In a year that has seen many cringe-worthy moments in the relationship between Mayor Dan Finnegan and the Ellsworth City Council, Monday night’s council meeting plunged to perhaps a new low when Finnegan was officially censured by a vote of the city council.

Council member Don Panzer made the motion to censure Finnegan for his alleged “hostile work environment” towards Ellsworth City Administrator Dustin Stambaugh.

“Because Dustin, I feel, has the grounds to sue the city at this time,” Panzer said. “We do not condone his (Finnegan’s) treatment of Dustin.”

“Not even close,” Finnegan responded. “Usually it’s racism. Usually it’s a bad evaluation. He has been given a three-year $100,000 salary. I am holding him accountable. There’s a huge difference.”

“Yeah, because you never made a mistake in your life,” Panzer told Finnegan.

The motion was seconded by council member Tyler Renard.

“All right,” Finnegan said. “Councilman Panzer has made a motion to censure the mayor for holding Dustin Stambaugh accountable. Councilman Renard has seconded. Hearing none, all in favor say ‘aye.’” “No, no, no,” Panzer shouted, along with others on the council.

“You have a responsibility to chair this meeting and you have the honor to do so, but you cannot change the motion,” Ellsworth City Attorney Patrick Hoffman told Finnegan. “You know what you did was not correct.”

“I’ll do it again,” Finnegan said. Finnegan then called for the vote in the correct manner. The motion was unanimously approved.

Before the censure vote, Panzer said he took it upon himself last week to contact the Kansas Attorney General’s Office in Topeka.

“Because I feel we have alleged — and they told me to say alleged, they told me what to say, in fact — that we have the mayor speaking out of context with executive sessions to people,” Panzer said. “And the mayor has been creating a hostile work environment with Dustin (Stambaugh, city administrator).”

Panzer said the attorney general’s office wants all emails, transcripts, etc. that took place between Finnegan and Stambaugh.

Panzer said the AG’s office gave him the telephone number of an attorney, whom he contacted and sent some information to.

Panzer also said he is compiling information which he will turn over to the Ellsworth County Independent-Reporter, the Salina Journal and the Ellsworth Jr./Sr. High School journalism class.

He also asked the attorney what the council can do about the hostile work environment.

“The No. 1 thing was to censure the mayor,” Panzer said, “so the fact is that if we censure the mayor on this, we, as a council, we’re not guilty of how you (Finnegan) are bashing Dustin. I’ve been on here (the council) for 12 years, and the last six months has been the most chaotic I’ve ever seen in the history of Ellsworth. You (Finnegan) seem to feed on it.”

Panzer noted, as he has at several past council meetings, that the Kansas Bureau of Investigation has done an investigation.

After the censure, Finnegan reacted with just two words: “Big deal.”

He accused the council of once again going down a “rabbit hole.”

“Why in the world would you go to the attorney general when you didn’t even talk to the county commissioners,” he asked Panzer. “You know nothing about government. We should be going to them first and then up the chain. I think it’s just a courtesy, saying look, we’ve got a problem here.”

Hoffman said the Kansas Attorney General’s Office has a division that follows every Kansas Open Meetings Act and Kansas Open Records Act violation.

“So, you have dedicated attorneys do it,” he added.

Hoffman said the attorney will ask for everything and review it.

“They’ll ask for everything from everybody and they’ll get everyone involved a chance to say what they want,” he said. “Anyone can file a claim.”

“So he (Panzer) is making a bigger deal out of something that probably is not,” Finnegan said.

Hoffman noted the county commission doesn’t have anything to do with the process.

“It (censure) doesn’t affect the mayor’s powers, remove him or anything like that,” Hoffman said.

“Does it release the council from some liability,” Panzer asked.

“I have, for my part, consistently tried to just tell everyone on the council to not talk about any employee of the city at a public meeting because you do have some liability for doing that, and we have frequently done that,” Hoffman said. “And I would love that we not do that anymore.”

Finnegan said he would like to put together some thoughts for the next city council meeting.

“But I’ll stop right there,” he added.

Earlier in the meeting, Finnegan noted the city clearly had a “rough” year with a personnel situation that was “pretty unbelievable.”

“It’s been very difficult for everybody,” he said, “and we’d like to work towards getting it resolved by the end of the year, and wherever things fall, they fall. So, tonight, I want to begin that process and start talking about it. And I think we are capable of doing it.”

