Flatonia City Council Divisions Continue in Resignation Aftermath

The Flatonia City Council voted 3-2 to accept the resignation of City Manager Sarah Novo at a meeting Monday, Aug. 2. City Secretary Heather Ambrose also resigned, which the council accepted unanimously.

“As you know I was entirely unaware of the many issues plaguing Flatonia when I took this role, and although I have invested significant time, effort and energy into repairing these issues, I cannot stay in place where I am not able to move forward without the full support of this team,” Novo said in her resignation letter.

The meeting began at 5 p.m. Council went into a closed-door executive session at 5:05 p.m. to interview candidates for the vacant City Attorney position and review the two resignations. The attorney candidates left the room about an hour later. Council finally came out of executive session at 7:43.

When Novo’s resignation came up for a vote, Councilwoman Catherine Steinhauser and Councilman Allen Kocian voted against it in protest. Both of them expressed support for Novo and said they wanted her to stay.

“For the record, I’m voting against her resignation because we have a problem with the chain of command,” Steinhauser said at the meeting. “Until we get that straight, we’re going to continue to have problems. We talked about that and we’re going to work on that.”

“I also vote against the acceptance of the resignation of City Manager Sarah Novo under the same circumstances,” said Kocian before the vote.

After the meeting, Steinhauser said the City Manager should lead City operations much like the CEO of a company, with the City Council providing guidance and oversight like a board of directors. Instead, she said, some on Flatonia’s governing body too often interfere with day-to-day operations of the City. Steinhauser said that if the Council wishes to exercise more control, then the City should reconsider the city manager form of government.

After the meeting, Kocian praised Novo.

“I think she’s doing a great job,” Kocian said.

Kocian said Novo “stepped on some toes” by launching the investigation that led to the departure of former City Secretary, Melissa Brunner.

“We’re going right back in the same rut,” Kocian said.

Steinhauser and Kocian declined to give specific examples, saying they wished to work with others on the governing body to correct the “chain of command” problems.

“That’s her opinion and that’s Allen’s opinion,” said Mayor Bryan Milson in an interview after the meeting. “It didn’t seem to be the opinion of all the council, so I’m going to leave it at that. Council voted to accept the resignations and we’re going to move forward.

“When (Novo and Ambrose) turned in their letters, it was a surprise to me,” Milson added. “I wasn’t completely expecting it, but I knew deep down they didn’t seem happy.”

“I thought Sarah and Heather did a good job,” Councilman Mark Eversole said in and interview with the Record on Tuesday.

Concerning Steinhauser’s comments about the chain of command, Eversole stated the following: “I don’t know if I agree with her. There may have been instances where Bryan (Milson) did something on his own, but I don’t think it was anything detrimental to the city.

“I know (Novo and Ambrose) were overtaxed from a work standpoint because of some issues remaining from the prior city secretary,” Eversole said.

Eversole did not think there is a problem with leadership. He said Novo’s resignation letter spoke about a lack of “full support from this team,” but he said Novo didn’t define or give examples of what she meant when the Council spoke with her privately during the executive session.

Eversole said Novo’s departure was “sudden and unexpected,” but he said frequent turnover at the City Manager position is not unusual for small towns like Flatonia.

“It’s hard to get someone to stay for their entire career,” he said. “We usually get them for two or three years and then they move on to somewhere bigger.”

Councilwoman Ginny Sears expressed a similar view.

“People have ambitions, and Its hard to keep them if they have other opportunity,” Sears said.

Sears said she respected Steinhauser’s opinion about the chain of command issue, but she didn’t agree with it.

Councilman Dennis Geesaman spoke positively of Novo:

“I think she did a lot of good stuff, she tackled some problems and made progress,” Geesaman said.

Geesaman said he didn’t agree with Steinhauser’s and Kocian’s dissenting votes.

“We had to honor the resignation and a vote to the contrary was not going to change anything,” he said.

Novo said little to reporters after the meeting.

“I think this community deserves a team, a team of people who are working for them,” she said.

Ambrose submitted a fivepage letter to the Council before the meeting in which she alleged conflict between City personnel, false statements from staffers, and personnel action taken without her consultation. Among the most serious accusations, she accused the governing body of failures in financial oversight.

“If you didn’t ask questions and do due diligence for years, don’t ask for forgiveness and point fingers now,” she said. “I hope you know the staff in place now are trying their best to work with what they have been given. Problems have been brought to the surface already but continue to be uncovered.”

Ambrose wrote about a looming independent financial audit that has taken longer than usual to complete.

“I know that the audit will soon be released and know that help will be needed to get the past corrected and the future on the right path,” she said.

Milson said he also has concerns about the audit.

“I’m wondering myself why it has gone on so long,” Milson said on Tuesday. “We were supposed to get it first of the year, but then it got put back to March. We were supposed to get it by last nights meeting, but we still haven’t gotten it.”