Tartaro Wanted Up, Down Vote on Censure

One of the odder aspects of Mayor Marc Tartaro's recent brush with a censure, the legislative form of a slap on the wrist, is that Tartaro provided the lone vote against a measure which took the censure off the table. 

Why did he do that? 

In a brief interview after Monday's meeting, Tartaro laid out his rationale, explaining that he thought the censure should have been debated on its merits. 

"I apologized for the mistake, but I don't think it should have been tabled," said Tartaro. "It should have been voted up or down."

Tartaro took issue with comments made by Council Member Tim Hunt (Ward 3), one of the cosponsors of the motion to censure, which he said intimated that the mayor's actions were indicative of a larger tendency to mislead or withhold information from the city council. 

"The reality is there is no evidence of me doing anything that is somehow tied to a larger problem of modalities," said Tartaro. "There's no evidence. I served under the previous council. The previous council agreed to how we handled information both publicly and in closed session."

One of the complaints levied against Tartaro in the motion to censure accused him of withholding information about meetings with Echo Realty and county government officials to discuss the proposed construction of a Safeway grocery store at University Town Center. Council policies and procedures require the mayor to inform the city council, generally by the next city council meeting, of meetings with third parties in matters which the city council might be called upon to render approval, according to censure co-sponsor Council Member Patrick Paschall (Ward 3).

The other complaint centered on an incident in which Tartaro had a number of motion items put on the agenda under the names of Hunt and Council President Hollingsworth (Ward 1). 

"I don't believe there was any intentional harm there. They should have been posted on the agenda as discussion items, as opposed to motions with numbers," said Tartaro. "Yes, technically. I don't even know if that's really a violation of anything…but I explained that it was an honest intention."