Palmer will bring in outside counsel on ethics complaint naming the mayor and city manager

Palmer will bring in outside legal counsel to handle a resident's ethics complaint that names the mayor, the city manager and other city leaders, after a unanimous City Council vote Oct. 27.

The complaint hasn't been released. The city's attorney, Anna Crary, described it in open session. It raises questions about the city golf course, including its lease, appraisal, liquor license and contracts. It also covers access to public records and how the city responded to concerns former Council Member Victoria Hudson raised the night she resigned.

It names Mayor Jim Cooper, City Manager Kolby Zerkel, Airport Superintendent John Diumenti, Public Works Director Jude Bilafer, the council and the city attorney, including Crary's own firm. Being named is not a finding of wrongdoing.

The golf course sits on airport land and pays about $15,000 a year in rent. An appraisal cited in the city's budget puts fair-market rent at about $831,000, and Diumenti plans to ask the Federal Aviation Administration to approve raising it to at least $114,000.

Resident Drew Frohling filed the complaint Oct. 19. It asks for an independent investigation and written findings, Crary said. She said a pending lawsuit, Borgford v. City of Palmer, limits how much the city can say.

The council also went into a second closed session that night, over a council member's remarks to the city manager.

Zerkel attended by Zoom. During her report, Council Member John Alcantra, who was deputy mayor until last month, told her he wished she could be in the room for whole meetings despite having a child. Deputy Mayor Alison Collins called the remark "incredibly offensive." Alcantra later said he would never suggest someone choose work over family.

It took no action. The agenda for its Nov. 10 meeting lists another closed session, on legal issues arising from Alcantra's conduct at the Oct. 27 meeting, and says action may follow. It doesn't say what the issues are.

Alcantra also proposed a cut to the new library, which an extra 1% city sales tax is helping pay for. He called a $226,640 kitchen expansion a "half baked kitchen idea" that needed more time. Library Director Joy Bailey said it would have expanded the warming kitchen and added a coffee and snack bar. The council approved $733,869 of the $960,509 it was asked for, keeping about $550,000 to finish the second floor. H5 Construction's contract now totals about $12.9 million.

The council also heard from the city's utility foreman, Matt Midgett. He said 18 operators and one foreman have left in eight years, and half his crew may go. Zerkel said the proposed pay plan changes affect 15 employees citywide.

The council holds public hearings on the pay plan and the 2027 budget Nov. 10.