Menahga City Council …

     Demonstrating their frustration with Komulainen´s apparent lack of support, the Fire Department made a request that he “be removed from the Fire Committee.” In a letter addressed to the council Monday, Fire Chief Dave Kicker said “the fire department feels the department´s best interests are not being served by Mr. Komulainen´s service on this committee.”
     Komulainen was unaware of the letter until it was brought up during Monday´s meeting.
     “I haven´t ever seen that,” he said.
     Ylitalo indicated a sense that Komulainen was placing more emphasis on township concerns than on those of the city on April 14.
     Komulainen indicated he was trying to make the decision he felt was right. He did mention that he owns property in Blueberry Township.
     The discussion moved to the topic of payments from the townships, and became heated.
     Finally, Mayor Anderson had heard enough, and said, “Let´s put this behind us,” as she banged the gavel a couple of times.
     Komulainen and Tolkkinen continued arguing.
     “It´s done!” Anderson said and banged the gavel down again.
     She told the council she was not ready to act on the fire department´s request regarding Komulainen’s status on the committee.
     “I tried,” Komulainen said, adding that if the fire department wants him off the committee, that´s fine.
     Anderson made a motion to table the firefighters´ request until June.
     Komulainen stammered, “I ...I will resign."
     Councilmember Kim Rasmussen said, “Dennis, I don´t know that your resignation is necessary at this point.”
     Komulainen offered that it may satisfy some people.
     Rasmussen said she was concerned that if the request was honored, it would set a precedent regarding the removal of appointees from committees due to outside pressures.
     “Don´t resign,” Mickelson told Komulainen. He pointed out that Komulainen was forced to vote on an issue the townships had raised with the council.
     Anderson said she also does not want Komulainen to resign, that the committee was assigned, and that nothing illegal was done. Her motion to table the issue died for lack of a second.
     Fire Chief Kicker was not in attendance because he was at a training session, so Jim Day was representing the department at the council table Monday.
     The council approved the April 14 meeting minutes with amendments. One of the amendments involved commentary from Mickelson as to why he initially voted against the recommendation of the fire committee. In the minutes, it said Mickelson´s response was “that he did not have enough information from the fire call worksheet presented to make a decision.” He said wanted it noted in the minutes that his response on April 14 was that he “did not receive any report regarding the transfer of money to the sinking fund on which to base a decision on.”
     Regarding the issue of council communication, the councilmembers discussed the possibility of receiving a brief weekly summary of important council-related topics from Osterman. It was decided to authorize the Administration Committee to look into this, as well as the topic of RFPs (Requests For Proposals).
     The council decided to table a decision regarding whether the city should work on a separate infrastructure project, in conjunction with the county´s 2009 CSAH 21 water/sewer project, to put in septic services for those local properties that need it. The CSAH 21 project could affect properties along First Street Northeast (the Twin Lakes Road) in Menahga beginning at Tru Star.
(continues)