” he added. “It was in a 136-page document on page 69. Now, you all come out tonight and don’t put in the authority of the mayor to execute the contract. You’ve done it again!
“What difference does it make?” Hale asked.
“It makes all the difference in the world,” Mitchell retorted.
Mitchell should “focus on the merits of the purchase instead of every little detail that makes no difference to the outcome,” Hale said. “Everybody knows the details. Everything was in the packet.”
“It’s missing the most important part of the motion,” Mitchell said.
“What’s the most important part?” Hale asked.
“The authority (given to) the mayor to execute the contract,” Mitchell answered.
“We can get out of the contract anytime we want to between now and Oct. 26,” Hale said.
“Only if the mayor and the vice mayor allow it,” Mitchell said.
“No, no, no, no,” Hale exclaimed. “All we have to do is have the Board say ‘we don’t want to go forward with this agreement between now and Oct. 26.”
