A “declaration” on the cabin due March 17

Westminster leaders emergency from their closed-door meeting of about 90 minutes last night without a resolution to the renewed controversy over the mayor’s cabin on city property. For part of the meeting, Mayor Brian Ramey met with the council, but had little to say afterward. Rusty Cater, the mayor pro-tem, announced that that the council will take the next 12 days before making “a declaration” on March 17. That’s the date for the regular March city council meeting. Cater explained there’s a need for more legal and Forestry Service information. The reference to the forestry service apparently deals with the possibility that trees would have to be cut should the mayor disassemble and move the cabin. There has also been a question raised by the mayor as to who would pay to cut the trees. The executive session got off to a rocky start as attorneys for the Journal newspapers and the city debated whether the council had properly followed Freedom of Information requirements in declaring the need for the private meeting. That was finally resolved when Councilman Reid Adams spelled out the need by identifying the cabin as the reason.