No show: Great Bend City Council special meeting cancelled

Bye Cole Reif

Aug. 18, special Great Bend City Council meeting that never happened

GREAT BEND-Not a single Great Bend City Council member that voted to suspend Great Bend Police Chief Cliff Couch showed up at Friday’s special meeting, causing the meeting to be cancelled for insufficient numbers to conduct business.

Council member Dana Dawson sent a letter to Mayor Mike Allison Thursday to conduct a special session to discuss the city’s job vacancies that was approved by Allison for Friday night.

When 5:30 p.m. rolled around, only four members were present, one short of the needed quorum to conduct the meeting at the Great Bend Events Center. Dawson expressed his disappointment in the council members that did not show up, especially Joel Jackson, who said earlier that he would be there.

The agenda included the election of a new council president, following council member Wayne Henneke’s resignation from the board Thursday. The special meeting was to also address vacancies in key administrative and executive positions and the possibility of a forensic audit on the City of Great Bend.

Along with Jackson; Vicki Berryman, Allene Owen, and Allison did not show up for the meeting. Dawson says he has not spoken to Owen or Berryman since problems with the Police Department publicly surfaced on June 5, 2017. As for Jackson, Dawson was frustrated that the council member failed to notify them of his absence. It was said that Jackson claimed he was with a work client and would not make the meeting.

Dawson, Mike Boys, Cory Zimmerman, and Brock McPherson were at Friday’s meeting, all of which voted to have Couch reinstated at the August 7 meeting. Jackson, Owen, and Berryman all voted to keep the suspension. The next regularly scheduled council meeting is Monday, August 21, but it remains to be seen if any discussion of these matters will be allowed to be brought up since they are not on Monday’s agenda.

Couch was suspended with pay July 24 following multiple executive sessions discussing Couch’s claims of misconduct and unethical procedures from City Administrator Howard Partington and Allison. Hundreds of citizens showed up again Friday night only to quickly realize the meeting would not happen because of the no-shows.

Couch did not know how the Wednesday resignation of Partington affects his case, but stated he and his attorney are just working to get him reinstated and back to work at the moment. Couch mentioned there is no date confirmed for his hearing and chance of rebuttal to his suspension, but tentatively September 5 is the date.