A vote taken by Martinsville City Council on March 17, draft minutes hurriedly compiled at the request of one member and relayed to another have resulted in conflict.
Rawls
In a March 18 email sent to all members of the council, City Manager Aretha Ferrell-Benavides and City Attorney Stephen V. Durbin, council member Aaron Rawls wrote, “I received an update that Council conducted an unannounced open session last night regarding the city manager’s employment contract. It looks to me like a bizarre motion was made but no vote recorded. While I know some of you are eager to avoid public attention and accountability for this, we need to pause and handle the matter responsibly.”
Rawls added that “not even a year ago, we settled a case resulting from Council malfeasance in which a deliberately hasty and reckless contract with false employment information became the subject of a ~million dollar claim against our city. Ultimately, it cost our people $200,000 ($40 per household) to settle that. We all know who did what in this case, which is why I’m concerned that Council is right back on the … road of irresponsible behavior, hiding actions from and lying to our people, and doing sneaky things with their money.”
Additionally, Rawls asked that “we schedule meetings and provide schedule change awareness at least 7 business days in advance. This includes extra sessions in advance of our 7pm public sessions. I learned about the 3/11 date change on 3/7. I learned about yesterday’s and today’s session last Thursday at 9:30pm.”
The vote Rawls called into question gave Mayor LC Jones the authority to negotiate a salary adjustment for Ferrell-Benavides based on an October performance assessment.
Lawson
Vice Mayor Kathy Lawson said that both the meeting and the vote were recorded but acknowledged an error in the draft minutes.
The draft minutes that were distributed were not correct, Lawson said. “And the minutes haven’t been finished.”
She explained that the board clerk rushed through the document and accidentally distributed incorrect information.
“It was an error that will be corrected. We came out of closed session and did this in open session,” Lawson said. “We didn’t vote to give anybody any authorization to change the contract. We gave him the authorization to negotiate her pay based on her evaluation from October.”
Jones
Jones explained that before the November election concluded, the council held a closed-session meeting at the New College Institute to discuss the assessment. There were “heated conversations as a result” and the process did not conclude. The city also worked with the Berkley Group LLC, to craft and set guidelines for the city manager in the upcoming year. But “none of us came back together” after the election and the work was not completed, Jones said.
The Berkley Group conducted the council’s retreat a few weeks ago, and “one of the issues” that came up was the fact that the council hadn’t provided the city manager with “guidelines, what the council wants” to see for this year, Jones said.
On March 13, the council was to hold a closed session meeting and a work session, with plans to discuss the city manager and city attorney positions, before convening in regular session. But, because the work session was longer than anticipated, the closed session portion was rescheduled.
“The fifth council member showed up at the end” of that meeting, Jones said of Rawls. However, “that same day, we publicly set that” March 17 meeting, he said.
At that meeting, and with an understanding of a pay range among council members, Jones said Julian Mei made the motion to give Jones the authority to negotiate the contract and/or pay adjustment. Lawson seconded the motion, a vote was taken and recorded.
Mei then requested a draft of the minutes “just to give him a guideline. Generally, we don’t have minutes available until the next council meeting. They are never available the next day,” Jones said and explained a draft of the minutes was hastily prepared at Mei’s request, and then shared with Rawls.
According to a copy of the draft minutes attached to Rawls’ email, the motion was made by Lawson, and seconded by council member Rayshaun Gravely. The minutes also did not include a recorded vote.
Also, “the information leaked out of closed session came from Mei,” Jones said, adding that the council meeting on Tuesday included a closed session “to discuss the leak from the previous closed session.”
While he can’t discuss specifics due to closed session exemptions, Jones said council members absent from closed session meetings must wait until they “come back to a closed session” meeting to find out what occurred. “So, information was given and information got out.”
Rawls “is so concerned about money and nefarious things happening,” Jones said, and emphasized every council meeting is publicly posted.