Finnegan said what has happened this year people have just blown it off and said it’s not a big deal.

“I think that was a huge concern,” Finnegan said. “Everybody took it personal and it has created quite a conflict. So I hope we can work these next two weeks to get this resolved as well as we can, but I think we need to prevent this from ever happening again. I think we need to really look at ourselves and how we function as a city and use this as an opportunity to make ourselves better.”

In other business:

• Panzer also chastised Finnegan for how he treated council member Darcy Hansen at the last council meeting and asked him to apologize to her.

“People should have more respect than that,” Panzer said.

“Are you going to apologize for what you said about my wife,” Finnegan asked.

“What did I say about your wife,” Panzer asked.

“You said a lot,” Finnegan said, “but anyway, that’s fine. I’ll apologize to her. That’s fine. So I do apologize.”

“I don’t remember anything about your wife being said,” Panzer told Finnegan.

Hansen then apologized. “I’m not apologizing for walking out,” she said. “I was not abandoning my post. I came back tonight. There comes a point, you’re sitting out there waiting to report, Mary (Schmidt, Ellsworth resident), on whatever was going on.”

Hansen accused Schmidt of publicly slandering her.

She noted Schmidt had talked on Facebook about her father, Mike Peschka, dying, something that Hansen said Schmidt knew nothing about.

Hansen said she would never, ever, do that about Schmidt’s children, and she expected the same respect from Schmidt.

Hansen said when she walked out of the council meeting, she did so after Finnegan raised his hand and arm out to her in a “stop” motion, indicating she couldn’t speak on what the council was talking about at the time.

“So there came a point when I decided it was better for me to get up and walk out that door than to stay there and argue,” Hansen said. “I did not mean to slam the door.”

Hansen said after the nine months the council has had, walking out was the best decision she could make.

Hansen’s remarks about Schmidt were in response to remarks made by Schmidt in the petitions and delegations public comment portion of the meeting.

First, Schmidt asked the council if they were aware of KORA.

“I know this act? Do you,” she asked the council.

She asked the same of KOMA. “I know this act. Do you,” she asked.

Schmidt then talked about Hansen leaving the meeting and slamming the door closed.

“You just gave up your seat,” Schmidt said. “The mayor can appoint another person to fill it.”

Schmidt then talked about the International City Council Management Association.

“I know this,” she said. “IMCA’s goal is to improve local governance by developing and promoting professional local government management.”

Schmidt said she would like to know what happened, what is being covered up to cause Hoffman to “not so subtly teach you, the members of the council, on KORA and ICMA rules.”

“What are you hiding now,” Schmidt asked. “How do you not know these rules? It took me bringing ICMA up two months ago in a meeting for this to happen? How do I know the rules and you don’t? Fill in the blanks from October 2023 to February 2024.”

• Approval was given to a request from Tony Lamia, owner of Slechta Enterprises, to amend the five-year solid waste contract he has with the city to increase the monthly trash service fee for 2025 from $18 per month to $20 per month to help offset the cost of inflation.

• The council declined a request from the Ellsworth County Historical Society to waive the $93.50 building permit fee to rebuild the steeple on the Second Baptist Church, which is located on the grounds of the historical society’s Hodgden House Museum Complex due to budgetary reasons.

• The council voted to start the lengthy process of condemning the trailer house at 135 W. 15th St. owned by Denny E. Helvey and Connie N. Helvey as a dangerous structure and a blight on the neighborhood.

• Approval was given to give the new owner of the parking lot at 120 W. First Street the cityowned property located there, including concrete barriers, signage and a trash receptacle as is, and that the owner is now responsible for taking care of the trash in the lot.

• Approval was given to provide a new septic tank, free of charge, to Joann Kennedy’s residence, and she will remain in the city limits. She will also be granted a variance for the septic system. A discussion on Kennedy’s fence that was taken down eight years ago will be had at a future time.

• The council approved by consensus that the two-hour parking signs in the business district will be removed and that handicap signage will be considered when needed.

• Approval was given to a recommendation by Ellsworth Police Chief Jerry Penny to install two stop signs on 11th Street at Spring Street and Prospect Street after he investigated complaints of after-school speeding in the area.

Due to the Veterans’ Day holiday on Monday, Nov. 11, the next regular meeting of the Ellsworth City Council will be at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 12, at city hall.