BLYTHEWOOD – Monday night’s town council meeting began with Councilman Donald Brock making a motion to add an item to the agenda calling for several special called meetings. It ended three hours later with Councilman Rich McKenrick calling for a vote of no confidence in Mayor Sloan Griffin. A good thirty minutes of the meeting featured a flat-out donnybrook – with Mayor Sloan Griffin being accused of, among other things: refusing to schedule goal setting and budget workshops; failing in his leadership; causing the town administrator to leave; and causing employee unrest.
“This body is drifting at sea with no direction and, quite frankly, no leadership at times,” Brock stated.
“We passed a resolution [last December] to establish a goal setting session, Mr. Mayor, and you sent out an email asking individual members of council to give you some times we preferred for that meeting. Then we got an email from you saying you’re calling that meeting on March 5 – which would be okay, but the meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m.,” Brock said. He later said that was a meeting time none of the four council members had asked for. “I don’t know if you have a job, but I do, and I’m pretty sure the other members of council do. I can’t give up a day of work, but I’m willing to give evenings or weekends.”
“The resolution was in the December, 2024 [meeting agenda] packet,” Brock said. “And here we are knocking on the March door and none of this stuff has happened.”
“You could have picked up the phone and called me if you had questions,” Griffin countered.
“That’s the response we get every single time,” Brock said.
“I’m not going to do this,” Griffin said.
“I know you’re not,” said Brock.
“The problem, Mr. Mayor,” Councilman Rich McKenrick said, “is that you emailed the entire council and said, ‘I’m trying to schedule something. Let me know what days work. Reply back to me individually and I’ll let you know what the consensus is.’”
“You were not forthcoming, and you were not transparent with what each council member’s wishes were. What you forced council members to do was: I called Ms. Fripp. I called Ms. Page. I called Donald Brock to find out what results we gave [in the emails] so you could dictate to us when our meeting is. That’s about as transparent as hot chocolate.”
“Ok, so this is what we’re gonna do. Have your meeting. Have your meeting. I sent a simple email,” Griffin said. “I’m freakin’ tired of this. You had four months to speak your mind and that’s why we’re in the predicament we’re in,” Griffin said, blaming McKenrick. As Griffin tried to abruptly end the discussion and move to public comment, council members pushed back.
Griffin then turned to Brock. “Set your date and stop talking,” he said.
“How can I set my date if I’m ordered to stop talking,” Brock asked. “You treat the four people up here like children and you’re the parent.”
“Come on, set your dates and stop talking. You asked if I have a job. Set your date. I have a job,” Griffin repeated. “Set the date.”
“Mr. Mayor, I’m just going to ignore you. I’m not going to worry about you anymore,” Brock said. “You’ve lost the trust of this body.”
Councilwoman Erica Page also weighed in, pointing out that important meeting schedules have not materialized in the year she has been on council.
“A proposal [for scheduling planning meetings] was given to us [by Town Administrator Daniel Stines] this past December, and it still has not been done. Why we haven’t started on it is the question,” Page said to Griffin. “I have asked you for this multiple times over this past year. You told us a year ago that we would have a special called meeting for strategic planning,” she said. “And it’s still not done.”
“You wanted to tell us there was a strategic plan in place – I’m talking,” Page said, interrupting herself after Griffin turned his attention away. “I would like some respect as I’m still speaking, okay? – but when you pulled it [the strategic plan] up, it was still in note form, so why can’t we have a meeting to do the strategic planning? We all need to agree to a date. That’s what we’re trying to do right now.”
“Mr. Mayor?” McKenrick said, addressing Griffin.
“Come on, guys, get the date and move on. Set the date. I need you to give me the date so we can move on. Set your date, man, so we can move on,” Griffin repeated.
McKenrick tried to call Griffin’s attention to the February calendar to set the date.
“I’m not acknowledging nothing. Set your date and move on. You act like you run the Town,” Griffin said to McKenrick as the two talked over one another.
“We have employees leaving because of you,” McKenrick said.
