SCOTT CITY ADDRESSES BRING HEATED EXCHANGE

SCOTT CITY -- Debate Tuesday night on a plan to renumber houses in Scott City led to heated words between members of the Scott City Council, the mayor and members of a committee appointed to study the renumbering.

One council member, John Smith, threatened to resign after a member of the committee, Randy Newell, told him he was in violation of the city code for withholding a previous study of the numbering system from the committee.

The committee was charged two weeks ago with evaluating the town's numbering system in the Country Club subdivision and the rest of town, committee members said. Smith, Mayor Shirley Young and council members Jim McClintock and Brenda Moyers maintained the committee was only appointed to evaluate Country Club.

Smith said that the previous study, consisting of a renumbering system for the entire town, was his property because he had helped to compile it.

Newell, who said the committee has been trying to obtain the report from Smith for nearly two weeks, told the councilman, "You're in violation of the city code; you could be impeached."

"You may not have to impeach me," Smith replied.

Newell and other committee members said they could not finish evaluating the renumbering plan without the previous study.

But Smith said it was his opinion that the committee did not need the study and that's why he refused to turn it over.

"This is stupid," another committee member, LaDonna Phelps, told the council, "It's like, `If I can't play the game my way, I'm going to take my marbles and go home.'"

Councilman John Rogers told Smith: "You're elected by the people to serve them. If you have some records they want to see, they should be able to see them."

City Attorney Francis Siebert said the report Smith had was, in his opinion, city property and could not be withheld by a council member.

Near the end of the meeting, Smith turned the report over to City Clerk Nona Walls.

The renumbering system has been on hold since a council meeting Aug. 5, when 70 city residents protested the plan. The committee was then formed to study the plan and recommend possible changes.

Tuesday the council voted to go ahead with the previous plan for the rest of the city along with any changes the committee proposed in only the Country Club subdivision. Rogers, Ron Oller and Jerry Cummins voted against the motion.

But committee members Phelps, Newell, Mark Castleman and Fred Gramm said they would not recommend any changes without first studying the plan for the entire town that Smith had withheld.

Because the committee has not yet completed its recommendations, numbering in the Country Club subdivision is still on hold.

"Due to the mayor and John Smith, we could not finish our job," Newell said.

Phelps said the committee was appointed to take the heat for city officials who backed the renumbering plan.

"They wanted us to be the scapegoats," she said. "They never intended to use our plan. They just wanted the people to blame us instead of them. I feel like we've been used. That's why we won't be a party to these changes."

Gramm said, "We're not saying our recommendations had to be used; we just wanted to be able to make them."

In other business, the council approved a Nov, 5 vote on whether to install a 911 emergency system in the city. According to the ballot, the initial tax imposed for the plan would not exceed 15 percent of the basic monthly telephone charges per resident.

A property tax rate for the city of 1.26 per $100 of assessed valuation was also set.