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CASSELBERRY CITY COMMISSION Minutes of January 25, 2021 — Regular Meeting Page 8 of 15 might be taken, that an impartial party be brought in to look at the issue. She reminded everyone that the City Commission did not have the authority to remove Vice Mayor Busch from office and its authority in dealing with the issue was limited. She noted that if the comments made by Vice Mayor Busch constituted a crime, that would be the purview of the State Attorney's Office; if it was a violation of the Code of Ethics, that would be the purview of the Commission on Ethics; and the sole purview of the City Commission would be to determine whether there had been a violation of the Code of Boardsmanship. She also suggested that if the Commission were to move forward on whether there had been a violation of the Code of Boardsmanship, Item 8, examples could most likely be found where other members of the Commission had spoken in public and had not identified whether they were speaking as an individual citizen or as a Commissioner, and had not thought about the implications of such comments being placed on social media, sometimes without the knowledge of the speaker. It was also suggested that whether or not partisanship had entered into any of the discussions of the issue should also be addressed. Ms. Reischmann reminded the City Commissioners that although the City Commission was a non-partisan body, each of the individual Commissioners were entitled to have their own partisan views. Discussion: Discussion ensued regarding various concerns relating to the issue, including: whether partisanship had been a part of the discussion from the dais; rights of Commissioners to have individual partisan viewpoints even though the Commission is a non-partisan body; possibility of continuously looking at inadvertent violations of Item 8 of Code of Boardsmanship, and if Item 8 were to be enforced it must be enforced across the board; and if discussion of the issue is deferred to a future meeting, whether an independent third party should perform an investigation and review the facts and circumstances surrounding Vice Mayor Busch's comments and report back to the City Commission to aid them in assessing what action, if any, should be taken. Vice Mayor Busch inquired whether the question of an independent investigation could be addressed during citizen comments relating to the motion and Mayor Henson agreed that could be done. City Attorney Reischmann asked Commissioner Albritton for clarification on his motion and he indicated he wished to amend the motion. AMENDED MOTION: Commissioner Albritton moved to amend the Agenda to add Discussion Item F, Discussion of Whether an Independent Third Party Should be Engaged to Perform an Investigation into the Facts Relating to Vice Mayor Busch's Comments on January 5, 2021 with Presentation of the Findings from the Investigation to be Presented at the Earliest Possible Regular City Commission Meeting. In response to a question from Commissioner Meadows regarding whether he would be making any formal statement relating to this issue, Vice Mayor Busch advised he intended to make a statement during the City Commissioners' Reports/Comments portion of the meeting. Commissioner Meadows stated that his dilemma would be voting on the motion without having first heard what Vice Mayor Busch had to say in his comments. Vice Mayor Busch advised he could make the statement now; however, Mayor Henson reminded the City Commission that there was a motion currently on the table. Motion was seconded by Commissioner Meadows. Motion carried unanimously by voice vote 5-0.