Flint City Council meeting lasted until 4:47 a.m. — Mayor Neeley says city staff will no longer participate in late-night/early-morning dysfunction

FLINT, Michigan – Mayor Sheldon Neeley today notified City Hall department heads that they can be excused from City Council meetings after 9 p.m.

The move follows months of poorly run and quarrelsome late-night meetings, and it comes on the heels of an 11-hour meeting that lasted until 4:47 a.m. — coming to an end only after losing a quorum.

The City Council was still working through its agenda when a fifth weary Councilmember finally decided enough was enough and dropped off the phone line of the electronic meeting.

“Failure to complete essential business in a timely fashion shows a gross lack of leadership and injects chaos into an organization. The people deserve better,” Mayor Sheldon Neeley said.

Staff attending meetings are critical members of the team providing service to the residents of Flint — and that work starts at 8 a.m.

“I hope the City Council leadership will manage meetings better so that no staff – including Clerk Inez Brown and her office, which report directly to Council – will be subjected to these unreasonable working conditions,” Mayor Neeley said. “The best decisions are made by alert, sober and sane minds.”

Because of the functions of their jobs, the City Attorney and City Administrator will stay along with the City Clerk at the meetings after 9 p.m.