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| Brown and cabinet members sit at prosecutor's table |
This proposal failed along party lines after council members traded barbs.
Lamont McClure accused the administration of already wasting thousands of taxpayer dollars on contracts like one for Integrity personnel, which was paid $24,000 to help Executive John Brown find a cabinet. He noted it took Brown seven months. "What kind of public value was there to that?" he asked.
What rankled Republicans was McClure's additional accusation that they are all "complicit in allowing public money to be used for political work." As public relations consultant Kim Plyler shook her head, McClure read an excerpt from an email to Brown, in which she referred to someone as heavily involved in the GOP. A few other emails indicate that Plyler took notes for a fundraiser and met with Brown in his County office to discuss the matter.
Brown previously has strongly denied any impropriety.
McClure insisted Council needs to do more than simply alert authorities. "It should be us who takes care of this," he argued.
Republicans were appalled. "We have a good deal of witch hunting going on right now," remarked Seth Vaughn. Glenn Geissinger was more direct. Addressing McClure, he said, "As an attorney, I find it appalling that you would accuse a man without the proper foundation."
Knowing this was a loser, Werner proposed an amendment allowing to allow the Executive to have authority over contracts under $25,000. That failed in a 5-4 vote, along party lines. Then Ken Kraft suggested a $50,000 amendment, which met the same fate.
