This past Monday night (August 22), the Superior Town Board approved the Life Sciences Campus in Downtown Superior by a vote of 3-2. Mayor Folsom, Trustee Howard, and Trustee Lish voted “yes” to approve; Trustee Shah and I both voted “no” against. Trustee Skladzinski left the meeting before the votes were cast and her decision to leave — and the effect of that decision on the final vote — has been the subject of considerable discussion on social media, an article in the Daily Camera, and most recently, Trustee Skladzinski published a blog post explaining her side of the story.
As a starting point, I’d encourage you to take a look at the Life Sciences Campus proposal. Here’s a link to the meeting packet and the developer’s presentation. This development proposal was a significant piece of the Downtown Superior development.
The Life Sciences Campus application had been in the pipeline for months. The Town Board held three separate meetings (June 27, July 11, and Aug. 22) to consider the proposal. The Planning Commission met twice (June 7 and Aug. 2). We fully considered the application, heard from the public, and deliberated as a Board.
The Board’s previous Meeting End Time Policy provided that Town Board meetings would conclude at 11pm and could only be extended beyond 11pm by unanimous vote. However, that policy was repealed and replaced on July 11, 2022, unanimously by all 7 members of the Board. As a result, the Town Board’s current Meeting End Time Policy states that Town Board meetings end at 11pm unless extended by a majority vote.
On Monday Night, the Board approved a motion to extend the meeting by 30 minutes by a vote of 5-1. Trustee Skladzinski voted against the extension. It is important to note that Trustee Skladzinski did not indicate that she opposed the extension before the vote and did not tell the Board that she would leave the meeting if the motion passed. The motion to extend was made, there was no debate from anyone, and the majority vote of the Board extended the meeting.
After the approval of the motion to extend the meeting by 30 minutes, the Board continued with its consideration of the Life Sciences Campus application. Within a few minutes, Trustee Howard noticed and announced that Trustee Skladzinski was no longer on the Zoom call (she was participating in the meeting remotely via Zoom due to work travel).
Trustee Skladzinski details the reasons why she did not want to extend the meeting in her blog, however none of this information was communicated to the Board on Monday night. And while Trustee Skladzinski did not need to justify herself or tell us how she was feeling, she should have at least told us what she was going to do if the meeting was extended. Trustee Skladzinski remained silent, voted against the extension, and left shortly thereafter. In any event, she was not “forced to sign off.” She made a choice to leave without providing any notice to the Board or the public. What would have happened if Trustee Skladzinski told us that she had reasons to leave and would do so if the meeting was extended? I don’t know. But I can tell you that if I had known that she was going to leave, I would have withdrawn my motion to extend the meeting.
Once Trustee Skladzinski left the meeting, there was no attempt to email, call, or text any member of the Board or Staff. She has not taken the position that she disconnected from Zoom call by accident or had technical problems. I had assumed this was the case and that there were no technical issues affecting her continued participation. I concluded instead that she was trying to make a point — protesting the continuation of the meeting after the motion to extend had passed. She was free to do so. And that certainly would have been in line with her previous opposition to extending meetings.
But it’s also important to note that Trustee Skladzinski has supported motions to extend meetings beyond 11pm in the past. So it’s not like this was without precedent. In my opinion, we were close to a vote and I thought all the Trustees would support a 30-minute extension of time to finish consideration of the Life Sciences application and vote. I was surprised when the motion to extend was opposed, but I was shocked that she left the meeting because I had thought that she was going to vote against the measure. This was important because as I was attempting to count votes on the dais, I thought we were headed towards a 3-3 tie, and that the measure would fail.
In her blog post, Trustee Skladzinski states that she “suspected a vote would be 4-2 in favor of the life sciences campus being approved.” Perhaps she believed that her vote against the measure would not have changed the outcome? But no one should assume how the Board is going to vote, until the Board actually votes.
Do I think Trustee Skladzinski made a mistake by leaving the meeting without any notice? Yes. Should we have tried to pause the meeting? Could I have attempted to make a motion to continue the hearing to a later date? Should I have walked out of the meeting as well, and dragged one of my fellow Board members along to prevent a quorum? I still don’t know the right answer, but I’d do things differently if I could go back in time.
I respect Trustee Skladzinski and believe she has been a valuable member of the Board since she was elected in 2018. Her diehard commitments to transparency and increased communication have made this town better in many, many ways and it’s been horrible watching this community attack her. The outcome of this meeting was not her fault alone. All Board members played a part in the final vote.
I voted against this proposal and I’m obviously disappointed with the outcome. But I’m also disappointed with the process… and I’ve been thinking about this meeting and what happened Monday night constantly over the past several days. The vote to approve this development application shouldn’t have been allowed to happen.
To my fellow Board members, I truly respect each and every one of you — I feel very proud of how we’ve been able to work together through the pandemic and through the disaster of the Marshall Fire. But this was not our proudest moment. To my Superior community, the Board needs to do better and ensure that our meetings do not devolve into dysfunction. We need to communicate better with our fellow Board members and the public. We owe that to you and I’m committed to making sure that happens going forward.
Even if I am not elected Mayor this November, I still have two years left on my term on the Board and I never want to have a meeting like we had on Monday night again.