After his controversial remark made at the March 17 council meeting, Chelsea’s city council has voted to censure Bill Ruddock after deliberating on his interruption of a speaker during public comment.
The deliberation was begun by Councilmember Kate Mehuron, who stated she wished for city council members to be able to discuss and decide among themselves how best to handle the situation.
“What I’m doing here today is asking that we deliberate about the misconduct which we all agree occurred, and whether or not there should be an action by city council regarding Mr. Ruddock’s misconduct,” Mehuron said. “I’m not asking for a debate about what kind of people we are, or he is, or anybody else in the room. I’m asking about a point of order with respect to city council and with respect to our self-governance.”
Mehuron proposed multiple ways to address the March 17 remark, including a censure and a formal acknowledgement of Mr. Ruddock’s apology. She explained to the public that a censure is a formal reprimand of a public official, not a censoring or “silencing” of someone.
Council chose to move forward on both suggestions, putting to vote the acceptance of the apology and the decision to draft a resolution censuring Ruddock.
Approval to acknowledge Ruddock’s apology was 3-3, with one abstention. In the event of a tie, the motion fails, and city council did not acknowledge the apology.
The motion to direct the city council legal counsel to draft a resolution censuring Ruddock’s misconduct while holding the public trust as an elected official at the March 17 city council meeting passed with one dissent and one abstention.
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