The Fremont City Council has placed an item on its Tuesday, Feb. 14, meeting agenda submitted by Ward 2 Council Member Glen Ellis requesting the eight-member council censure council President Mark Jensen for, “conduct unbecoming of an elected public official.”
Another agenda item for the Feb. 14 meeting addresses revisiting an update of the Keene Memorial Library bylaws, which according to a staff report, was not properly approved by the council two years ago.
The effort to have Jensen censured stems from an incident on Jan. 31, during which Jensen was caught on a video feed of the meeting uttering the word, “Bullshit,” during a public comment being made by local grandmother Sandra Murray.
Murray was one of many speakers during the Jan. 31 meeting of the council to speak out about the controversy over what books are appropriate for inclusion at Keene Memorial Library.
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Murray has filed two official complaints to have books removed from the library she believes are inappropriately sexually explicit. Her comments were explanation of her beliefs and reasoning.
During Murray’s comments, Jensen – who is the city council president and represents the city’s Ward 3 – uttered the word, “Bullshit,” as Murray spoke. The word was not heard nor audible, as Jensen’s desk microphone was turned off.
However, a camera that sits about 2 feet in front of each council member caught Jensen’s mouth and residents watching the feed read his lips. He later admitted he may have uttered the word, but also said it reflected his feelings toward Murray’s activism.
In Ellis’ request to have Jensen censured, the Ward 2 council member cites the city’s municipal code in allowing the council to censure a sitting council member for actions or conduct, “unbecoming of an elected public official.”
“As a council member, and on behalf of the council and the public, I wish to object to the unprofessional uttered language, lack of respect, lack of decorum and conduct unbecoming of council President Mark Jensen at the council’s Jan. 31, 2022 meeting,” Ellis wrote in his request to have the item placed on the Feb. 14 agenda. “Fremont Municipal Code provides that elected officials of the city may be reprimanded and censored for improper behavior as a council member. I am requesting that a documented formal reprimand and censure be approved and noted to prevent such conduct ever occur again in the future.”
Whether or not the council addresses the issue will not be known until Tuesday’s meeting. Under city council policies and procedures, items on a published agenda could be removed once a meeting begins if a motion for removal is made and seconded, then a majority of council members vote for removal.
That process occurred in late December, 2022, after a controversial item was proposed on that meeting agenda.
During the Dec. 27 meeting, a proposal to limit the public’s ability to comment on certain agenda items at council meetings was axed after public outcry that the proposal would “muzzle” residents.
The item was placed on the Dec. 27 agenda with the signatures of six of the eight members of the city council: Lori Lathrop, James Vaughan, Dev Sookram, Vern Gibson, Sally Ganem and Mark Jensen. The proposal was removed from the agenda altogether in a 6-2 vote, which was initiated by a motion from Ward 3 Council Member James Vaughan.
Also on the Tuesday agenda is a revisitation of the Keene Memorial Library bylaws, which ,according to a staff report, were not properly approved by the city council in August 2021. The agenda also has an item approving the library’s policy manual, which was approved by the Keene Memorial Library Advisory Board during their Nov. 21, 2022, meeting.
The bylaws update was presented to the Fremont City Council on Aug. 16, 2021, but in some manner were not properly voted on according to the staff report. The bylaw updates had been the subject of months of debate and legal wrangling over several issues, notably the authority of the library board in regard to hiring library staff.
The library Policy Manual was also the subject of months of discussion in 2022, leading to a lengthy list of changes to library policy, most notable of which included a new appeal process for contested or banned book and material requests.
Under the prior library policy manual, if a resident filed an official contested book or material form, the sole decider of whether or not to keep the material or remove it was delegated to the library director.
With the proposed change, the library director’s decision on a contested book or material request can be appealed to the five-member library advisory board, which could either affirm the library director’s decision or over-rule it.
That policy, by admission of current Library Director Laura England-Biggs, conflicts with the Fremont Municipal Code, which states that the eight-member, publicly elected city council has authority over the library advisory board and can overrule its actions.
The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 14, at the City Municipal Building, 400 E. Military Ave., Fremont.
