Mayor: ‘I felt pressured to leave’ over friendship

Darnell claims friendship with majority of City Council; City attorney says mayor did not leave by force

Mayor Lyn Deal says she felt pressured by other members of City Council to leave last week’s executive session based upon a friendship that she does not dispute with ex-Mayor Jack Darnell.

The City Council was to meet in executive session to provide City Attorney Nina Williams negotiating parameters with special counsel Marni Nathan Kloster of Nathan, Dumm & Mayer toward a possible settlement of litigation with Darnell, Williams told The Fort Morgan Times prior to the executive session.

“Even though I assured the City Council members I had nothing to do with this lawsuit over the CORA request filed by Jack Darnell’s attorney, the City Council requested I not attend the executive session for the negotiation process,” Deal said. “I disagreed I had a conflict of interest.”

Darnell was criticized as the “most hated mayor” in the history of Fort Morgan and was otherwise disparaged, he says, in an investigator’s report released last summer, which had a focus to investigate claims levied by former City Manager Steve Glammeyer toward Deal. Darnell was not a focus of the investigation, which is reported to have cost $15,000.

He has sought to secure release of an “unredacted” report and materials gathered during the investigation into Deal’s actions that allegedly led to the resignation of Glammeyer. The report named Darnell and another former city manager, but did not name those employees who testified during the investigation. Release of those who testified in an unredacted report would likely unveil who made the comments toward Darnell, so he sought the release, he says.

“I had nothing to do with it,” Darnell said. “This was about the mayor and the city manager.”

At issue last week was whether the friendship between Darnell

and Deal creates a bias great enough to cause a conflict for Deal as she participates in possible settlement of his legal complaint against the City of Fort Morgan, and whether other members of City Council may also have conflicts.

Williams indicated in response to a request for comment from The Fort Morgan Times that she is limited in the scope by which she can respond or detail the meeting in advance of the executive session because of pending litigation: “We would simply note that the mayor was not forced to leave the executive session,” she said.

A complaint by an unnamed member of City Council had been made to the city attorney’s office prior to last week’s meeting, Deal said, alleging her friendship with Darnell may create a conflict for the mayor great enough she should recuse herself from settlement discussions in

the litigation. A discussion as to whether she should attend the executive session ensued just prior to the executive session, led by Deal, she said.

She claims to have not recused herself, as reported in a summary of the executive session by the city clerk, but rather left the meeting because of perceived pressure to do so, and thereby did not participate.

The friendship between Deal and Darnell may not be the only relationship with the ex-mayor by those on City Council, Deal claimed to The Fort Morgan Times, who in turn asked Darnell to define his other relationships.

Darnell explains, another member of City Council is a weekly pickle ball partner, a second he had helped get elected and with other matters, and a third he had interacted with related to that person’s dog some time in the past. He has played poker sporadically with one of those three. He defined those as varying levels of friendship, but friendship all the same. Darnell says in Fort Morgan, these type

of relationships are not uncommon.

“I’ve always had a nature to help people,” Darnell said. “That’s why I went into law enforcement. I try to support others, and I build friendships.”

Deal takes issue with comments in the investigation claiming Darnell was her “campaign manager.” Deal ran her own campaign, she says. Darnell has told The Fort Morgan Times he has advised Deal, but is simply one of many advisors she has and told The Fort Morgan Times she doesn’t seem to implement much of his advice.

The Fort Morgan Times had asked Williams to clarify in law if indeed, as Darnell alleges, a majority of City Council may have friendships with Darnell, whether anyone has a conflict by the nature of a majority having the same conflict. Williams did not specifically respond to the question, citing her limited ability to provide information because of pending litigation.

“To avoid any future reprisals from the Council

members, I granted their request ,” Deal said.

The Fort Morgan Times also attempted to understand if the member of City Council, in this case the mayor, must cite a conflict for there to be one, or whether if a majority feels there is a conflict it is so. Williams did not respond specifically to the request to cite whether friendship is enough in law to create a bias or conflict strong enough for the elected official to be asked to recuse themselves from discussion.

Deal says while a friendship does exist with Darnell, she does not view it as a conflict to her ability to serve the City of Fort Morgan in potential settlement of litigation with him. That calls her integrity into question, Deal said.

“Again…this current litigation is strictly between Mr. Darnell and the city,” she said. “I will not be a part of any of the future Council negotiations in this lawsuit, and I will not make any further comments about the lawsuit at this time.”