Monett City Council erupts over mayor’s conduct

Mayor Burke repeatedly called “bully” during tense exchange at July 11 council meeting
Monett Mayor Randy Burke’s practice of issuing “performance reviews” on city employees exploded into controversy on July 11 as the two commissioners closed ranks and confronted Burke for prompting two major resignations.
Commissioner Darren Indovina bluntly called Burke a “bully.” He and Commissioner Ken Gaspar stopped Burke’s efforts to replace City Administrator Chris Weiner by deferring any further action, including the process for picking a successor, until the council’s next meeting on Aug. 8.
Weiner’s resignation was submitted during the closed session at the council’s July 2 meeting. According to Weiner, he went into the meeting with a written letter of resignation in his pocket, though council members were not aware of his plan to present it. He specified no reasons for his decision in the letter, only stating that it had been “a pleasure to serve.” Weiner provided the city with 60-days notice of his departure, planning for his last day on September 3.
Burke produced the letter from his possession and asked to have it placed in the public record after the consent agenda approving minutes and paying bills. He called for a transition plan that included “someone in the city to step up” to fill in while a successor was sought, specifically one of the department heads. He wanted that process to proceed in closed session during the week of July 22.
When the mayor asked for discussion, the other council members unloaded on Burke.
Gaspar said the other council members had not gotten together to discuss how to proceed. Indovina declared, “It’s detrimental to the city to lose Chris Weiner, who has been our city administrator now since 2021. The mayor, without the use of the council, had used his power, without agreement of anyone sitting up here but himself, to bully, berate, argue, and come up with the agenda that he [Weiner] is not the man for the job moving forward. This was not discussed with city council prior to him [on] July 1 meeting with Mr. Weiner and giving him a disciplinary report. It was new to him. It was new to us, as we found out later throughout the course of the day. There was no session where we talked about this moving forward and to take him out of his position. This is an overuse of power, without the council, and we have to wonder is that where it all ends. We’ve already lost our building ordinance BOCA representative, Trent Thompson, to the same bullying tactics that have been disapproved by Ken Gaspar and myself, over the time that Trent Thompson has left.”
Thompson departure details come to light
This was the first public announcement about why Thompson departed and subsequently took the job as building inspector in Mt. Vernon. Despite numerous requests, the city has not released the names of any employees it has hired or dismissed since the election.
Thompson confirmed on the record that Burke met with him on April 5, three days after the city election and before Burke had officially taken the oath of office as mayor. At that time Burke said Thompson was “not qualified” to serve as a city department head. He wanted an engineer, someone with more credentials. Thompson had worked for the city for six years, most of that time as code enforcer, until he was promoted in 2023 to building inspector with the imminent retirement of Wade Ennes. At the time Thompson fully intended to stay in the job.
According to Thompson, Burke intended to demote Thompson to assistant building inspector. Thompson met alone with Burke again on April 9 and was again told he was “not the guy [Burke] wanted in that chair.” The following Friday, Thompson contacted the City of Mt. Vernon and was quickly hired for their vacancy in the same position during a construction boom.
Ironically Thompson is still filling in for Monett on building inspector duties after-hours and on weekends while the city seeks a successor.
Indovina continued, “We are currently running without a building code enforcer, and we’re about to be running without a city administrator, who has tremendous ability in his tasks and his duties as such. He’s a financial expert. We just went through a $2 million budget and said OK, as you noticed.”
Addressing Burke, Indovina continued, “You’ve placed us in a unique opportunity to consider what rights we have as a council, because we are not in agreement with the current tactic and use of your power. We are all the same up here. We are one vote. We are one commission. You’re out of line, and I want to make it where I am going to ask that we went into closed session for tonight for this subject. I was denied. I would like to see if I can ask if we can go and table this discussion until the next council meeting on August 8, because it is kind of sudden, in making such a huge change to the city of Monett and its workings.
“The resignation letter was handed to you Tuesday last week during closed session, and once received during closed session, you vacated the building, without adjournment. It’s not a trophy. It’s not to be treated as such. I’m not going to allow Mr. Weiner to have such a horrible end to his time served as a city leader as an opinion. You can’t make an 80-day on-the-job opinion about two major department heads as they are seated, and put the city in a bit of a burden, because we lose time with future projects. I have been doing smart work myself, which now is going to be slowed down. I’m not in agreement with, moving forward in my first term – hopefully not my last – and have to spend half my day working and half my day fixing issues that have not been brought to council in a fair and governmental way as they should have been. We only wonder if there’s going to be more down the road, because of bullying, forceful tactics that we see you’re doing toward these department heads needs to be brought to the public.”
Burke defends recent actions
In his defense, Burke said, “It’s a common business practice – and the city is a business – that when someone resigns, they must reapply to come back at work. Mr. Weiner can reapply, if he chooses to do so. I think he’s resigning for reasons relating to how he sees the workplace. So essentially, he’s upset enough to leave, and will likely do so again. Businesses and military know this and incorporate policies to address resignations because, in the long run, it will cut costs accompanying more for the same service.
“He [Weiner] was recently written up for performance and the write-up was correct in nature. Rather than respond to corrective action, he chose to resign. He chose to self-terminate. And I think we don’t allow other folks, so if he goes through the reapplication process, and if we try to pull that resignation out there, then we give him preference and give an advantage to anyone else in Monett or the department heads to apply for the position.
“Now, the mayor taking corrective action may be unprecedented, but it’s well within the authority of the mayor. All you have to do is read the codes.”
Council pushes back but Burke claims authority, cites city codes
Both council members responded to this. Gaspar asserted, “The mayor has the authority to provide input into any corrective action on the city administrator, but the city administrator reports to and at the sole pleasure of council, not the mayor in solitary.”
Indovina doubled down on his description of Burke’s “bullying tactics,” recounting he heard “loud conversations” outside his office between Weiner and the mayor. He called pointing fingers “a slippery slope,” adding he was certain Weiner would not reapply because Burke forced him to do his job “in a hostile work environment.”
Burke rejoined, “I am not a bully, but I will use the authority given to me by the Monett city codes. I am an ex officio member of the departments, and I’ve been given the responsibility to execute the duties through the department heads, if I need to.”
Gaspar and Indovina then voted to postpone action on the resignation until Aug. 8. Burke voted against the motion. The mayor reasserted he wanted the council to consider department heads for the post and at least do interviews. Gaspar said that would be discussed at the same time, ending the issue.