NEW MAYOR TIM SOLOMON SWORN IN

WOODWICK AGAIN ELECTED CHAIRMAN OF THE HAVRE CITY COUNCIL

Council Chairman Woody Woodwick opened tonight’s Havre City Council meeting in the absence of Mayor Bob Rice. Apparently Rice didn’t feel it his duty to come to the last meeting of his tenure as Mayor to hand the reigns to his successor Tim Solomon as has been the custom in years gone by. Former Mayor Phyllis Leonard graciously attended her last council meeting to pass the baton to Rice when he was elected 8 years ago but he didn’t have enough class to do the same for Solomon. Apparently he was off holed up pouting and dejected about how the voters didn’t still love him. Eight years of continuous immature acts like the one tonight is why Mayor Rice is no longer Mayor of Havre. The first thing I was reminded of was a bloggers comment a few weeks ago about someone being a whiney baby pee-pee pants. That fit the FORMER Mayor Bob Rice tonight. What a no class final act on his reign of terror over the people of Havre.

Mayor Tim was sworn in by City Clerk Lowell Swenson and then he graciously thanked former Mayor Rice and outgoing councilman Schend, who by the way, was very gracious and shook everyone’s hand goodbye and wished them well, including the lady that defeated him, Janet Tretheway. The new council, consisting of Andrew Brekke, Woody Woodwick, Bob Kaftan, Bob Kaul, Janet Tretheway, Cal Long, Pam Hillary, and Jerry Vies, went on to conduct the balance of the meeting under Mayor Tim’s leadership. Woody Woodwick, past Chairman of the council, was re-elected as Chairman for the new term.

Also tonight the council selected Margaret Henz over Rozan Kerr to fill the vacant City Judge position. Republicans Andrew Brekke and Bob Kaftan voted for Kerr and remaining 6 Democrat councilmen voted for Henz. What was interesting as to the judges appointment was that Henz and Solomon were seen meeting together before the meeting to figure out the plan to insure her election tonight. Democrat Mayor selects Democrat Judge. I don’t really have a problem with that as the Cities protocol in this case allows the Mayor to select the candidate to present to the council for an up or down vote but behind the scenes maneuvers do bother me. Giving the council the opportunity to even vote on Republican Kerr was something that didn’t have to be done, yet another gracious move by Mayor Tim. What does disturb me is the fact that both Republican Kaftan and Brekke voted strictly party line tonight instead of voting based on the thought of what and who was best for the City. I don't mean this as a distraction from Kerr's qualifications, as I think she was likewise qualified, but the two Republican rubes cast thier vote strictly because of party affiliation. What a monkey on the back partisan politics are for our elected City officials who feel the need to support someone strictly because of the party they belong to. Again, we need to put an end to partisan elections in the City of Havre.

Mayor Tim announced to a packed house his first change in procedure at council meeting which was to allow public comment before each vote instead of limiting comment to the three minutes at the end of the meeting. Further business included a presentation by Candy Zion regarding an application for a grant to start a recycling venture in Havre, a subject for which the Corrector is doing further research before commenting. All in all, a good first meeting for Mayor Tim.