Sunday's Internet Edition, May 11, 2008.
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The Clemmons Courier
- CONOVER — The Clemmons Village Council may have ironed out differences and buried some hatchets at its annual retreat Thursday and Friday at Hollifield Leadership Center on Lake Hickory.
After an opening day of bickering, posturing and compromising, Friday showed some compromise.
“We are a new council,” said Mayor John Bost Thursday morning. After an hour of juggling the agenda, the council sent the press and the facilitor into the lobby as the members went into a two-hour executive session.
Village attorney Warren Kasper said the executive session was for “personnel reasons.”
“You’re not the same council you were six months ago,” said Lydian Altman-Sauer, the facilitator from the University of North Carolina School of Government. “This is an important conversation for you all.”
Mayor Pro Tem Robert Marshall said, “I don’t know how this fits with where we are right now.”
Some feelings council members have about communications should be ironed out first, he said.
“I think I can get you to where you need to go,” said the facilitator.
“There is a gray cloud hanging over this group,” said Council member Larry McClellan as a pregnant pause set in. “There’s a lot of understanding and misunderstanding, and there’s a lot of frustration. What we need to do is clear the air as a group. We need to get this dirty laundry out and move on.”