Christmas concert causes council conundrum

Davenport city council faced an unusual dilemma prior to its scheduled Dec. 8 regular meeting: a lack of attending councilmembers due to Davenport Elementary School’s Christmas Concert occurring in concurrence.

City code requires four attending councilmembers to hold a regular meeting, and just Chris Ruiz, Theresa Telford and Cory Hollis were councilmembers in attendance. Other councilmembers were watching their children light up the stage in the Christmas concert, while Nathan Hansen had already submitted his resignation and moved outside city limits.

Mayor Brad Sweet tuned into the meeting via Zoom due to his positive COVID-19 test, but the mayor doesn’t count toward a council quorum.

The lack of quorum meant the meeting was cancelled. It’s the first time that has happened since Dec. 24, 2003, according to city clerk Dave Leath.

Council was set to vote on the first reading of the annual 2022 budget, which the city is required to complete by Jan. 1 per state law. Council will now have to take that up at its Dec. 22 meeting, and the city will have to advertise the finished budget Dec. 23 to fulfill another state law that requires five day’s legal notice of advertising such a budget.