“When you take this job, you understand it’s going to require sacrifices. I’m missing time from work, time with my family” and the like, but “that’s not an excuse to say you’re not” able to come to a meeting “and need to be caught up. The city manager meets with each council member every week” and by the end of the week, has compiled a list of concerns.
“When you have one person that decided they just want to be a distraction … when there are four of us, we gel. We get along,” Jones said, and added “one council member” may be torn between wanting “to be loyal to a friend” and their commitment to council.
Jones added that he had little trust for Mei after the election due to the campaign. “Now, I have absolutely none. All he had to do was come back and say, ‘I’m sorry.’ You’ve just got to be straight with us. People make mistakes. You’ve just got to be straight.”
And that’s true “whether it was a mistake or whether it was on purpose,” Jones said. “We’ve just got to stand on what’s right. At least for me, I can deal with you better that way.”
As an example, Jones said that if he talks to the city attorney, all members of council are briefed about the content of the conversation, because the attorney represents the entire council, not just one member.
He added that Mei sent two emails to the council and other city officials on Wednesday.
Mei
The first was titled ‘Recap of Yesterday.’ In it, Mei wrote in part, “I feel I should recap and relay to you some events from yesterday, for transparency, so that everyone knows exactly what transpired on my end.”
The email went on to add that “Early morning, on Tuesday the 18th of March, Bill Wyatt (of the Martinsville Bulletin) reached out to me and wanted to know if any action was taken as a result of our closed session and also wanted to know about how Superintendent Zeb Talley’s proposed gym would be funded. As a courtesy, I have always been transparent with Bill and other media, but they understand and respect that I cannot talk about our closed session discussions. As I knew Peyton had documented the action taken in the public portion of our session, I asked Peyton to send me that verbiage so I could simply relay that and that alone. While waiting on that, I also got clarification from Travis Clemons regarding the funding aspect of the gym and was told that there was no current funding for a new gym and that Mr. Talley had been hoping to get private funding/donations, etc. to contribute toward it, but nothing official is currently in place. Once I had both of those data points, I called Bill and directed his attention to the minutes and action taken in our public session after we came out of closed session, and also the fact that no funding is in place for a new gym.”
The email continued, “Around the same time this was occurring, Councilman Rawls reached out to me and also wanted to know what took place during our closed session. I told him that I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to discuss what happened in closed session with anyone not present, even a member of Council, so I reached out to Mr. Durbin for a consult. In my conversation with Mr. Durbin, he recommended that any Councilperson not present for a closed session, who wished to be briefed, send an email requesting information in accordance with our policy, or words to that effect.
“Given I felt there was no reason Councilman Rawls could not be briefed on what occurred during the closed session, and given the minutes from the public portion were already available, I told him we reviewed the City Manager’s performance review from October 2024, and the Mayor was given the authority to negotiate a salary adjustment based on her performance review.
“I feel it necessary to emphasize that I did not, and never would, relay to a member of the media anything discussed in our closed sessions. I do know the importance of the confidentiality involved in our closed session meetings and take that very seriously,” Mei wrote, and added “Since all of this occurred, it has been brought to my attention that some feel I may have lost their trust in engaging in this behavior. I will say, for myself, that I act in accordance with my conscience and also in accordance with the law, and when I am unsure of the latter, I request advice. This is why I contacted Mr. Durbin for clarification and why I went to the lengths I did before responding to Bill to make sure I was properly directing him to the documented action taken in our public session when we came out of closed session. As for my conscience, when people make inquiries to me for clarification, my gut instinct is to be transparent and forthcoming, but I am mindful of what I can and cannot say, particularly within the context of what is discussed in a closed session. It is my hope that the record above demonstrates I am mindful of this and take the appropriate steps to ensure transparency, and also to make sure messaging is consistent.”
Mei declined to comment.
Gravely, Ferrell-Benavides, and Durbin could not immediately be reached for comment
