Council blindsided by mayor’s comments

Conversation at Tuesday’s Creston City Council meeting got heated after comments made by Mayor Waylon Clayton at his November Coffee with the Mayor were brought up.

At the end of the meeting, Councilmember Kiki Scarberry read a statement she had prepared regarding Clayton’s Nov. 2 event. She focused on two topics, rental inspections and makeup of the council.

Citing a Creston News Advertiser article, Scarberry brought up information stated by Clayton regarding the legality of rental inspections. During his event, Clayton said the policy, which was established in January, would receive changes and “right now is going through legal things with our lawyers.” Scarberry said this wasn’t true.

“The Creston City Council passed resolution number 102-24 on Jan. 2 of 2024, establishing a rental housing inspection program. This program is not under legal review and it is enforced and moving forward,” Scarberry said. “Specifically on Nov. 1, 60 landlords were mailed notices informing them they needed to register in 60 days and within 60 days need to schedule an inspection.”

Continuing with rental inspections, Councilmember Jocelyn Blazek and City Administrator Mike Taylor explained why a ruling that Orange City’s rental inspection ordinance was unconstitutional did not apply to Creston.

“It’s my understanding that that lawsuit was based on inspectors forcing their ways into homes after being told no without any sort of administrative search warrant,” Blazek said. She said Creston’s city council made it clear that permission must be granted before an inspector can enter a home.

“And I believe they were identifying other issues that weren’t property issues,” Taylor said. “There were more illegal drugs and drug use and things like that and they weren’t supposed to be looking for that.”

Later in Clayton’s event, an attendee asked what could be done to stop a councilmember from only living in their elected ward at the beginning of their term. They said a councilmember should have to live permanently in the ward they represent.

Clayton’s response during the meeting was an opinion in how to change the makeup of the city council.

“What I’d really like to see, and this may not be a popular view, but I’d like to get rid of seven and go down to five and make them all at-large,” Clayton said. “That’s my opinion, but that’s going to take you guys. That’s what I think should happen.”

During Tuesday’s meeting, Scarberry asked Clayton to clarify why he wanted the changes and which two council members he wanted out.

Clayton’s response was “you should probably come to the meetings so you get the full context of everything before you start making comments.” He said the newspaper had misrepresented the conversation, but later stated Scarberry should have read the article to answer her questions.

Clayton continued to dodge a response regarding why he thought the council should change, instead stating “it says that would be up to you, the people, so you can go question the people if they want that or not and not question your boss.”

After more back-and-forth, Clayton eventually explained his opinion regarding getting rid of wards and making the entire council at-large. However, he never explained the change from seven members to five.

“If I was to be governed by a form of government, I would rather have all my council be able to be representing the entire community and have it fair and have them vote for those people,” Clayton said. “I think that’s more transparent and that’s more fair in the election process. It gives people more of a say.”

Scarberry continued to ask for clarification on the shift in councilmember numbers to no avail. When Clayton repeated his reasoning for all at-large members, Scarberry said they were talking about two different things. However, Clayton disagreed and never gave reasoning for the shift in seven to five.

According to state code 372.4, a city governed by the mayor-council form can have a mayor and either five council members elected at-large or two at-large and one for each ward in a city. The council may also change the number of wards, abolish wards or increase the number of council members at large without changing the mayor-council form, as long as the council keeps an odd number of members.

Blazek also responded to the original question regarding councilmember residency, saying if a councilmember moves out of the ward they represent, they are no longer able to sit on the council. In that case, the position is vacated and a new councilmember must be chosen.