Goshen council repeals spending limits ordinance

GOSHEN — The Goshen City Council overstepped its authority in January by limiting Mayor Russell Stroud’s spending authority, City Attorney Brian Hogue told aldermen Tuesday.

Stroud said state law gives the mayor authority to spend up to $35,000 as long as the spending is done within the city budget.

The council voted 4-0 in favor of a motion to repeal the ordinance.

The mayor and council have been at odds since Stroud took office at the beginning of the year.

The City Council held a special meeting Jan. 3 after Stroud fired Linda Moore. Moore, who said she began working for the city in August 2015 as recorder- treasurer and then as an office assistant, claims Stroud chose her replacement “months ago” and told people in town Moore was being fired. She said it was “humiliating” to hear the news from people in the community and to constantly be asked about it.

At its Jan. 10 regular meeting, Stroud said he had rescinded Moore’s firing then fired her again after she did not respond to his offer to reinstate her by a deadline he had set. At that same meeting, it was announced that Stroud had fired Lora Nanak, the city’s financial manager and office manager.

The council approved a number of ordinances at the January meeting, including one reducing the mayor’s authority to spend without prior City Council approval to $1,000. The city had allowed mayors to spend up to $5,000 under an existing ordinance.

Alderman Paula Anderson said the council can still set spending limits in the city’s annual budget.

“The budget has accounts for everything,” Anderson said. “You can’t go outside that category to spend more money.”

Hogue said the City Council has control of the budget process.

“The budget is the limit,” Hogue said. “If the council wants to have a more strict, line-item budget they can do that.”

Hogue told the council on Tuesday that Nanak has filed an age discrimination complaint against the city with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He said there is a mediation hearing on her complaint set for May 15, and he will have more information for the council after that hearing.