ANDERSON — A former mayoral candidate was nearly removed from Thursday’s City Council meeting after trying to address the council about an issue not on the agenda.
Robert Jozwiak, who ran for mayor in 2007, asked to speak to the council about city sewer rates, which were increased at last month’s meeting, twice during the meeting. The first time he addressed the council was during the hearing of an ordinance vacating city streets, referring to “public waste.”
Councilman Art Pepelea Jr. called for a point of order because Jozwiak was not on the topic of the ordinance, and council President Rick Muir asked Jozwiak to leave.
When he kept trying to address the council about sewer rates, Muir threatened to have him removed by an Anderson Police Department officer in the room.
Muir sought the advice of assistant city attorney Bill Kreegar before telling Jozwiak it was inappropriate to speak on the topic of sewer rates during miscellaneous agenda items.
“If it’s on the agenda, of course the City Council would listen to it, but it was not on the agenda,” Muir said. “The Common Council will listen to any item on the agenda.”
Jozwiak said he wanted to revisit the sewer rate increase to ask council members why they raised the rates before federal stimulus money had come to the city.
The Water Pollution Control Department seeks $15.1 million in stimulus funds for various parts of its long-term control plan.
“There’s so many families in this community that are struggling right now,” Jozwiak said.
Muir said the council was polite in asking Jozwiak to sit during the meeting.
“I don’t think the council was being rude at all,” he said. “It’s not the first time that Mr. Jozwiak has addressed the Common Council in the manner in which he addressed them tonight.”
Contact Aleasha Sandley: 640-4805, aleasha.sandley@heraldbulletin.com.
In City Council business, the council:
• Approved on all three readings ordinances vacating portions of public streets and alleys near the Mounds Mall parking lot for a future church project and adopting supplements to the Code of Ordinances for publishing
• Approved resolutions fixing a time and place for a public hearing on a tax abatement for 51 lots in the Paramount Springs addition and for a public hearing on a tax abatement for a Community Development house
• Approved a resolution designating an economic revitalization area for a car audio and window tinting business at 5330 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. The business is expected to be a $400,000 investment and bring 20 new jobs to the city.
• Approved resolutions providing temporary loans among city funds and transferring funds between accounts in the Human Relations Department
• Continued until the June meeting an ordinance setting days and hours of fireworks use within the city
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