“Who is leaving because of me?” Griffin asked.
“That man right there,” McKenrick said, pointing to Town Administrator Daniel Stines who recently resigned, effective March 20, and who, earlier in the meeting, was praised by council members for his work during his tenure with the town.
“Mr. Stines, are you leaving because of me?” Griffin asked.
The room fell silent, then Stines answered.
“I don’t really think I should go on record…” Stines said before being interrupted by Griffin.
“He’s making these accusations,” Griffin said, referring to McKenrick. “I need clarity. We haven’t had any arguments.”
“It’s not arguments,” Stines said. “You’re undermining me.”
“Undermining?” Griffin quizzed.
“Mr. Stines, have your job duties as town administrator been reduced over the last six months?” Brock asked.
“Yes,” Stines said.
“How?” Griffin asked.
“The appointment of positions; my recommendations versus your will …” Stines began.
“On what,” Griffin interrupted.
“The positions last year, taking over my staff meetings, your email to me that …” Stines tried to continue.
“Hold on. Hold on,” Griffin said, interrupting Stines. “You never come to me to talk about this?” Griffin asked.
“I’ve got emails…” Stines began again.
Griffin suggested the situation wasn’t handled appropriately.
“That’s the professional way – have a freakin’ conversation. Mr. McKenrick? Have a conversation,” Griffin said.
“You asked who’s leaving because of your lack of leadership,” McKenrick said.
“Hold on …” Griffin said. “I asked. It doesn’t bother me Mr. McKenrick. I asked, because you know why it doesn’t bother me? Because I am so accessible, if you have an issue, tell me. There’s not one staff member in the town, besides Mr. Stines I’ve learned, who feels they can’t talk to me,” Griffin said.
“Maybe you need to talk to your staff more,” McKenrick said.
“I believe your staff is afraid, sir,” Brock said.
“Afraid of what?” Griffin asked.
“You,” Brock answered.
“Y’all are very funny. Y’all are very funny. Because you’ll find that Mr. Stines is the only staff that I’ve heard to date that’s afraid of me,” Griffin said. “So, if y’all are trying to picture town hall as discombobulated, y’all are freakin’ funny,” he said.
McKenrick swung the conversation back to the budget, asking Griffin, “Where is the initial budget you were supposed to do?”
Griffin said the budget process is stalled.
“We found some issues with Excel, ok?” Griffin said. “[Julie Emory, the Town’s financial director] is pulling out her hair working on the budget.”
“I wish Julie was here,” McKenrick said.
“So, she don’t like me either?” Griffin asked.
“Mr. Mayor, we can’t trust what you say,” McKenrick said. “Just email us and say the budget I promised in February is not going to be here in February, because Excel decided not to work at Town Hall.”
Brock, McKenrick, Fripp, and Page eventually established the following planning meeting schedule:
March 3 (5:45 p.m.) goal setting
March 5 (5:45 p.m.) discussion of current budget
March 27 (5:45 p.m.) 1st budget workshop
April 10 (5:45 p.m.) 2nd budget workshop
Griffin then joined the other four council members voting 5 – 0 in favor of the meeting schedule.
At the end of the meeting, McKenrick made a motion that he said was based on the executive session held earlier that evening, on town council meetings, on dates set and missed, on hiring employees and not informing council, and on everything the public has heard and seen during recent meetings.
“I make a motion for council to take a vote of no confidence in the sitting mayor, Sloan Griffin, to clarify why we continue to operate aligned with lack of leadership,” McKenrick said.
Before the motion could be seconded, Griffin asked the Town Attorney Pete Balthazar if McKenrick’s motion was proper.
“I don’t think that motion is proper,” Balthazar said. “The agenda had nothing like that on it. There wasn’t an amendment for the discussion we just had about setting dates. I don’t think there were agenda items for this, and there’s been no amendment.”
All goal setting and budget meetings, including the Monday, March 3 meeting, will be held at 5:45 p.m., at Doko Manor.
