Two weeks after appointing a mayor pro tem, the Dillon Town Council held a vote Tuesday, April 8, on whether to reconsider its earlier appointment of council member Rachel Tuyn as mayor pro tem.

While the council members at its meeting voted 4-2 in favor of reconsidering Tuyn’s appointment, the vote required a three-quarters majority to pass, and therefore Tuyn was allowed to retain her position as mayor pro tem, a position that chairs council meetings in the mayor’s absence.

Mayor Carolyn Skowyra said that she included the item on the council’s agenda that evening because of Tuyn’s conduct at the March 25 meeting. Skowyra said that Tuyn cut off discussion when the Dillon Urban Renewal Authority, which consists of the same members as the council, was considering whether to accept the transfer of a parcel of town-owned land. She said she had concerns that Tuyn as mayor pro tem would rush decisions before the board is on the same page.

“I think Robert’s Rules should not be used to stop council members from seeking the information that they need to get informed to make a decision, especially during a meeting when three council members have never sat at the table before,” Skowyra said.

The March 25 meeting, during which the council voted unanimously to appoint Tuyn as mayor pro tem, was the first meeting for three members, Josh Samuel, Linda Oliver and Barbara Richard, who were elected after three previous members were recalled.

Robert’s Rules of Order are rules of parliamentary procedure that many government boards use to guide discussion and decision making.

Samuel said that during the March 25 Urban Renewal Authority meeting he felt that his inquiries were being “cut off” as he was trying to learn more about the decision on the table, which made him feel “very, very uncomfortable.”  He also said that he was interrupted at the meeting, which he didn’t feel was appropriate.

Richard agreed that the Urban Renewal Authority meeting “was very awkward.” She said she “did not like the way discussion was cut off” and is “concerned that it could happen in the future.”

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“I really think the community wants us discussing, particularly land use, at length,” Richard said.

Council member Oliver Luck, however, said that he thinks the motion to reconsider Tuyn as mayor pro tem is “an affront” to her, “a violation” of the council’s civility code and “sends a very bad signal to our constituents who expect a certain amount of consistency from this body.”

Tuyn said she went back and watched the video of the March 25 Urban Renewal Authority meeting. She said that while she saw how it “may have seemed like I was attempting to rush things,” she was “just merely trying to point out where we were, that we had a motion on the table and a second.”

Tuyn said she has observed at meetings that “sometimes we have challenges knowing where we are procedurally and that this sometimes creates confusion as to where we are in the process.” She added, “I did not mean to shut down any discussion.”

Tuyn said she would have preferred if Skowyra had discussed with her how to make improvements, instead of scheduling a formal vote to reconsider her appointment as mayor pro tem.

Council member Kyle Hendricks, who Skowyra had suggested replace Tuyn as mayor pro tem, said he doesn’t know if the mayor pro tem needs to change so long as the expectation is set for how council members discuss items in the future.

Ultimately, Hendricks abstained from the reconsideration vote, with Skowyra, Richard, Samuel and Oliver voting in favor of reconsideration and Tuyn and Luck voting against reconsideration.