It is possible that the Henderson City Council will decide once again on who should be the mayor pro tem, a role that Council Member Garry Daeke had held since December 2023 until he was unseated in February 2025 and replaced with Council Member Michael Venable.
During the Council’s regular May meeting, however, Council Member Lamont Noel asserted that the February action was procedurally incorrect and set in motion a recommendation that later became a motion to return Daeke to the pro tem role. That motion was seconded and passed.
Then, at what was advertised to be a budget public hearing on Thursday, May 22, Council members picked up the issue yet again – this time with some clarification from the city attorney about proper procedures and following policy.
Noel acknowledged during the Thursday meeting that he’d mistakenly cited a policy that applies only to a special called meeting, not a regularly scheduled meeting, about the requirement that all Council members be present in order to add an item to the agenda.
In fact, agenda items may be added during any regular meeting and it’s done routinely. Although three Council members were absent in February, among them Daeke, a quorum was present and that is all that’s needed to hold a meeting or to add agenda items.
An agenda item may be added at a special called meeting only if all members are present.
As City Manager/City Attorney Hassan T. Kingsberry explained to Council members, he consulted with the School of Government to try to get a handle on this tangled-up issue.
“If you decide to revote, that is fine,” Kingsberry said. But it’ll have to wait until a regularly scheduled monthly meeting.
The budget public hearing, which did take place following about 25 minutes about the mayor pro tem topic and a closed session called for during the meeting, is NOT a regular monthly meeting and Council Member Sara Coffey was not present.
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