Bender: Agenda Item Was Misleading
BLYTHEWOOD – Prior to voting to go into executive session at the Nov, 24, 2025, town council meeting, no clarification or information was provided to the public concerning what council would be discussing in secret or why council wanted the discussion to be in secret.
Instead, Mayor Sloan Griffin read the executive session agenda item verbatim: “Discussion of negotiations incident to proposed contractual arrangements for assessment and recommendations regarding Manor operations to establish a financial break-even operational business plan. (Requested by Ed Driggers, Interim Town Administrator.)”
According to Media Attorney Jay Bender, who represents The Voice newspaper, the agenda item was misleading.
“Unless there was a specific item referencing the issue in open session, consideration of a motion and vote were improper,” Bender said.
Upon returning to open session, Councilman Rich McKenrick made a motion for the Town of Blythewood to enter into an agreement with Parker Poe Consulting for a business operations optimization analysis in an amount not to exceed $52,000 for phases one and two.
“Based on the post-executive-session motion, the executive session was for an impermissible purpose as there were no previously authorized negotiations regarding a contract [agreement] for the analysis or operations,” Bender said.
“If there was not an item on the public agenda for entering into a contract regarding the Manor, then voting on a contract regarding the Manor would have been improper,” Bender said. “How did the mayor describe the purpose of the executive session? That, rather than the agenda item, determines the legality of the executive session.”
A second executive session agenda item called for, “Discussion of negotiations incident to proposed contractual arrangements for professional search and recruitment services for a town manager.”
McKenrick made the motion to “enter into a consulting agreement with Parker Poe as previously presented to council for an executive search for a town manager.”
That agenda item involves a third consulting contract between the Town and Parker Poe Consulting, this one securing additional services of the Town’s Interim Town Manager Ed Driggers who is already working for the Town under a Parker Poe contract the Town signed last spring. That contract called for paying Driggers $175 per hour for an unspecified number of part-time hours per week as interim administrator.
Council has budgeted an additional amount of $35,000 for Driggers to conduct the town manager search that will be performed under his second contract, also for $175 per hour, according to members of council who say Diggers is expected to serve as interim town manager for another six months.
While Council did not discuss or explain the issue in public before going into executive session, Councilman Donald Brock spoke with The Voice following the meeting.
“The Manor continues to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and we want to see if it’s possible to right the ship and at least get the Manor to a break-even, potentially profitable position,” Brock said.
“The consultant is not looking to find wrongdoing. We’re not looking backwards. He’s going to be looking at what problems we have from an operational standpoint, and how do we resolve them. Because, what we’re doing now is losing money. We need to find out how to stop the bleeding and get on solid footing. This is our attempt to find what’s wrong and how to fix it,” Brock said.
The next town council meeting is scheduled for Dec. 15 at the Manor.