Davenport city administrator Craig Malin and city attorney Tom Warner will keep their jobs — at least for now.
Only four aldermen showed up for a special meeting of the Davenport City Council, hastily called for 5:30 p.m. on Friday, June 19, 2015. Because a quorum was not reached, no votes could be taken.
Council members Rick Dunn, Kerri Tompkins, Mike Matson and Barney Barnhill were in attendance. Aldermen Jason Gordan, Gene Meeker, Bill Edmond, Bill Boom, Ray Ambrose and Jeff Justin were not present.
The special meeting was called on Thursday, June 18, after Mayor Bill Gluba announced he had asked for city administrator Malin and city attorney Warner’s resignations.
Gluba said Malin and Warner had “overstepped their authority” in connection with a contract for the extension of Elmore Avenue, a new road that will lead to the future Rhythm City Casino at the interchange of Interstate 74 and Interstate 80. Alderman Barnhill said the council was never informed that the city would also have to pay for grading work on the casino’s private property. Gluba said the work was costing taxpayers an extra $1.6 to $2 million.
“The City Council should have been briefed that to move Kehl from point A to point B to make this great new development take place out on I-80 and I-74, which is a good idea, that it’s going to cost this much money,” said Gluba.
Friday, the mayor stood by his actions in calling for the resignations.
“I believe in getting stuff out. Swift, decisive action, period. Deal with it. You know, it ain’t gonna go away,” said Gluba.
He also said politics didn’t play a role in his decision.
“The election’s not until the fall, and it’s not that at all. I felt really bad, I respect both Craig and Tom, but you know, this issue’s got to be dealt with,” said Gluba.
In a letter posted on the city’s news website Friday morning, Malin explained the incident as a misunderstanding, writing, “Fire me if there needs to be blood, but Tom Warner doesn’t deserve termination. I have little doubt he believed his sign off of the fifth draft of the Elmore development agreement was furthering a policy purpose shared by the Council.”
Malin later explains his actions: “For my part, I believed his e-mail sign off indicated we were good to go on a draft of the agreement that removed language putting the City on the hook for grading a casino site.”
Malin did not attend Friday night’s special meeting, and Warner did not take his usual seat at the city attorney’s desk.
Afterwards, Matson said council members planned to talk with the other aldermen and bring the issue up again soon — possibly at the regularly scheduled City Council meeting on June 24, 2015.
“We’d like to resolve this very quickly,” said Matson.
