Social Distancing at the Mascotte City Council Meeting.

An unexpected power outage at the City of Mascotte Tedder-Thomas Memorial Civic Center resulted in a rescheduled meeting.  The City will be holding a “hybrid” special meeting Thursday, June 4 at 6:30 PM.  The meeting will be available to residents in person and by Zoom teleconference.  City officials urged local residents to watch the City website for details.

The meeting Tuesday was well attended.  Mayor Mike Sykes stated, “this is the biggest  meeting attendance I’ve seen in my time as Mayor.”   “This is the type of community involvement we want. We cannot run a meeting tonight where the residents cannot hear or fully understand what is being said.”

The City Manager Jim Gleason, whose contract renewal was up for a vote at the meeting, reminded the Council that there was pressing and time-sensitive business that had to be completed immediately.  The City Council publicly discussed the options.  Ultimately they decided to allow public comment to open the meeting.  Two residents got up to discuss the City Manager and his contract renewal.  The majority of the crowd seemed to be present for that issue.

After the public comment, the Council completed the routine business of passing a handful of ordinances.  The ordinances included preliminary rate resolutions and water facility loan applications.  The City Manager was adamant and legal council saw no reason not to proceed.  All the citizens attending were invited inside the building where masks were required and social distancing was generally enforced.  The ordinances were all approved without public comment and were needed for operation of the City water system and in preparation of the upcoming budget process.

The issues of the City Manager contract renewal, a 40 +/- acre annexation, and 2 plat approvals for new phases at existing subdivisions Dukes Lake and Lake Jackson Ridge were tabled to the hybrid special meeting scheduled for May 4 at 6:30 PM at the Mascotte Civic Center.

Information is at:  https://cityofmascotte.civicweb.net/portal/

Social Distance seating prior to the Council Meeting Mayor Mike Sykes addresses some of the residents stuck outside the meeting space.