Branson’s “Minutes” of positive and caring leadership

At the Jun. 13 meeting of the Branson Board of Aldermen John Logan made comments in opposition to a resolution. The official city tape recordings of the meeting indicate that at the end of his comments Logan made a request to have his concerns and objections made part of the actual minutes of the meeting in addition to being included on the tape recording of the meeting.

Those same tapes show that almost immediately, Terry Dody, the City Administrator, without being asked for advice, or seeking permission to speak, from the mayor, the boards presiding officer, said, “Mr. Mayor just for clarification, John’s request will not be honored on the minutes. That’s not the intent of the minutes or the purpose of the minutes.”

“Whoa Seagull, doesn’t state law say that the City Administrator performs their duties “subject to the direction and supervision of the mayor?”

“That’s what it says,”

“Wouldn’t it have shown more respect to the office of the mayor and the board, the people he works for, if Dody had at least made it appear that he was giving them advice rather than telling them what would be done?”

“From a perception point of view, probably so.”

From an Ole Seagull’s perspective, absent a specific request for his advice from the mayor, the best thing Dody could have done, at that moment and that place, was to have remained silent. This would have shown a positive example of complying with Section 105.020 of the Branson Municipal Code and eliminated even the perception of disrespect.

More importantly, it would have avoided the situation of creating an “us” vs. “him” type of situation and the meeting would have moved on to the next item. In subsequent days, as the minutes of the meeting proceeded through their normal generation and approval cycle, the city clerk and the leaders of Branson’s city government would have had the opportunity to consider and evaluate the request more fully without the bias created by Dody’s gratuitous statement.

As an example, they might have considered that within the legal and practical aspects of preparing a meeting’s minutes there is a lot of flexibility. Someone might have pointed out that the minutes of the May 31 meeting, approved by the board earlier in that same meeting, contained a perfect illustration of just how much flexibility is available.

The very first item under the “Regular Agenda” in those minutes pertains to the Convention Center Management Agreement. As to the comments made by Chris Lucchi regarding the agreement, those minutes state, “Chris Lucchi of the Branson Lodging Association reviewed the three concerns they had with 1) definition of revenues 2) booking policies and procedures and 3) the mechanism to edit and adjust the agreement.”

“Ok Seagull, I’m starting to get it. The same legal and practical considerations that enabled the gist of some of Lucchi’s comments to be put into the minutes provided the flexibility to display positive and caring leadership in Logan’s case.”

“Exactly, but instead the minutes, as to Logan’s involvement with the issue, merely said, ‘John Logan, 2277 Lakeshore Dr., Branson, addressed the Board.’ How much extra effort would it have taken to add five words so that it read, ‘John Logan, 2277 Lakeshore Dr., Branson, addressed the Board regarding his concerns and objections?'”

“Not much, but Seagull, this is about John Logan, the city’s perceived nemesis.”

“No, actually it’s about how people, regardless of their views, are treated, basic fairness, and the exercise of positive and caring leadership.”