Last night’s council meeting was very productive, and a lot of fun for the council.  While we accomplished much serious business, some confusion and miscues left all of us laughing….at one point so much so that Marcie Palmer was nearly in tears, and most of us had a difficult time uttering “aye” during a roll-call vote.

We all seemed to share equally in the goof-ups that lead to the laughter.  Council President Toni Nelson was sitting in for Mayor Keolker, but Toni occasionally missed her cue when someone asked for the floor by stating “Madam Mayor.”  When this happened, Toni would silently look at whoever was speaking for a few moments, and then suddenly remember that she was in-fact madam mayor.  At which time she would laugh, and we would all laugh with her.  Don Persson thought he would be helpful by referring to her as “Madam Toni,” which cracked us up even though it was a practical solution.  We had a complicated docket of resolutions, ordinances for first reading and advancement to second reading the following week, ordinances for first reading and advancement to second reading last night, and ordinances that had been read before but required a second reading last night.    At one point, I tried to help Toni with the order, only to realize I was giving her bad advice and mixing her up further, which led to another laugh.  At one point, Toni called for a roll-call vote, and then proceeded to read the roll herself, a task that the clerk typically does.  She made it though just fine, with nobody saying anything about it, but laughed out loud when I whispered a reminder to her that she could leave that to the clerk.  After that, several members mixed up one another’s names, and made some other amusing comments.  Once we were all laughing, the laughter itself made us laugh harder.  When roll-call voting, I watched as one colleague after another struggled to say “aye” when their turn came up because the were laughing too hard for the words to come out.  Since I was last, it was most difficult for me…it was  not easy to compose myself enough to vote audibly.

Through all the laughter, we managed to get a lot of important business done, and we had a nice time doing it.  We set the property tax rate for next year (1% increase over this year), we took some zoning actions, voted to maintain the current driveway width standards, selected next year’s president and president pro-tem, and took care of other miscellaneous items.  For as long as I have known her, Toni Nelson has always done a nice job of managing council meetings.  For the council members, and the audience in attendance, this meeting was a productive, nice, upbeat session after a difficult campaign season.