Two Rhinelander alderpersons hope the rest of the Common Council allows them to participate by phone Friday night in discussions about the future of City Administrator Daniel Guild.
Guild was arrested Monday, and appeared in court Tuesday, on charges of misconduct in office. Members of the Common Council will discuss Guild’s employment status with the city in a special meeting Friday night.
Alderpersons George Kirby and Dawn Rog won’t be in attendance. Both are traveling in the western United States and haven’t appeared at a meeting in months.
But on Friday morning, they sent a joint press release asking they be allowed to participate by phone. Last year, the Common Council stopped allowing phone participation by council members. Now, Kirby and Rog are asking the council to suspend the rule for Friday’s “historic” meeting.
“We call upon Alderpersons Steve Sauer, David Holt and Andrew Larson to allow such a suspension of the rules to occur,” Kirby and Rog wrote. “On Monday evening, these three alderpersons voted against this agenda item (rule suspension) even being put on the agenda. It sems quiet [sic] clear these three want to censor our voices and prevent District 1 and District 5 residents from even being heard.”
Kirby and Rog wrote they attempted to return to Rhinelander for the meeting, but the COVID-19 outbreak made it impossible.
The first order of business on Friday’s agenda will be the consideration of phone participation.
